Student name: Loi Thang Pham
Instructor name: Brandon Alva
Class: E 1010
Textual Rhetorical Analysis Paper (Final)
Should the drinking age be lower?
What is eighteen? Is it just a number? Turning eighteen in America earns you a lot of
freedoms that on the surface seem equal to, if not greater than, drinking a beer. Youth will have a
right to be independent, a right to vote or even to buy their own houses. However, they cannot
buy or drink alcohol because the legal drinking age is twenty-one. In the article of Ruth C. Engs,
Professor, “Should the drinking age be lowered to 18 or 19?”, she argues that the legal drinking
age should be lowered to about eighteen or nineteen in control environments with educational
programs and drinking behavior. Moreover, Ruth C. Engs effectively convinces her audiences of
her purpose because she manipulates the emotions of the reader by using skillfully both logos
and ethos, and she also used intelligent concessions in order to make her readers believe her
argument.
Engs' is very successful in convincing people “should the legal drinking age be
lowered.” Her article is very interesting, and I read it on the website of Indiana University
Bloomington. The article was written for anyone interested in young adults and drinking,
especially lawyers who can change our current prohibition law so that they will change their
mind about the legal drinking age after reading this article. The United States has tried
prohibition legislation twice for controlling irresponsible drinking problems. This was during
National Prohibition in the 1920s and state prohibition during the 1850s (Engs). However, these
laws were finally revoked, and today we are repeating history and making the same mistakes.
Engs’s article is well organized with her thesis being the first line of text. Then, she lists
some supporting details which affect her claim, “the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18
or 19.” She emphasized the legal drinking age should be lowered to about 18 and 19; however,
Youth should be allowed to drink in controlled environments such as restaurants, taverns, pubs,
official schools and university functions (Engs). Besides, the drinkers should be taught through
educational programs. In Ruth C. Engs’s article, her argument gave some evidence to support its
own thesis by logos like using some examples of statistics so that the author can compare the
differences between the rate before having prohibition legislation and the rate after having
prohibition legislation. In addition, the author also used ethos in her article by using some
reliable research in order to make her argument more and more effective.
After showing the author’s argument “the legal drinking should be lowered to 18 or 19,”
the author skillfully used ethos in order to make her article more reliable and trusted. The author
said “This opinion is based upon research that she has been involved in for over twenty years
concerning college age youth and the history of drinking in the United States and other cultures.”
This detail is very effective to make people believe her argument, because her article is based on
her research for over twenty years and the history of drinking in the U.S. and other cultures.
along a with that, Engs also used research from the early 1980s until the present to show her
audiences that a continuous decrease in drinking and driving problems and decrease in per capita
consumption started in 1980 before the national 1987 law which mandated states to have 21 year
olds for the legal drinking age. The ethos, which the author used through the research from the
early 1980s until the present, was used very effectively because it convinces her audiences to
believe that decrease in drinking and driving problems and in per capita consumption occurred
before the national 1987 law which mandated states to have 21 years old alcohol purchase laws.
Not only using the ethos appeals in the article, Ruth C. Engs also used the logos appeal
by using statistics in order to make her argument in the article more logical. For example, after
the author talked about “an increase in other problems related to heavy and irresponsible
drinking among college and youth,” she showed her audiences some statistics to determine her
claim. From 1982 until after the 21 year olds law in 1987, about 46% of students reported
“vomiting after drinking” jumped to over 50% after the law change. It means “vomiting after
drinking” increases 4% after the law change. In addition, “cutting class after drinking jumped
from 9% to 12%, and it increased 3%”. “Getting lower grade because of drinking” rose from 5%
to 7%, and it increased 2%. Besides, “been in a fight after drinking” increased from 12% to 17%,
and it increased 5%. All of these behaviors are indices of irresponsible drinking. These statistics,
which the author used in her article, are absolutely effective because her audiences can see some
problems of the 21 years old law change, and they also believe Ruth C. Engs’s argument “the
legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 or 19.”
In order to convince people to believe Engs’s argument “the legal drinking age should be
lowered to 18 or 19,” the author not only used logos and ethos appeals but also used the
concession in her article. The argument, which the author gave in her article, is “the legal
drinking age should be lowered to 18 or 19”; however, after showing her argument in the first
paragraph of the article, Ruth C. Engs said that “although the legal purchase age is 21 years of
age, a majority of college students under this age consume alcohol but in an irresponsible
manner.” It seems to be the author did not agree with her own argument that is people should
drink in controlled environments, and she continuously explained the reasons “why a majority of
college students under this age consume alcohol in irresponsible manner”. However, after not
agreeing with her own argument, the author showed her audiences the truth that people have
tried prohibition legislation twice in the past, but these laws were finally repealed. Now, I
realized the author was using the concession in her argument. First, she gave her argument “the
legal drinking age should be lowered to 18 or 19”. Then, she did not agree with her own
argument, and she also explained “why people should not lower the legal drinking” because of
showing an irresponsible manner in consumption of the Youth. Finally, she used a reliable
historical example to determine and confirm her argument “the legal drinking age should be
lowered to 18 or 19” is true. The concession, which Ruth C. Engs used in this article, is very
intelligent and effective because it makes the emotions of her audiences fluctuate seriously, and
it also emphasizes and confirms the author’s argument is true.
When reading Engs’ article, I think it is very interesting and attractive. The author’s
audiences are attracted by her article because her argument “the legal drinking age should be
lowered to about 18 or 19” is very interesting. Besides, the author convinces her audiences very
well by using rhetorical appeals and concession in her article. Moreover, the word choices and
stylistic choices, which the author used to make in her argument, are very effective. When the
author explained “why a majority of college students under 21 years old consume alcohol in
irresponsible manner”, she used some interesting words like “forbidden fruit” and a symbol of
“adulthood.” “forbidden fruit” is the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden
of Eden, often pictured as an apple, which God forbade Adam and Eve to eat. Moreover,
“forbidden fruit” is used commonly to refer to anything that is tempting but potentially
dangerous and comparing the alcohol with the image of “forbidden fruit” very interesting. The
author wants to show her audiences that alcohol is very attractive and it is a symbol of
“adulthood.” The author knows college students under 21 years old always believes they will be
look great when they drink alcohol. Moreover, the author also knows that if people have a lot of
prohibition legislation for controlling irresponsible drinking problems, the consumption of
alcohol of college students under 21 years old will increase rapidly because alcohol is “forbidden
fruit”. Ruth C. Engs emphasized we do not need to forbid the youth in drinking alcohol, but we
need to educate them about drinking behaviors.
Work Cited
Engs, Ruth C. "Why the Drinking Age Should Be Lowered: An Opinion Based Upon
Research" Indiana University. 20 Mar. 1998. 19 July 2010.
<http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/articles/cqoped.html>.