Derek Jeter Essay
Below is a link to the entire essay. Feel free to read the whole thing, but do not feel obligated to because I will highlight some specific areas to analyze within the essay below.
derek_jeter_rehtorical_analyziz_essay_final.docx | |
File Size: | 1567 kb |
File Type: | docx |
The Derek Jeter essay process was very difficult for me to follow at first. I was not entirely sure what exactly to focus in on. Once I chose to do his persona and how it came about, it was very hard to find contrasting sources. Most of the media out there covers his positives. Once I found one or two articles that did contrast the popular trend, analyzing them and pulling out good points to contrast Jeter's positive persona was a little more difficult. Below is an example.
"“He (Jeter) has lived in the public eye -- and the dead zero center of the public eye -- and given us nothing about himself” (Leitch).
Leitch is drawing upon the fact that Jeter has been able to keep a quiet life off the field, and thus hasn’t revealed much of anything to us. He isn’t saying whether this mystery is necessarily good or bad, but he says that by doing this, Jeter is able to avoid a lot of negativity. After all, it is hard to shed a bad light on somebody when you don’t know what to shed that light on. Despite the long career, numerous interviews and TV appearance, ad campaigns, and everything else that has kept Jeter front and center for a large audience, he has been able to avoid any major slip-ups or glimpses into who he is. It is very oxymoronic to have that happen, and Leitch, as well as many of his readers, is able to see this and start to ask questions. "
This piece above was a lot more vague to draw extremely concrete conclusions from. The meaning behind the quote I chose was apparent, but it was hard to expand in that idea. What I did well here was expand on the quote to help drive the point home. The overall analysis from this, however, is not as in depth as I would have desired. This is a prime example of the difficulty I encountered when trying to pull out the negatives of Jeter. A lot of the time, I felt as if I was hitting on things that weren't exactly negative, just different than the norm for a professional athlete.
Another interesting thing to analyze about myself in the Jeter essay is how I was able to make ideas flow well. I did a lot better connecting thoughts and transitioning between ideas in this essay as compared to the Ferguson essay. Ideas fit together in a good order from positive to negative to overall impact. They also had very smooth transition sentences that linked each idea to the next/previous idea. Below is a good example of my success in transitioning.
"It is the overwhelming bulk of these images that can consume audiences to see the positive light of Jeter. Jeter’s portrayal is that of a confident, cool individual.
While Jeter’s confident and cool nature shines through in images, his caring nature is also very apparent. He seems to have a great knowledge of the game and how to be successful."
One more thing to analyze about myself within this essay is my voice shining through in a lot of the analysis. This is important because it shows that this is my writing and the ideas I formed from the texts chosen are my own. I think I did a good job of showing what each texts could be interpreted as and showing that these were my personal conclusions that could be drawn. It was relatable to others who might read the essay but specific enough that my voice could be heard. Below is a great example of how I show my voice without drowning out the overall goal of showing how each text effects how Jeter is perceived.
"By poking fun at himself within the skit and episode as a whole, Jeter is able to show that he is not perfect but can make light of the situation. Showing this humorous side and ability to be playful allows viewers to connect more so with the Yankee shortstop."
This small excerpt is refering to Jeter's appearance on SNL. It is talking about how he connected with the audience by poking fun at himself a bit. This also connected a lot with me personally because it made Jeter more relatable. A lot of the time I connect with things via humor. Humor helps make people more connected and my idea that it helped audience relate more with the shortstop is from my own personal experience with this effect. I understand athletes more when I can see that there is something to their personality besides their on-field display.
"“He (Jeter) has lived in the public eye -- and the dead zero center of the public eye -- and given us nothing about himself” (Leitch).
Leitch is drawing upon the fact that Jeter has been able to keep a quiet life off the field, and thus hasn’t revealed much of anything to us. He isn’t saying whether this mystery is necessarily good or bad, but he says that by doing this, Jeter is able to avoid a lot of negativity. After all, it is hard to shed a bad light on somebody when you don’t know what to shed that light on. Despite the long career, numerous interviews and TV appearance, ad campaigns, and everything else that has kept Jeter front and center for a large audience, he has been able to avoid any major slip-ups or glimpses into who he is. It is very oxymoronic to have that happen, and Leitch, as well as many of his readers, is able to see this and start to ask questions. "
This piece above was a lot more vague to draw extremely concrete conclusions from. The meaning behind the quote I chose was apparent, but it was hard to expand in that idea. What I did well here was expand on the quote to help drive the point home. The overall analysis from this, however, is not as in depth as I would have desired. This is a prime example of the difficulty I encountered when trying to pull out the negatives of Jeter. A lot of the time, I felt as if I was hitting on things that weren't exactly negative, just different than the norm for a professional athlete.
Another interesting thing to analyze about myself in the Jeter essay is how I was able to make ideas flow well. I did a lot better connecting thoughts and transitioning between ideas in this essay as compared to the Ferguson essay. Ideas fit together in a good order from positive to negative to overall impact. They also had very smooth transition sentences that linked each idea to the next/previous idea. Below is a good example of my success in transitioning.
"It is the overwhelming bulk of these images that can consume audiences to see the positive light of Jeter. Jeter’s portrayal is that of a confident, cool individual.
While Jeter’s confident and cool nature shines through in images, his caring nature is also very apparent. He seems to have a great knowledge of the game and how to be successful."
One more thing to analyze about myself within this essay is my voice shining through in a lot of the analysis. This is important because it shows that this is my writing and the ideas I formed from the texts chosen are my own. I think I did a good job of showing what each texts could be interpreted as and showing that these were my personal conclusions that could be drawn. It was relatable to others who might read the essay but specific enough that my voice could be heard. Below is a great example of how I show my voice without drowning out the overall goal of showing how each text effects how Jeter is perceived.
"By poking fun at himself within the skit and episode as a whole, Jeter is able to show that he is not perfect but can make light of the situation. Showing this humorous side and ability to be playful allows viewers to connect more so with the Yankee shortstop."
This small excerpt is refering to Jeter's appearance on SNL. It is talking about how he connected with the audience by poking fun at himself a bit. This also connected a lot with me personally because it made Jeter more relatable. A lot of the time I connect with things via humor. Humor helps make people more connected and my idea that it helped audience relate more with the shortstop is from my own personal experience with this effect. I understand athletes more when I can see that there is something to their personality besides their on-field display.