Armstrong in “Cycles of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong” by Macur represents a situation of bargain-rhetoric that Booth talks about in “Judging Rhetoric.” His actions reflect those of someone with high achievement, goals, and determination. However, Armstrong’s intentions say something else. His intentions are formed in order to reach such a goal, but those intentions are amoral. Armstrong’s success is the result of him doping, an unfair advantage over his competitors. His means to success and the immorality of such means do not share a common ground benefitting Tygart nor his other competitors, but himself.

I believe I did well on this speech. Out of my three speeches, I would put this one at second best at the least. I memorized pretty much everything I needed to, covered all the points that I was aiming for, and had continuous flow throughout the entire speech. I also didn’t even need to use my notes which I had with me. I did visit the Speaking Center a day prior, where I was able to work on this speech. Overall, I am satisfied with my presentation, giving me the momentum for the next one.

I will be discussing Cycling Comics.

Cycling Comics are simply comics that you see from a comic book or like a magazine, but with bicycles in them. Comics have been around since the 1800s, about the same time period as bicycles have. They are very simple, yet very captivating to readers. They do this because Cycling Comics, or comics in general, have certain elements which gives them the ability to attract an audience, or gain an audience’s attention in order for the audience to keep reading them. For example, this comic has these elements, such as some sort of character, words, captions, title, etc. Today I am going to go into specific aspects that makes a good comic.

So, what makes a good comic?

• Not Boring! – a good comic has to be able to entertain an audience and keep, that attention, and never lose it. If someone becomes uninterested in a comic, then that comic has failed at being a comic, because what is a comic supposed to do? Entertain.
• Character/Story Development – some comics, such as ones in comic books can have a long story about some character and could possibly lead to subsequent comics, like superhero comics. Comics that are in magazines also can have some short story about some character as well.
• Emotional – the concept of comics are very similar to those of actual reading books, in the sense that they both can make the reader feel a certain way. Just like how a horror book can make the reader frightened or scared, a comic can make you feel some emotion too.
• Relatable – an audience enjoys a story or environment where they can picture themselves in; a place where they can put themselves into perspective of the character.
• Visuals – comics have the advantage of being able to look however they want to. This can consist of having different colors, images, panels/borders. Visuals are an easy way to get an audience’s attention, and comics heavily utilize them.
• Funny! – of course a comic has to be funny. It’s literally called a comic. Everyone likes to laugh.

I will view a few examples of Cycling Comics and how they attract the audience.

Cycling to Work:

• Explanation – this comic is about the benefits of biking to work. It Shows four instances of this; *read them*.
• Compare/Contrast Reality – this comic is about a fictional character going through fictional events in the real world. The captions *read them* are all things that can apply to you, but are about this character. It depicts a juxtaposition of what’s real and not real in order to create a sense of imagination from the reader. It allows the reader to utilize their imagination.
• Visuals!! – the author, David Walker, uses his own style for this comic. Very simple, no color, no panels. Many comics will have panels to show scene-per-scene but Walker doesn’t use them here.

Tour de France:

• Explanation – this comic is a parody about the Tour de France bike race, from the spectator’s view. It also uses certain elements to entertain the audience.
• Not Boring! – one of them being that it is not boring; it keeps the reader occupied with all six steps with a caption and visuals for each.
• Character/Story Development – one thing this comic in particular does well is tell some sort of storyline. There is a character here, however it is static and doesn’t really do anything nor undergo some sort of change or development. The story, however, does develop, explicitly having a start, some middle, and an end.
• Comedy! – and of course comedy. This comic has elements of comedy in each frame as well as the entire comic itself

That concludes my presentation on Cycling Comics. Thank you.

Topic: Biking Comics

• Introduction
• Main point1

• So, what makes a good comic?

• Not Boring!
• Character/Story Development
• Emotional
• Relatable
• Visuals
• Funny!
• Transition

• Cycling to Work:

• Explanation
• Compare/Contrast Reality
• Visuals!!

• Tour de France:

• Explanation
• Not Boring!
• Character/Story Development
• Comedy!

• Conclusion

Sources:

• http://cyclingcartoons.com/
• http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Great-Comic

Today I went to the Speaking Center for some help on my speech about Cycling Comics. I already had everything ready, however I went in anyway for any polishing that needed to be done. My instructor Vanikaa Keswani helped me with certain aspects of my speech such as structure, and punctuation. I left the Speaking Center with a better understanding of the format of a speech in general, so I implemented such into my speech. 

The relationship between individual and team is that each individual must work not only for their individual purpose, but also for the other individuals. A team is a group of individuals working for each other. This is the beauty of what a team is.
A time where I was on a team is when I ran cross country in high school. During the cross country season, me and my team would mostly train together. We would not train together all the time because sometimes individual training would be best for this sport. When we do run together, we would always support each other. We would make sure that each runner would stay with the group and not lag behind. During our races we would cheer for each other, going to different points on the trail so that we can cheer for them multiple times. A time when I sacrificed my own benefit for my team is when I dropped down to JV for a race. This was so that I can help JV’s time and position.

David Byrne’s section from his book “Bicycle Diaries” about San Francisco captivated my interests about the city. I grew up here in the Bay Area, Pleasant Hill, which is in the East Bay. Growing up 40 minutes away from San Francisco, I’ve always loved visiting the city by the bay. Going to college here is super exciting too.
Byrne mentions how San Francisco has experienced the dot-com boom a few decades ago where “investors were lining up to throw money at every geek with a vague idea, a pitch, and some programming skill.” He then refers to how San Francisco is becoming gentrified, as a result of the tech-boom rooting from Silicon Valley – the tech boom we are currently facing. This relates to me because I hope to graduate college at USF with a degree in computer science and integrate myself into such tech boom.

For speech #3 I have a few ideas in mind. The first one is to look at statistics on why people (in general) bike. The audience here, being everyone who rides a bike, is engaged through my analysis on why people choose to ride their bikes. I will look at environmental statistics, health, economic, etc.

Another idea I have is to analyze the different types of bicyclists. I will list the categories of cyclists and explain each one. Each type of cyclist is to be considered the audience here as I talk about them.

My last idea is discussing Cycling Comics – comics but with bikes in them! I will analyze how comics have the power to captivate the attention of an audience.