Class Discussion 1/29

Our group spent a lot of time discussing the possible format of this paper. It seems to us that most of the work on this paper would be coming from other people (the interviews and outside sources). We talked about the best possible ways to organize this paper so that it would flow well and fit the credentials for the assignment. It seems that the way you back up information will be very important for this paper. Quotes and quote analysis are going to be essential to writing a strong informational report regardless of the field you are discussing. One possible way to organize the paper would be to introduce the interviews and then consider what you learned from them versus what you learned from the outside sources. It would be interesting to see what similarities and differences appear.

Interview and Source Analysis

Interview Review

I conducted my first interview last night with Brian Murphy. He is not only my Uncle but also the president of Athlete’s First. He is an NFL sport’s agent, which is exactly what I want to do when I get older. I felt he would be perfect for this interview because he is one of the best writers that I know. After speaking with him I learned just how often writing affects his career. First off he said writing was a huge part of getting through law school and this is the first step to getting a career in sports agency. He also write’s and analyzes writing all the time through his contract negotiations. This is not typical writing that is done in an everyday English class. Contracts are formal, legally binding agreements, something that I do not fully understand yet but hope to learn more about. Writing is something that Mr. Murphy uses in other ways as well. He has been published in many high-ranking business magazines including the Sport’s Business Journal. While writing may seem like a skill of minimal importance to a sport’s agent it is a skill that is vital in the long term if you want to be successful in this field.

Other Sources

The information that I found from my other sources were very similar to that of which I learned in my interview. All emphasized the importance of writing in a Sport Management field of work. I never realized how essential these skills would be nor did I realize how often I would use them. Whether it is writing formal reports, or introducing a promotion it is obvious that writing is used in a number of different ways in this field. I read something interesting while researching the Sport Marketing field. The article suggested that those interested in pursuing a career in sport marketing should consider taking a creative writing class in college. It said that a class of this sort would help when writing a proposal for a promotion or other document in your field. This would be useful because the field of Marketing especially in the area of sport requires a lot of creativity and innovation. I believe that my sources are going to be very useful in the drafting of this paper.

Assignment 1 Reflection

The rhetorical situation for this assignment is relatively obvious. The audience, as described in the assignment, is a group of high school students who are interested in your profession. The purpose in this situation is explaining to the young students the details of your profession and why it might be something that they are either interested in pursuing or something that they want to avoid studying. My stance on this assignment is going to be something to do with Marketing since that is what I am studying. I will most likely interview professors from the Sports Administration field as I want to study Marketing with a focus in Sports Marketing.

The Rhetorical Situation

Definition: The rhetorical situation is the context of a rhetorical event that consists of an issue, an audience, and a set of constraints.

5 Basic Components:

1. A Text (instance or piece of communication)
2. An Author (someone who uses communication)
3. An Audience (recipient of communication)
4. Purposes (reasons author and audience communicate)
5. A Setting (time, place, or environment that surrounds a moment of communication)

Rhetorical Analysis Reflection

One of my assignments last year in English 101 was to write a literacy narrative. This narrative was to explain an event in my life and describing how that event affects the way that I read and write. For this assignment I chose to talk about my experiences with a very close friend who passed away from leukemia at the age of 12. The rhetorical situation in this case had a very significant effect on my writing. I had to go into much more detail describing my story. This is something that I usually share with people via verbal conversation and not something that I had ever wrote about before. It was much more difficult to get all of the emotion across while writing this paper. My audience also effected the rhetorical situation. I am from North Kingstown Rhode Island. In my hometown almost everybody is aware of what happened to Payton Watson (the girl who passed away). However I was writing this paper for a college class in Kentucky. Here, nobody is aware of the story or the significant effect that it had on my life. I was forced to try to convey the deepest feelings of hurt and pain to an audience that was not touched by my situation. I found that the easiest way to do this was not to relate it to my specific encounter instead I related my paper to cancer in general. It is safe to say that almost everybody has been touched by cancer in some way during his or her lifetime. I used this to my advantage while writing and tried my best to play on those shared emotions

About Me

Hi, my name is Alex Quarella. I am from North Kingstown, Rhode Island. I am currently studying Marketing at the University of Louisville. My dream is to someday become a sports agent and live in Southern California.