Introduction

The legal drinking age in America is a highly debated issue. Lowering the legal drinking age in America would cause fewer drinking related accidents among young adults and will have better lives overall. People who are old enough and responsible enough to fight in the armed forces should be able to legally drink. If alcohol was more accessable to people, there would be fewer health problems with binge drinking. Additionally, people who are underage and get into legal trouble can suffer from this for the rest of their lives.

Research Log: Working With Sources

 

This is a picture regarding the issue of the legal drinking age in America. It is in favor of lowering the drinking age to the age it is to serve in the armed forces, which is 18. This poster is appealing to logos through showing how that if someone can go to war, and then they should be able to go to a bar. It does provide a good argument that if a person is willing to put their life at risk defending our country, then they should at least have the right to have a good time at a bar with their friends. This poster also provides a sense of urgency. The phrase "lower the drinking age now!" makes the issue seem to be fixed immediately. The bold and big lettering along with the red "now!" makes the message really stand out. The image of danger in the background and the soldier protecting in the front shows the current presence of violence, and implies that the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 as soon as possible. It provides that since the soldiers are sacrificing so much then they deserve the minor privilege of being able to go to a bar.

Research Log: Recording Sources

1. Journal of Health Economics; Jul2011, Vol. 30 Issue 4, p740-752, 13p

Found on 10/9/2011

"Although several studies have investigated the effect of the MLDA laws on alcohol consumption, most of them have made use of the changes in the MLDA that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s at the state level. However, states where a lower MLDA was imposed might be different in unobserved ways than those states where the MLDA of 21 was enforced. If these unobserved differences at the state level are also associated with drinking habits of young adults, then one cannot estimate a consistent effect of the MLDA on alcohol consumption and alcohol consumption related outcomes using the simple variation of the MLDA law at the state level. In order to address this shortcoming, we exploit the discontinuity in drinking habits of young adults at age 21 and use a regression discontinuity (hereafter, RD) design to estimate the causal effect of the MLDA on alcohol consumption, smoking, and marijuana use among young adults. Our main identifying assumption is that the observed and unobserved determinants of these outcomes are likely to be distributed smoothly across the age-21 cutoff.⁵ Hence, the changes in alcohol consumption, smoking, and marijuana use trends at age 21 can solely be attributed to the MLDA law itself."
"For almost 40 years, most states voluntarily set their minimum drinking age law at 21. However, starting from early 1970s, several states began lowering their drinking age.⁷ As the issue of drunk driving became more pronounced and was linked with traffic fatalities and injuries, by 1983, most of the states raised their drinking age back to 21. On July 17, 1984, President Reagan signed into law the National Uniform Drinking Age Act mandating all states to adopt 21 as the legal drinking age within five years.⁸ By 1988, all states had set 21 as the minimum drinking age. Since then, it is illegal for youths under age 21 to purchase or consume alcohol in the United States."

This article provides information about drinking laws of the past. It states the history of all of the changes in the legal drinking ages all through out America. It also says the effects of different ages and how they compared
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2. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07448481.2010.502193

"In the decades since the United States implemented the 1984 Uniform Drinking Age Act, there has been a reduction in youth alcohol use and a dramatic decrease in underage alcohol-related traffic injuries and fatalities in the United States. A number of factors may have contributed to these declines in addition to the institution of a minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of 21, including additional alcohol control legislation, a shift in the age distribution of the US population, and community and youth prevention programs. Although empirical evidence for many of these contributing factors is variable, the influence of MLDA 21 is well documented. MLDA is the most researched and supported alcohol control policy, with 241 empirical analyses conducted to assess its effectiveness from 1960 to 1999 and a body of research that continues to grow today. "

"Binge drinkers consume a reported 91% of all alcohol used among the college population and frequent binge drinkers (those who binge on more than 3 occasions per week) consume 68% of this total amount, with half of these frequent binge drinkers reporting 5 or more different alcohol-related problems. Such heavy alcohol use among American college students has received considerable attention because of high alcohol-related morbidity and mortality, and is widely considered a public health concern with serious immediate and long-term consequences."

This article provides a lot of information about underage drinking among college students in particular. It focuses on statistics involving binge drinkers. This article is concerned about how drinking affects a person's health.

3.Journal of Studies on Alcohol & Drugs; Jan2011, Vol. 72 Issue 1, p15-23, 8p, 3 Diagrams, 1 Chart

"Opponents of the initiative point to the demonstrated effectiveness of raising the MLDA on reducing alcohol-related outcomes among all affected youth, as well as the higher prevalence of alcohol-related outcomes in European countries with lower MLDAs (Babor, 2008; McCartt et al., 2009). Unfortunately, lowering the MLDA to observe the consequences would represent a social experiment on college campuses where the profound negative consequences resulting from lowering the MLDA in the larger society have already been demonstrated (Wagenaar and Toomey, 2002)."

"The data were obtained from the Social Norms Marketing Research Project (DeJong et al., 2006), which annually surveyed a sample of students chosen at random from each of 32 college campuses. Campuses were chosen from all four U.S. regions and matched on institution type, enrollment, and student demographics. Students were surveyed regarding number of drinks per occasion, number of drinking occasions per week, and style of drinking. "

This site provides a good comparison between the legal drinking agaes in America, as well as the legal drinking ages in some European countries with lower drinking ages. It compares the problems associated and also states that it should be tested to see if the differences are based on the differeing drinking ages or just cultural differences.

Research Weaknesses

There are a few areas that I am concerned about regarding the research project. One thing I am concerned about is writing a convincing and interesting introductory paragraph. I am also concerned about writing a conclusion paragraph that is strong and also different from the introductory paragraph. I have trouble not repeating myself in the conclusion. Another area regarding this research aspect of the project that i may have trouble with is finding enough sources. I may rely too much on certain sources, which could skew my paper to one viewpoint over another. I may have trouble finding enough academic sources. Finding a book appropriate to my topic my also prove to be a challenge.

 If we could spend time in class reviewing how to work on introductions and conclusions, it would be helpful. Also, reviewing how to write similar points in the introduction and the conclusion without being too repetitive would be very beneficial.

Friday Flyers

1. Friday Flyers were started in 2002

2. Each Friday Flyer is eight-feet long and made of aluminum

3. There is a Friday Flyer in the Hendrix Center

4. There are eight Friday Flyers scattered around campus

5. One of the Friday Flyers is pointed directly into the ground

Prompt #2

1. This image shows a very strong message. It is showing that smoking causes cancer. there is a pack of cigarettes on the left and the only words showing besides "king size" are "smoking causes cancer".  The rest of the box is blurred out, making it difficult to tell what brand of cigarettes is in the picture. One the right half in big bold letters it tells the audience that even the people trying to sell you the product are telling you that you will get cancer from using their cigarettes. The lack of any color from the advertisement emphasizes the seriousness of the issue that is being stated. There is nothing distracting the viewer from taking in the main message of the advertisement.

2. The seriousness, simplicity, and logic of the advertisement make a strong case about the dangers of smoking.

3. How?  The big, bold lettering shows the seriousness of the issue. It shows that smoking's problems should not be taken lightly. The lack of colors allows for nothing to distract the audience from the main idea being presented. The fact that the brand of cigarettes cannot be distinguished shows that any kind of cigarette causes cancer. The severing warning is a very logical way of providing evidence for anti-smoking. The warning shows that even the company making the cigarettes is telling the consumer that if they use their product, then they will get cancer. Also, when a person is unknowledgeable about a product, he or she will often read what is on the container for information, instructions, and warnings. Everything written on the container is accepted as a fact.
What are the contradictions? The simplicity could work against proving the point because it may not attract the attention of the viewer. Also, a more extreme image could be more convincing, such as somebody dying from using cigarettes.
How do I know this? I know this because through past experience I typically read the box of something that I am unfamiliar with before I use it.
Revised Thesis: The company's cancer warning regarding their own product, as well as the bold lettering and lack of color strongly shows that cigarettes causes cancer.

4. What do I find interesting about this? I find that the company telling the consumer something terribly wrong about their product very interesting. Also, having a lack of details is not typically the best way of proving a point.
How does it tap into larger cultural or social issues? The issue of smoking is a fairly large cultural issue. Recently, people are being banned from smoking from many public places, such as restaurants. This is because of all the problems caused by smoking and second-hand smoke.
Revised Thesis: The warning of cancer from a company to a consumer stresses how severe it must be for them to harm their sales. This, as well as the simplicity of the advertisement, make the audience never want to smoke cigarettes.

5. Why is this important? This is important because the company who made the advertisement is looking out for everyone who reads it and wants them to live a healthy, cancer-free life. This is the opposite of the companies who sell the cigarettes, who are trying to make money off of a product that will kill people.

Final Thesis: The advertisment is trying to keep the audience from getting cancer, through their serious and simple ad, while cigarette companies are trying to make money off of the audience using their cancer-causing product.

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About Me

     Hi everyone. My name is Michael Frisch and I am from Mendham, New Jersey. I am studying engineering here at Clemson. I had not always had my mind set on attending Clemson, but when I had to choose a school I knew Clemson was the right school for me. Clemson's strong engineering program, great sports teams, good weather, and unbeatable school spirit were the top reasons on why I decided to attend Clemson University.
     As a writer, one of my strong points is being able to support myself in a paper such as a persuasive essay. I have many ways to improve as a writer through this course. I hope to learn how to become a more detailed writer. My writing can be uninteresting sometimes.
     Most of my hobbies involve sports. I enjoy playing basketball, baseball, tennis, and occasionally golf. I love watching and talking about Major League Baseball.  Another hobby of mine involving sports is that my family and I travel around the country going to different Major League ballparks. We have tallied fourteen ballparks to our count. I have been to ballparks all the way from Boston, Massachusetts to San Diego, California. Aside from sports, I enjoy going on roller coasters. During the summer one of my friends and I went on a couple of road trips, visiting several amusement parks. One thing that is surprising about my friends and I have entered two wiffle ball tournaments and we won them both.
    I am looking forward to a great year here at Clemson.