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Peter Vujanovic Prof. Brown WRD 103 24 September 2013 Rhetorical Analysis In the Chicago Tribune editorial Profiting from Johnny Manziel: He can make money playing college football just not for himself the writer expresses his opinion about the recent and ongoing amateurism controversies, particularly that of Johnny Manziel and his autograph selling allegations. According to the writer, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has been raking in millions of dollars off its numerous highly talented student athletes, all the while punishing those same said athletes when they attempt to do the same. The writer uses rhetorical devices such as ethos and logos in order to convey his views over the recent Johnny Manziel autograph scandal as well as other similar NCAA investigations. The writer believes that the idea that a student athlete may not profit from himself while the rich get richer (the NCAA being the rich) is a complete travesty that demands alterations. The writer begins his editorial with information on how any person can easily purchase or sell any Johnny Manziel memorabilia they wish on eBay ranging from $67 for a simple photograph to as much as $3,000 for an autographed helmet. He then caps this off with the statement that What the owners of the souvenirs have in common is that they are free to make money off them. But Johnny Football is not. This statement serves to demonstrate to the reader
Comment [CB1]: Good summary in this paragraph. This is helpful for me as a reader because it provides context within which to understand your paper.

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the absurdity of the Johnny Manziel fiasco. Any person can serve to make a profit off of Johnny Manziel, other than himself of course. In the following paragraph the writer compares the accusation that Johnny Manziel accepted $7,500 for signing roughly 300 helmets to the $37 million in free publicity from him last season that Texas A&M had profited off of him. By drawing this comparison he shows just how feeble Johnny Manziels personal profits are when weighed up against the amount of money Texas A&M reaped, thus strengthening the writers argument that a players inability to profit off himself while others cash in millions is absolutely outlandish. Furthermore, by adding in these facts the writer adds a sense of credibility to his argument, consequently making the reader more likely to agree and relate to his claims. Another person discussed in the editorial that is financially benefiting from Johnny Manziels athletic success is his coach Kevin Sumlin. According to the writer, The 11-2 record Manziel helped the Aggies achieve also earned his coach a raise, from $2 million a year to $3.1 million. Later in the article the writer declares that as college football changes so must the NCAA and its rulings. He backs this statement with a comparison exemplifying how these rules were set in place when college sports were just a student activity, but has now become an enormous business powered by wall-to-wall exposure. Subsequently, in the following paragraph the writers use of diction shares his opinion about the difference between how much cash a top collegiate athlete can generate for the NCAA compared to how much they are permitted to earn. He refers to the difference as being gross, illustrating the argument that student athletes deserve better benefits. Additionally, this paragraph is used as a counterargument. It acknowledges the fact that student athletes have their college education paid for; however, despite this free education, there are still many costs that are not paid for. The writer asserts that
Comment [CB5]: Good analysis of diction. Were there any other places that his diction was particularly significant? Comment [CB4]: Can you explain this quote? What is the significance of this in terms of your paper? Comment [CB3]: Can you be more specific about how, exactly, these facts lend to the writers credibility? Comment [CB2]: This is a good analysis of the quote.

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many athletes from poor background may literally go hungry for lack of funds. This statement not only assists to disprove the opposing argument, therefore allowing the reader to better see things from the writers perspective, but also adds an aspect of pathos. With poverty being a very hot topic, especially in todays economy, everyone has seen its effects and are sensitive to it. This creates an emotional appeal with the reader causing them to feel bad for student athletes. The NCAA is a broken system that is in desperate need of fixing. The writer argues that the NCAA can no longer go by with the same rulebook that has been in place since its establishment. The NCAA has drastically changed over the years; however, their outlook on such cases as Johnny Manziels has not. The writer believes that the idea of everyone and anyone being able to profit off of student athletes (particularly Johnny Manziel in this case) is complete and utter malarkey. He backs up his point by proving that a student receiving a free education is often not enough. Also, he creates a sense of credibility between him and the reader thus strengthening his argument. Hi Peter, Youre off to a good start here. You clearly have an understanding of the rhetorical appeals, and your writing is very clear and concise. The next step in your revision process is to add your own argument (your thesis). As it is now, this paper involves a lot of summary, some analysis of how the rhetorical appeals operate, and an evaluation of how effective the article was. My recommendation is to reread the article and look for patterns of how the rhetoric is used, and to answer the question, so what? For instance: The writer uses a number of appeals to logos by citing dollar amounts that were earned by Manziel, by Texas A&M, by the other students who were suspended, etc. The author also makes note of how much money was spent on a new football stadium, and how much universities earn from these student athletes. Given those observations of the article, I might argue in my paper that the author uses numbers throughout the article to emphasize the business atmosphere of these institutions.
Comment [CB6]: This is really interesting. What I think is fascinating about this article is that everything relates directly to money. Whether its the schools success, the students educations, the students mealsit all relates to these funds.

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From there (after you have developed an argument for the paper), you can essentially rearrange/reframe the information you have in your body paragraphs to support the argument you make in the beginning. For instance, if you used the argument I gave as an example above, you could talk about the different examples and aspects of these financial issues the author talks about, how he does it (diction, ethos, logos, pathos, etc.), and what the result is for the reader. Again, I think that you have a good draft here, and you have a lot of solid material to work with as you revise.