Summary of “The Shame of College Sports”

In his article “The Shame of College Sports,” author Taylor Branch describes the corruption if the wide world of college sports. He begins by describing how some of the top athletes are bribed by colleges with large sums of money to come paly for their school. On one hand some athletes are getting paid large sums while other good athletes and hard workers are not getting paid anything at all. Further in the article the author explains how shoe companies and other sports outfitting companies pay the colleges large sums of money to advertise their stuff on the athletes. One said though it may not be moral the universities get money and the companies get great advertising. When television came into play it became a way for college sports to earn millions of dollars. The author then describes how the NCAA came into power and how it was full of corruption. The NCAA controlled the TV for football and basketball and became irate when they lost control of the football TV. The NCAA is described as being all about the money and not really about the athletes. This is evident when some athletes were injured and the NCAA refused to pay for their injuries because they were not employers. The NCAA enacted the student-athlete to protect themselves from lawsuits. The author suggests paying the athletes but many are against it because they say it would ruin the integrity of amateur sports. The corruption of the NCAA continues with the company not allowing the athletes to wear any logo they want unless the NCAA says its ok. Also the NCAA sells the videos and memorabilia of the athletes they choose when they choose, but athletes themselves are not allowed to do so. There were many cases scandals that showed the NCAA does not really care about the athlete’s education because only 1% of the budget was spent on academic enforcement. The author concludes that these athletes are being taken advantage of and wind up with nothing. He suggests that amateurism should be done away with in order to protect the rights of the athletes and rid the NCAA of corruption. Though paying college athletes may be nerve-racking it is the best choice.         

Video Summary

Nicole Bartolo

Composition 102

Instructor: Dawn DiPrince

27 January 2012

Video Summary

            In the beginning of the video the speaker begins by stating that people spend over three billion hours playing video games each year. She stated that she wished to increase that number to twenty one billion hours. As the video continues, a picture of a person with a highly expressive face appears. This is described as the face of a person who is on the verge of an epic win. It is a mixture of intense concentration, optimism, and hope. People who may feel that they are not good at achieving real life goals are able to accomplish great and noble feats on video games. By playing video games an individual learns to cooperate with others who share a common purpose. The gamers all work together for the common good. Four characteristics the gamers all have are urgent optimism, social relationships, blissful productivity, and epic meaning. The skills that are crucial to solving real world problems are already applied in virtual reality. The speaker explains that games were possibly invented to keep people from starving to death. The leader of this ancient nation ordered the citizens to eat on one day and play games on the other, and on game days their minds were taken off their hunger. The civilization played many dice games and so survived a 20 year famine this way. In one of the speakers games she sits up an oil crisis and the adventure is to live life without oil. She reported that many who played this game continued to live their lives this way. So the speaker purposes turning real life crises, like the oil shortage, into an epic adventure that will allow the gamers to solve the world issues using the skills they acquire playing video games.     

Rhetorical Precis 1

Nicole Bartolo

Composition 102

Instructor: Dawn DiPrince

25, January, 2012

Rhetorical Précis 1

            In their textbook “Good Reasons Researching and Writing Effective Arguments,” authors Lester Faigley and Jack Selzer explain how to make an effective argument. Faigley and Selzer develop and support their explanation by describing what an argument is, examples, the steps to writing an argument, and how to argue responsibly, respectfully, and build credibility. Their purpose is to introduce the college student to constructing an argument in order to make students more effective writers. Their intended audience is college students and those individuals interested in examining how to assemble an argument because the tone is very matter of fact and straightforward.

JFK blog

               I recently saw a program on the history channel about our nation’s 35^th president John F Kennedy. This program intrigued me because it was about his perplexing assassination. I came to realize the complexity of the situation and appreciate the individuals who today, almost fifty years down the road, seek the truth. Everywhere one looks there are an innumerable amount of conspiracies and explanations as to who exactly killed JFK, and why he was assassinated. It is human nature to seek out answers. Though I may not agree with all that it has to say, I like this blog because the individual who wrote it had passion to seek answers and back up his answers with plausible explanations to something there may never be a definite answer to. Kennedy once said, “Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right.” I believe these words ring true in any situation and especially when writing because I do not seek to force ideas onto others, but rather justify my ideals.         

http://davidvonpein.blogspot.com/