Tow 22 "Get real, lower drinking age to 19"

Underage drinking in America has skyrocketed recently and continues to be a growing problem. It is evident that something must be done but what could the solution be? In this article, William D. Conhan argues that the answer to this problem is to lower the national drinking age from 21 to 19. Although Conhan does provide numerous stats about college drinking, his hasty generalizations and faulty reasoning leave some gaping holes in his argument.

Conhan introduces his article with an allusion to an event that occurred eight years ago at Duke University where three male students were convicted of rape, sexual assault and kidnapping at a party that was filled with alcohol. Conhan concludes that the poor decision made by these three individuals was a result of the underage drinking and therefore national law should be changed to prevent instances like this from happening again. Although alcohol may have impaired their judgement, in this situation how can it be proven that alcohol was the sole cause of their actions and the students weren't just sick individuals to start with? In addition, the author seems to portray this isolated occurrence as something that happens to most people when drinking underage. This one example is not enough to convince the audience. Perhaps it would have been more effective to include stats on how underage drinking incidences like this have resulted in crimes instead of on the percentage of college students that drink underage.

Furthermore, Conhan's claim to his argument is that lowering the drinking age will make underage drinking less enticing and students will stop "lusting after the forbidden fruit of alcohol". However, the author does not follow up with any evidence or statistics and leaves the audience doubting. This is the main hole in the author's argument, especially because he can not validate any of his other minor arguments before defending his main argument.

Tow #21 "Factory meat, cruel and bad for us"

Today many people in America are advocating against factory produced meats and moving towards organic foods. In this article, Jane Velez-Mitchell, who has won three Genesis awards for reporting on animal issues argues that most of the world's most damaging problems are caused by the mistreatment of factory animals. Velez-Mitchell uses listing and stats from credible sources to persuade her audience to stop consuming these unhealthy animal products.

The article's organization makes the author's arguments easily visible to readers. By bolding and ordering her points in a list-like format, readers don't have to look for the arguments within her article and can quickly skim it to get the main idea. Velez-Mitchell declares that factory meat is responsible for the obesity crisis, the health care crisis, the country's deficit, natural disasters and hunger. By using a list, Velez-Mitchell is able to provide multiple examples because she only talks about each one briefly in a short, concise blurb. 

In addition to her superb organization, Velez-Mitchell packs each of her arguments with effective stats from credible sources. For example, she cites a study from The Journal of Economics that "the yearly costs of obesity are estimated to be as high as $190 billion a year" to emphasize the ridiculous costs that we put up with for eating obesity inducing factory meat. She also adds credibility to her argument by citing that "some of the smartest people in America from Bill Clinton to Bill Gates" are also protesting against our food system and searching for meat alternatives.

Through her use of statistics from credible sources and effective organization of the article, Velez-Mitchell convinces her audience of the detrimental side effects of factory meat and persuades them to stop buying these meats and target meat alternatives or a vegetable based diet instead.

Tow #20 General Foods' Post Toasties Ad

Breakfast serves as one of the most important meals of the day for families in America. Ready-to-eat cereal specifically ranks as one of the most popular choices for a nutritious breakfast. In this advertisement, General Foods avidly promotes their breakfast product Post-Toasties cereal as a superior cereal to other competing brands that everyone can enjoy. Through the use of symbolism and comparisons, General Foods effectively persuades consumers to buy Post-Toasties.

General Foods specifically aims to advertise Post-Toasties as a cereal that everyone in the family can enjoy, not just children to encourage adults even more to buy their product. Through symbolism, the picture in the middle represents the typical family of two parents and two children happily eating Post-Toasties cereal together in their backyard. The father holds up a spoonful of Post-Toasties cereal as the mother rings a triangles to call their children to come eat a Post-Toasties breakfast. Each of the family members has a speech bubble above their heads raving about the cereal such as “There’s a striking DIFFERENCE in corn flakes!” or “Post Toasties tops ‘em all...so fresh.... so crisp... so gland!”. One of the children exclaims that because the Post-Tens package offers 7 different types of Post-Toasties cereal, “everyone in the family can each have their particular favorite as often as they please” The image uses the bandwagon appeal by symbolizing what the “normal” American family eats for breakfast and implies that the consumer should be like the family in the picture and buy Post-Toasties cereal for their family.

To further distinguish their brand of cereal from any other brand, General Foods emphasizes that there’s actually “a real difference” in their cornflakes compared to other companies. The ad states that according to nation-wide tests, more and more people prefer their Post-Toasties corn flakes to any other corn flakes. What makes their product different, the company reiterates is their “post-toasting”, a process that easily separates them from the rest of the competing cereals. At the bottom of the ad, they even coin the phrase “Don’t say “Corn Flakes”- Say POST TOASTIES- the BETTER Corn Flakes!”

General Goods effectively advertises their Post Toasties cereal by using the bandwagon appeal to convince american families that all families eat their cereal and compares their cereal to other competing brands.

Tow #19 Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

So far in Mary Roach's book Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, she has described several of her numerous journeys with people whose ideas are most charitably described as unconventional, including  talking to a professor of obstetrics, going on a ghost hunting tape recording trip, and taking a "Fundamentals of Mediumship" course in England. Most of the people Roach talks about in Spook are more likely as she calls, "nutters". In these beginning chapters, Roach effectively communicates her journey to tackle the question of whether the afterlife exists to the audience with the use of her witty rhetorical questions, humor and dialogues of her encounters.

Roach's use of humor often integrated throughout the book with other rhetorical devices such as her wacky rhetorical questions she asks herself and the reader. In the chapter, The Large Claims of the Medium: Reaching out to the dead in a University of Arizona lab, Roach muses that dead people never seem to address the obvious things that the not-yet-dead are the most curious about such as "Hey, where are you now? What do you do all day? What's it feel like being dead? Can you see me? Even when I'm on the toilet? Would you cut that out?" With these ludicrous questions, Roach appeals to the audience by making them laugh with her absurd thought process but also connects to the readers by making them feel like she is having a personal conversation them by reflecting back to her thoughts at those exact moments.

To draw the audience even more into the experience, Roach frequently records the highlights of the dialogues that she has with interesting characters she meets. In the chapter You Again: A visit to the Reincarnation Roach records a conversation that a medium has with a ghost who asks it all sorts of bizzare questions from "What do you do every day?" to "what type of "body" do you have?"

With the amusing use of rhetorical questions and dialogues and her always present unique sense of humor, Roach is able to make her audience feel like they are participating in part of her crazy experience.

Tow #18 "Sochi Olympics TV moment: Shaun White's loss is NBC gain"

During the Winter Olympics every four years, snowboarding is without a doubt one of the most highly anticipated events. All eyes were on Shaun White yesterday as he tried to land his third consecutive gold medal in the Sochi Games. However, not only did White drop one of his snowboarding events, he failed to medal in the halfpipe and received fourth place to the disappointment of many. In this Latimes article, Steven Zeitchik writes about the events leading up to this important moment, and the effect it has on the TV channel broadcasting it, NBC. Through the use of repetition and short syntax, Zeitchik effectively recaps the events and argues that Shaun White's loss benefitted NBC's ratings.

To introduce the last nights events to the audience, Zeitchik unravels the story with anaphoras. He begins each paragraph with the phrase "even if" to suggest that yesterdays halfpipe, just like every year is always one of the most anticipated competitions of the year regardless of the unforeseeable events that occurred during it. He then contrasts this past certainty of the event, with this years twist of events- whether White would be able to win the gold medal again? This uncertainty or "doubtful ending", Zeitchik explains is what will give NBC a finale filled with anticipation and excitement, and rake in millions of watchers and ratings.

Zeitchik's writing mirrors the tension of the half pipe event that kept the audience on the edge of their seats through the use of short syntax that created a dramatic, tone. Sentences are split into short phrases through the use of commas and dashes, creating a sense of urgency. He writes, "through the disappointment, through the strained facial muscles, through the gritted teeth, he smiled". The terse pauses in between the phrases dramatizes the situation as the scene unfolds to the audience.

Zeitchik not only effectively uses repetition and short syntax to create a dramatic tone and build up the anticipation through his article, he also is able to provide a convincing argument on how NBC benefitted from White's loss. He concludes the article with a note of uncertainty mentioned in the beginning of his writing "even if", suggesting that the Olympics hype is not yet over and there is more to come.

IRB #3 Intro Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife is written by Mary Roach, a New York Times bestseller, 2003 Barnes and Nobles Discover Great Writers pick, one of Entertainment Weekly's Best Books of 2003 and other numerous awards. After reading her book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers I realized that I really enjoyed it and wanted to read another book in her series. In Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife, Roach explores the topic of the afterlife and takes the readers through a scientific exploration on whether there is a soul that survives death. I'm interested to see whether she ends up proving or disproving the theory of life after death through her research.

Tow #18 "When Pedestrians Get Mixed Signals"

In the NYTimes article "When Pedestrians Get Mixed Signals" Tom Vanderbilt explores the topic of jaywalking and whether the pedestrians or drivers should take the blame for the accidents that result. He argues that the pedestrians should not be blamed for jaywalking. Instead, through the use of citations, stats, and anecdotes, Vanderbilt claims that better walking infrastructure, slower car speeds and more pedestrians will increase the safety of the pedestrian and decrease the need for jaywalking. Vanderbilt introduces his article by explaining why enforcement and education about jaywalking is not working. He presents a counterargument by citing a Los Angeles police officer who says, "We're heavily enforcing pedestrian violences because they're impending traffic and causing too many accidents and deaths". Vanderbilt refutes the idea aggressive enforcement, by pointing out that the rules for jaywalking vary greatly between states and internationally and the lack of constancy is confusing for pedestrians. Jaywalking in Canada, Spain, Poland, Singapore and Australia is considered a harsh offense but in Scandinavia and Britain is not considered a big deal. In addition, he provides a general stat that attempts at educating teenage driving films and seat belt usage awareness campaigns have barely had an impact on lowering teen accident deaths. Vanderbilt then explains that he personally jaywalks with his daughter frequently because he feels it is safer then following the pedestrian light. "..the times we came closest to being hit by cars were when we had the "Walk" signal and a driver attempted to make a turn". Finally, Vanderbilt makes a claim of policy and urges that “rather than punishing people for opting out of the system, a more effective approach is to opt in”. He argues that pedestrians are more likely to cross against the signal if lights exist to tell them how long the wait is and encourages cities to be proactive by installing these lights for pedestrians.