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Gene Analysis
The Life of a Student Athlete
Tiano Tialavea
The University of Texas at El Paso
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Gene #1

Audience and Purpose

This academic journal is an example of work made for outside groups. It is factual and shows the

life of a student athlete compared to the life of a regular student. The audience can be described as

discourse communities that dont participate in student athlete activities. These are people who are either

students, staff, and fans of the sports that these students participate in. People see the title and become tot

assume they understand what it takes. But all they really know is that student athletes are on scholarship,

but dont completely comprehend what the life of a student athlete may endure. They dont know the

number of hours that are obligated to strictly the sport, but only understand we get free school. Free

education is nice but kids who participate in college athletics, and balance a full-time school schedule

struggle with the fact that their schedules are made for them, and there is no preference.

Regular students have the opportunity to build the schedule they desire. Student athletes dont

have the option of picking their class times, or rarely the courses they want during the season. The student

athlete advisors create their schedules based around morning practice, mandatory tutoring, workouts,

position meetings, and then having a full-time schedule of classes because of the eligibility rules of the

NCAA. A student athlete must complete and pass a certain amount of credit hours to be eligible to play.

The emotions this genre is attempting to evoke is the realization that there is more than just

winning games. The institution asks a lot of their student athletes, but dont legally have to pay them. A

student athlete can make the University millions, but the athletes wont see a dime of it. The evidence

given in this academic journal is very reliable because of the factual based information, and the

experience of being a student athlete.

Structure and Delivery

It started by explaining the perception of people, and how student athletes are supposed

to be enjoying their time in college, but really are used for money, while they dont get equal

opportunity. This genre brings confidence in the thought that student athletes are viewed a lot of

time as things that they arent. They are considered slaves in the modern day.
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Gene #2

Audience and Purpose

This video is an example of true sympathy for student athletes. Richard Sherman really

targeted the whole world when he was asked about student athletes. He was on the biggest stage

of the 2014 Super Bowl, and knew he could express the true conflicts of a student athlete. The

discourse communities that dont realize the truth are the main groups intended to hear it. The

audience understand that student athletes get full scholarships, but dont realize what the full

scholarship entails. Richard Sherman talks about the schedule of student athletes, and how it

doesnt allow them to really take full advantage of their scholarships. Researching and

understanding this problem really comes down to the interest in learning the truth about Student

athletes. The purpose of this video was to inform people of the true matters that come with being

a student athlete. The language used is formal because of Richard Sherman is a 3.9 GPA

graduate of the University of Stanford In Communications. His specialized vocabulary was used

by explaining the normal day of student athletes: Class, study tables, practice and weights.

Richard really uses his experiences to elaborate how the student athletes lives are somewhat

impossible compared to regular students.

Structure and Delivery

He uses his childhood, and experiences as his credibility. Sherman was raised in

Compton, received a scholarship to Stanford, was a 3.9 graduate, and plays for the best team in

the league. His evidence is very reliable because he was a student athlete, and can contest to it.

He was very limited to telling the complete truth, because he was in press conference for the
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Super Bowl. It makes it harder to tell the behind the scenes because It could have affected his

career.
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References

C h e n , S . , S n yd e r , S . , & M a g n e r , M . ( 2 0 1 0 ) . T h e E f f e c t s o f S p o r t

Participation on Student-Athletes and Non-Athlete Students Social

L i f e a n d I d e n t i t y. J o u r n a l o f I s s u e s i n I n t e r c o l l e g i a t e A t h l e t i c s .
Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Steve_Chen16/publication/287
646298_Journal_of_Issues_for_Intercollegiate_Athletics/links/56a54
b7008aef91c8c14f3e0/Journal -of-Issues-for-Intercollegiate -
Athletics.pdf.

Sherman, R. (Director). (2015, May 17). Richard Sherman: Student Athlete Education [Video
file]. Retrieved September 2, 2017, from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP0FYeO1N2A
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