There’s nothing I love more than kicking back on the couch with a beer and a bag of chips, watching the Patriots game. I’m choosing the theme of sports because I have always been a dedicated sports fan. I make a full effort to make sure I watch as many Patriots, Bruins and Red Sox games as I can.
In my memoir I could write about my most memorable game. I’ll never forget the game between the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos, when the Patriots were down 28 points after half time, and came back to win the game. It was an incredible finish. Or the Boston Bruins being down 3 goal to the Toronto Maple Leafs, in the game seven conference finals. With only two minuets to go,the Bruins came back to tie the game, and then win it in overtime. When the Bruins scored the final goal , the screams and cheers blew the roof off my house.
For my assignment on ethnography, I could explain how concussions in football and hockey are changing the culture of the game, trying to make it less brutal. Although their intentions are for the safety of the players. This is changing how the game is played. In some cases, making it less enjoyable to watch.
In the argument, I would like to argue against the expansion of the instant replay rule in baseball. I will include reasons why the change would diminish the enjoyment and experience of watching the sport. The new instant replay rules that are being proposed, would make the games much longer, and more difficult to tolerate, and it is feared that some teams may try to exploit the new rules.
To support my argument, I could use the photo essay, to include photos of games going into extra innings or lasting over three and a half hours. I could also include pictures of fans sleeping, sitting in the blistering heat, or enduring the pouring rain.
Sports is a huge hobby and a love of mine. It’s great being part of something millions of people in the world enjoy. GO BRUINS!
Sports sounds like a good fit for you, but I’d suggest a bit of tweaking here. I’d steer away from just telling about a game you watched–it could too easily turn into something close to a play-by-play. Remember that this is not a sports article, but rather something that explains something about your life, your views, something that you’ve learned. You could write about being a sports fan, but keep the emphasis on you and your relationships, not the details of the game itself. Did you see the sample student essay about the writer’s relationship to his grandfather and the Red Sox?
An ethnography should involve direct observation of a “subculture”–the idea takes a while to describe. Check out the description of the assignment on the right of the course blog. I’d like there to be some variation from the memoir, so not a memoir about you as a Red Sox fan and an ethnography about Red Sox fans. We can talk about this, though.
I’m not sure about instant replay as an argument topic. I’d like the issues to be able to be treated in an academic manner, and that topic sounds more like Sports Illustrated, but we may be able to work something out. And there are *many* people wriitng about sports, so you’ll all be able to do some group brainstorming.