Most Dominant Athlete Ever

Since this is an open blog post, and I have little background in English, I figure I will write about something I know well. As an avid golfer, I am a huge Tiger Woods fan. What he has done for the sport of golf is absolutely amazing and really has made the sport a presence around the world. However, I have debated an interesting point with friends of mine for quite some time, which actually has many rhetorical aspects to it. How would you answer this question: What athlete was/is the most dominant at their sport? Answer: Tiger Woods.

I’ll quickly entertain the choice I have debated against the most which is definitely Michael Jordan. My answer to Michael Jordan is that you just stated the greatest basketball player of all time, and that is probably not going to be debated. But the question is about dominance, and I will say that Wilt Chamberlain was more dominant than Michael Jordan was. Jordan never scored 100 in a game and he didn’t come close to averaging 50 points in a season either, much more telling statistics of dominance.

Tiger Woods is the most dominant athlete to ever live, which is a big statement since he is barely in his 30’s. And yet that is the point, because he has broken more records in half a career than almost any athlete has ever broken altogether. He held all 4 majors at one time, something never done with the modern majors. He already is second all-time on majors with 12 and 4th all-time on wins with 55. Just this past Sunday, he won his 6th consecutive PGA Tour event, the second time he’s done that. If he continues at the pace he’s on, he will quite possibly beat Jack Nicklaus’ major’s record by 10 and Sam Snead’s total wins record by 30 or more. These stats are not just remarkable, but absolutely astonishing because he is on pace to destroy those much heralded records.

The list of accomplishments would be very long for Tiger but I’d rather not spend the evening writing them all down. It is because of the aforementioned stats that Woods is much more dominant than Jordan ever was. If you wanted to debate greatness, Woods would be a formidable opponent against Jordan already, but maybe not the clear-cut winner since he has at least 10-20 more years to go in his career. But no one dominates his or her sport like Tiger, and I think we are all lucky to witness a rare athlete like Tiger in his prime.

Good Old Rhetoric

Prior to reading anything about rhetoric, I can honestly say that my level of understanding stems entirely from the the idea of a rhetorical statement or question. I know that when someone says something or asks a question that is not intended to be answered, that makes it rhetorical. From this, I suppose I would define rhetoric as language that is empty, lacking any substance to it. There's no doubt in my mind this is completely wrong, but I am now going to read the assigned readings and formulate my new understanding of rhetoric.

Clearly I had no idea what rhetoric was, as it actually has a lot of substance to it. Using mostly the Herrick reading as a guide, I now believe rhetoric is vastly complex and important. Rhetoric is really persuasion on the surface, but at a much deeper level. When one thinks of persuasion, they may think of a car salesman trying to get you to buy the expensive car. While that car salesman is actually employing rhetoric, rhetoric can be anything, not just language, that is used to effectively advance a goal. In the Herrick reading, the statement that "...rhetoric is the art of employing symbols effectively" (7), seems to be the one that sums up the definition of rhetoric the best.

It can actually be difficult to think of any conversation that does not employ rhetoric. Even if I state a fact to someone that the grass is green, I'm still trying to persuade them that this is true, since it may not be a fact to them. Furthermore, the fact that the color green is what it is and not called some other color probably came about through people arguing what the word should be for that color, thus employing rhetoric again. Rhetoric is so vital to everyday life, as it really is the way that the world moves forward. I'm guessing that any Congress meeting is absolutely full of rhetoric, where one person proposes a bill, leading to many responses, which lead to further responses, ultimately leading to a new and better bill being passed. (Or at least that's the idea).

As outlined in the reading, rhetoric has had a bad wrap in history, primarily because with the idea of persuasion we start to think negative thoughts. Even my initial ideas of rhetoric were that is was empty and lacking in substance. However, after reading the articles, I feel that persuasion can indeed be bad, but more often is good. In the end, rhetoric triumphs over falsehoods through using persuasion to communicate the truth. Since rhetoric uses arguments, the better argument will win, leading the persuasion towards the truth. So I feel rhetoric is really an art that probably takes a long time to master, but since it is so common, we all are rhetors to some degree.

First Go-Around

Though I am not completely computer illiterate, I definitely am not an expert. Until arriving at the first English 201 class, I never knew what a blog was, so this is my first official blog. During the course of this semester, I'll be writing 2 or more blogs every week for this class, many of which will be specific responses to readings or topics we've covered in the course. Ideally, this course will allow me to take an academic perspective in the area of English more than I have in the past, as I have concentrated most of my studies in science. It may take me a little while to figure out this blogging stuff, but practice makes perfect, so I'll just have to keep practicing. Stay tuned for bigger and better blogs to come.