More
than ever before, it seems like sports pervade our lives, crowding out the
other activities we want to do throughout our days. In high school itself,
sports takes up much of our time as students: going to practices, cheering
other teams on, field day, and listening to announcements about successes from
other teams. Even our TV News Team covers sporting events such as football very
often. Rick Reilly, in an attempt to reinforce the greatness of sports, uses
his career as a sportswriter to advance his cause in his essay, “Why I Love My
Job.” Through repetition of key words and phrases as well as the use of
inductive reasoning, Reilly is able to convince readers that sports are indeed,
an excellent part of life today.
Reilly
decides to repeat certain key words and phrases throughout his essay, in order
to bring the argument down to a conversational level and help his audience
relate to his message. For example, he repeats the word “sports” at the
beginning of a majority of his paragraphs, often following with a
characteristic of sports that is sometimes extremely obvious or extremely casual.
Although Reilly’s writing does yield a down-to-Earth tone, it is quite
appropriate for his essay. Readers of a magazine, where this essay was
originally published, would rather hear a conversational argument than a
speech, which is why Reilly’s repeated phrases make excellent sense here.
In
addition, Reilly also employs inductive reasoning in order to make his argument
more understandable to readers. Every one of his body paragraphs presents a new
piece of evidence that reinforces the beauty of sports. For example, some of
Reilly’s body paragraphs discuss the fact that sports cannot be faked, has
honor, and is woven into American life. By presenting examples in each
paragraph that support each one of these claims, they can then be used as
evidence to support the main claim in Reilly’s essay. Therefore, his use of
inductive reasoning is extremely important toward advancing the greatness of
sports, as it helps make the argument easier to understand for a casual
audience.
As
sports is woven into our lives deeper than ever, it makes sense to embrace it.
Reilly’s essay was published in ESPN Magazine, a haven for sports news and
editorials. Therefore, his essay further reinforces the audience’s already
healthy love for sports. His essay is perfectly targeted to his audience, which
is what makes it so effective.
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