Nigah Raja

Professor Pastore

Fairy Tales and Re-Writings Composition HA5

13 December 2022

Rhetorical Analysis

         The author of “Yes, the Players in the World Cup Do Keep Falling Over for No Reason” is David Papineau. He is a professor of science philosophy at Kings College London and the CUNY graduate center. He is credible because he has written a book titled “Knowing the Score: How Sports Teach Us about Philosophy.” This proves that he has background knowledge of philosophy and shows his experience in writing about sports. Papineau’s audience is World Cup sports fans. It is more directed toward Americans but can be generalized to sports fans around the world. I know this because in the article, Papineau states “sports fans are quick to condemn the morals of other codes. But in truth much of this is simply misplaced insularity.” Throughout the article, the author is comparing the behavior of athletes from different countries. Moreso, it discusses how American athletes use deception instead of fair play. This piece of writing is targeted toward American sports fans to reveal to them the truth of their country’s sports.

         This article’s tone is assertive, persuasive, and a little sarcastic. It is assertive because the language used is bold and straight to the point. An example is “Athletes who use tricks that they know their opponents will shun are simply trading on trust to take advantage.” The author gets his point across clearly while persuading his audience of the tricks used in sports. He convinces them by providing several examples such as teaching catchers how to “frame the pitch” and the 2012 scandal where players were paid to injure opponents. Furthermore, the tone is a bit humorous and sarcastic which can be seen by the title and by comments such as “Have these world-beating athletes forgotten their dignity? Surely they can take no pride in such transparent acts of deception.” In addition, the purpose of this piece is to inform the audience of the many ways deception is used in sports worldwide. I know this because the author says “sports in particular provide ample demonstration that actions that are acceptable in one context can seem objectionable in another.”

         The genre is an online sports article. The features of this genre are informative sports news and rules of sports played in different countries. The medium used to communicate this piece is New York Times which is a reputable online website. There are no other media available for this piece besides online. Something related happening in the world around December 6, 2022, is the World Cup. The timeliness of this piece contributes to the ongoing events in the world. This article is about sports and relates to the world cup. It provides reasons as to why the athletes fall unnecessarily during their game and reveals other tactics of theirs. This piece was published online and the cultural expectations would be different worldwide. For Americans reading this piece, they’re expected to understand how their athletes play sports. In other places such as London, they might be expected to be surprised finding out this information. The author’s stance on this topic is negative and disagreeing with the athlete’s sports tactics. He claims “Their tawdry playacting only demeans the transcendent athletic skills displayed by the top football players.” He is not pleased by the deception and tricks and calls it out for the whole world to notice.