blog assignment 6

In the article, The Horse Racing Industry: Issues and Reforms (Christa Kurman), the author uses plenty of paraphrases and quotations to support her main idea. One example of a paraphrase is “An industry committee lead by Mary Scollay recorded an average of 2.03 horse deaths for every 1,000 starts on dirt track (Dwyre).” This paraphrase uses numbers and statistics to support her idea. It makes the essay more convincible. Using statistics in this essay let readers feel sorry for horses, and decide to support banning the sport of horse racing. An example of a quotation in the essay is: David Zirin, a sportswriter and racing strategist, has this to say about what horse racing has become in recent years: “Perhaps all the people who pounced on Michael Vick for fighting pit bulls should turn their attention to a sport that exudes mint julep gentility, but can be as cruel as any cockfight” (Zirin).Christa uses a quotation of a sportswriter to support her main idea that horse racing industry seems “as cruel as any cockfight” (Zirin) at this time, and it should be improved, at least to treat horse nicely. She uses a quotation of a sportswriter’s perspective to make her essay convincible, and it works well, because I really agree with the author after I read her essay. All the quotations and paraphrases that she uses in the article make me believe what she says and agree with her suggestions. I can see how important quotations and paraphrases are. Their main function is that they support main idea and make essay convincible.