te in the six-ring circus atmosphere of individual events.” The writer vividly illustrates the shame of having few audiences by using the charged word—embarrassingly. It is a striking word that inevitably evokes strong feelings within its readers. The writer also applies contrasting words to create a strong impression. He implies that embarrassingly few were in the audience to watch America’s best compete. He maintains that these men—who are considered America’s best, did not get the audience they deserve. These subjective statements in his article happen to offer not only an accurate account of the underlying story, but also his own opinion which may in effect alter a reader’s own perception of the situation.There are additional areas where Almond’s article was partial towards the U.S. male Gymnasts. In paragraph five of the article, Almond writes, “Like figure skating, male gymnasts have been overshadowed by women for years.” He strongly emphasizes his point that male gymnasts just are not receiving the credit that they are past due. In the process of making his point and a couple of others that follow, he simultaneously puts down women. Almond further supports his allegation by stating, “The situation hasn’t improved since the U.S. women won the gold at Atlanta in 1996…” By writing this, he makes it very clear that he agrees much with the sentiments of one of his sources—John Macredy. John had made quite an immature and sexist comment— “As good as the women were, they never won until ’96,” and Almond just added on to John’s thoughts. Almond wrote that Macready “pleads for patience” with the audience who supposedly do not expect much of a performance from them. This is a subjective way of conveying that this male gymnast wants a chance. Almond concludes his article with placing Macready’s th...
