Rhetorical Analysis

http://wildcat.arizona.edu/2.2255/editorial-lower-drinking-age-best-option-1.165205


Editorial: Lower drinking age best option

This editorial was one written by college students at the University of Arizona. These students believe that the drinking age should be lowered from the age of 21. They believe that lowering the legal age to buy alcohol will lower the rate of binge drinking and the problems associated with it in college. They are arguing the decision of Robert Shelton, the President of UA. He opposed a petition signed by other university presidents around the nation. This petition called for change and consideration to changing the drinking age.

Shelton opposed this petition for many reasons, mainly because he doesn’t believe it would help the issues at universities today. These students are claiming that because you are able to go to war at the age of 18, you should also be able to drink. They also claim that because the causes those who are underage to drink just to rebel, and that these young adults have turned drinking into a “surreptitious activity”. They also believe that Shelton did not fully consider this proposal, and that he was basing his decision off of insufficient knowledge. This group never goes on to fully back up their claims with evidence; they just go on to refute everything Shelton said.

Within this editorial, the students look at every aspect of the opposing argument. They go through and acknowledge every piece of evidence Shelton lays out for his claims. The use of pathos is one of their strongest uses of persuasion in the example of the soldier coming home from war. They use emotional appeal to prove their point. The audience of this editorial would be college students and the presidents also being faced with this decision. The purpose of their argument would be to convince others that the opposing view is wrong and that the drinking age should be lowered.

I believe that the drinking age should not be lowered because it would just cause further problems within our generation. One of their arguments was that binge drinking takes place because those who are underage want to rebel, well if you lower the drinking age to 18, then 16 year olds will be acting the same way. I think it would be ineffective and just cause more chaos. I believe if this should take place at all it should slowly be grandfathered in, dropping the drinking age in the culture we have today would be a terrible idea and cause many more problems that we already have.

Rebutal Pre-Writing

I think this topic of multiple biological parents will become more of an issue in the future with progressing scientific knowledge. Scientists discovered that my combining more than two parents DNA, disease carrying genes can be replaced with other genetic information. There are many issues today with serogant mothers and their rights to the children they carried. I believe that the rights belong to the parents who are intended to raise the child, but in these cases the same two parents donate the egg and sperm. In cases of multiple parents, the ones who raise the children should have the rights, the child would most likely not have one dad and two mothers raising them together. I liked this topic because it deals with science and moral issues that are somewhat controversial. Just because you have someone's DNA doesn't mean they should have the complete rights of you. In sperm banks, the fathers aren't seen as parents who have rights to their children, they didn't have anything to do with raising the child. Most scientists and psychologists believe that children are affected both by nature and nurture. Both have an influence on the child but, I think with multiple parents, nurture is more influential.

Link to Editorial

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/opinion/26tues3.html

This Editorial is called: A Legal Puzzle: Can a Baby Have Three Biological Parents?

It's about a monkey being genetically created with three parents, this decreases the changes of diseases. They believe this will be effective in humans and whether or not a human can have three, fractional, parents. I believe the parents are the ones who raise the child, not the genetic donors.

Editorials in the News

When looking around at different newspapers’ editorials you see a lot of the same topics. Many opinion pieces were based on politics, covering issues such as bills being passed, what Obama should be doing differently and opinions on the election in Massachusetts. Looking at the unemployment rate and creating more jobs is also very popular. These issues don’t interest me because I don’t personally have suggestions on what other ways these things can be taken care of, or other ways to deal with health care. Political issues bore me because I don’t have all of the information you need to make decisions and have opinions on these matters. Other popular issues deal with the Middle East and problems going on there, this too doesn’t spark my interest because I don’t keep up with these things. But, these are all things that I would like to learn more about and every time I read an editorial discussing them, I get an opinion on the problem or issue.

Some of the editorials that interested me were those dealing with the earthquake in Haiti, the climate crisis, the Tonight Show, education, scientific research and moral issues. The opinions on Haiti are mostly urging for more help and more commitment. Most suggest our own personal help and other or better ways the government can help. The climate crisis dealing with Global warming is also a popular topic; many editorials suggest bills to be passed and urging for support on these issues. They often use hard evidence to back up their claims and use emotions to make you agree with them. Those editorials on education are often about the cost of college and what needs to be done to reform education institutions. I also take an interest in more of ‘moral’ issues such as teen pregnancy and how to prevent the rising numbers. The issues that I am most interested in are ones that I have opinions on or knowledge about.

There are many ways to respond to these editorials such as to refute them by telling what’s wrong or to come up with an argument or other opinion also known as an opinion. I believe many of these issues call for a rebuttal rather than refuting their evidence because at that level most editors have true evidence.

The Little Mermaid: A Childhood Reflection

When I was younger my favorite movie was The Little Mermaid. I related a lot to the main character, Ariel, not only that we have red hair, but in her personality. This classic Disney movie was about a young girl who happened to be a mermaid but wanted to be a human. Ariel was the daughter of the sea king, and lived a “privileged” life. When Ariel goes to the surface against her Father’s wishes, she sees a ship and falls in love with one of the sailors. Ariel then cannot stop thinking about Eric and how much she would love to be a human, she learns of the Sea Witch, Ursula who can help her fulfill her dreams.
Ariel then gets a potion from Ursula to give make her human for three days, she must get the prince to fall in love with her or she will turn back into a mermaid. Eric then finds Ariel on the beach, but she is mute from trading Ursula her voice. Eric and Ariel begin to fall in love, but then a girl named Vanessa appears with Ariel’s voice, which is really Ursula. Ursula put a love spell on Eric which causes trouble in Ariel’s plan and the two plan to marry. Ariel then turns back into a mermaid and her life is devoted to Ursula. Triton, Ariel’s father, tries to save her from Ursula by sacrificing himself and giving Ursula his powers. She creates a whirlpool, which kills her in the end. Triton is turned back into a mermaid and he willingly transforms Ariel into a human, seeing her happiness. In the end Eric and Ariel get married and live on in the sequel.
Now looking back, I realize that I really liked this movie because it was very magical and enchanting as well as a love story. I loved the underwater imagery and all of the animal characters and of course, all of the songs. I loved seeing Ariel’s prospective of the real world, such as using a fork as a hairbrush. Watching the movie now, I still really enjoy it. I still remember all of the songs from when I was younger, and it still makes me happy. It is still very magical to me but now I look at it more logically and knowing that mermaids don’t really exist kind of takes the fun out of things. This movie would appeal to any young girl because it is a magical cartoon with very bright animation with talking animals and memorable songs. Now I see the meaning in this movie, I think that it is mostly about a girl transforming from a girl to a woman. Triton was always very protective of Ariel and had Flounder and Sebastian follow her. In the end he realizes that her happiness is most important and transforms her, himself, into a human to be with Eric. Ariel realized what she wanted and turning into a human and getting married was a major life change for Ariel.