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ENGLISH 1312
Running Head: Overpaid Athletes
Overpaid Athletes: Genre Analysis of an Article and a Cartoon Image
Cooper Foster
University of Texas at El Paso
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OVERPAID ATHLETES
Over Paid Athletes: Genre Analysis of an article and a cartoon image
This Genre Analysis will compare two different genres that portray the same idea,
though go about it in completely different ways from one another. The first Genre is an online
cartoon image that illustrates how athletes get paid too much for what they do. This cartoon
image is meant to be humorous for the people who see it. It is about a serious subject, though
they give it a funny and easy way understanding. While in the second Genre it goes about
athletes being overpaid in an incredibly harsh and serious manner. The second Genre is an
online article. This article takes the more serious approach other than the illustrated cartoon.
The article attacks these professional athletes about getting paid too much. How they believe
they are selfish with always wanting more money than what they already have and how they
can affect more things other than their payroll with wanting more. This article has a really
strong passion for the subject with even providing specific examples of certain athletes in their
payrolls and their attitudes.
Purpose and Audience
The illustrated cartoon’s audience would be sports fans, or people who follow all kinds
of sports. Maybe not a so called true fan who follows a specific team, but someone who enjoys
watching sports. This audience would also believe that professional athletes get paid too much,
so they would know about professional sports pretty well and have a good knowledge about
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the large amounts of money these professional athletes and their contracts. This audience likely
knows that there are plenty of others that feel that it is an issue how athletes get paid an
incredible amount for something as simple as a game. Though this audience does not het why
athletes can be paid so much, they do not hate against them too much because they are able to
poke fun at the subject with creating this cartoon and being amused by this cartoon. The
purpose of the cartoon picture presented is to entertain and amuse people who have the same
beliefs towards the subject that they do. It is entertaining because cartoons are meant to be
fun for people to be able to look at and enjoy without much thought.
The online articles audience would be fans of sports as well as bi standards in general
who have a cold shoulder towards professional athletes and how much they get over paid. This
audience feeling hot headed and passionate about the subject. The audience is likely to know
the salaries of these professional athletes and want to know why it is right to pay them so
much. Appealing to an audience that may believe that professional athletes are selfish with all
that they expect and want to have. The purpose of this article is to inform the readers and
whoever they can get to see it that it is ridiculous and outrageous paying all professional
athletes as much as we do. The author getting his point across by using formal language in the
article with trying to get a serious point across. Showing the reader the actual numbers of how
much athletes get paid to hopefully get the reader more on the author’s side of view.
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As both of these genres have the same views and beliefs about overpaid athletes.
Though the cartoon takes more of a humorous route towards the subject while the article takes
a more serious and informative route on athlete salaries.
Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos, Logos
In the cartoon picture there is somewhat of credibility because they do have their own
website. Though with a cartoon image you do not really need ethos because it is meant to be
enjoyed and easily understood. And even though it does not have many sources of credibility,
the audience that would look at this cartoon most likely already have knowledge on the
subject. The logos of this cartoon easily makes sense to any eye. With the picture being a
business man with a football telling an oversized athlete that “all you gotta do for a million
bucks, big guy, is show up on weekends and run down the field with this ball”.
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This picture is effective in creating the emotion of humorous laughter. The pathos
demonstrating a funny example to appeal to the audience who can take a joke about this
subject, though at the same time can strongly agree on the topic.
The article genres credibility is effective by having a true article on a legit, supported
website as well as giving readers the author’s name. as an audience seeing that does help.
Though the appealing audience would most likely already know some specific details about the
subject if they feel so strongly about the topic as the author does. The logos in this article
completely makes sense with what the author is trying to say and what his views are. Gives the
audience evidence by showing what athletes have actually said, that being extremely
appropriate because it gives the reader better reason to support the authors beliefs, along with
previous knowledge on the subject acting as logos for the reader also. This article genre appeals
to the emotions of the reader by giving actual salaries of certain athletes, letting the readers
know that all this money comes from the fans, and giving examples of specific athletes bad
attitudes towards their paycheck. Pathos greatly being shown to make the audience feel angry
and heated towards these professional athletes.
Both genres, the cartoon image and the article are very alike in their ethos as well as
their logos being the same. Though where they contrast would be their pathos. The cartoon
having a humorous emotional appeal with the article goes with a frustrated and upsetting
emotional appeal.
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Structure
The cartoon genre is pretty small is size with being a picture limited so that the cartoon
is not too informative making the cartoon easy to see and understand. This image is organized
in a small text box with the cartoon in the middle filling most of it with text right underneath
the cartoon on the very bottom. It is not very outgoing to the eye with just being in black in
white but it gets the point across very well. While the article genre is divided up into multiple
paragraphs as the layout. It has an organized form of the usual article you would see in a
strategic layout form with no visuals or colors added to it, this article just being very
informative about the subject. The structure on these two articles could not have been any
more different with the cartoon having hardly any text while in the article that’s all that is is.
Style and Language
Though the cartoon genre does not have a large amount of text it does in fact have
informal text. Using word like “gotta” and “bucks” makes that very noticeable when reading.
Though being a cartoon having informal language is perfectly fine because the picture makes
half of the genre. The article genre on the other hand has a very formal style and language.
With being very informative it is very important to have formal writing style. As well as showing
your audience how serious the author is about the subject with not using any slang to get their
point across. These genres, though having the same idea do not use the same style and
language.
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Conclusion
After looking at both genre analysis, the cartoon image, and the written article, both
portraying the same idea with the same goal and aiming towards the same audience though
vary in many ways. Hearing about professional athletes being overpaid is more effective in the
written article because of the more information provided, how serious the attitude was, and
the examples that were given. Thus truly impacting the readers and audience in a greater way
that the cartoon.
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References
Lefebvre, Matt. (2004). Professional athletes are overpaid and selfish. The Quinnipiac Chronicle.
Retrieved at http://www.quchronicle.com/2004/04/professional-athletes-are-overpaidand-selfish/
Original Artist, Reproduction rights obtainable from www.CartoonStock.com