Final Reflection

The blogs that I did in this class were very helpful to me. I think that the biggest help that it gave me was it helped me to stay organized. Instead of just having a bunch of random information, I was able to write them down in the form of a blog that enabled me to reference them in the future when I needed them for the paper I was writing. The blogs also helped to enhance my writing skills more than just simply writing an essay. Rather than having to be proper and formal in my writing all the time, it allowed me to write more personally and really get into the things I was writing about.

The entries for the final project are the ones that I am most proud of writing this year. I felt that I was able to utilize the blog to its full potential and use it the way it was designed to be used. It also showed me how using hyperlinks to bookmark the articles I need was important and how well it allowed me to be organized. I was able to simply go back to my blog and connect instantly to the website rather than having to look all over the place to find the exact article again. I think that the blogs could be more effective if students were giving a more specific rubric to follow when writing on them. It was hard for me to write when there was such a broad range to write about. Changing this would make the blogs more interesting and the effort to do them would be greater.

Introduction

In the United States, 1 out of every 3 people that drink is under the legal drinking age. This is a very serious issue that we as a nation are facing. If these drinking trends continue, the alcohol problem will only increase over time. The biggest concern with alcohol is that it is a gateway drug that can lead to the use of other drugs. However, there are different steps that can be taken by our government to at least lessen this problem, but they must be used soon. The most obvious idea to me would be to lower the drinking age down to 18 rather than the 21 age that it is now. Another solution would be to give a drinking “permit” to high school students to teach them how to drink responsibly. These resolutions can make a major impact on our culture and save it from becoming worse than it already is.


Should I put more specific details in the intro or does it give a good overall feel for the essay? Is the idea of putting both sides, whats the harm of alcohol and solutions to it, a good decision?

Solution to teen drinking problem?

When looking for ways to reduce the amount of teen drinking in the US, there are not very many options open. The regular punishments that are received by violators are doing little to nothing to deter the teen drinking. The lowering of the drinking age is still the best choice in my opinion, but other scientists have come up with a new "solution" to the problem.

Leading scientist Dr. Roderic B. Park has been researching a new method to stop the abuse of alcohol by underage kids. He believes that if teens were given a "liquor permit" it would keep them from overusing alcohol. He thinks that the reason for the abuse is that kids are not educated enough about the drastic effects that alcohol can have so they are unprepared for the consequences. The liquor permit would educate them on how to properly consume alcohol without endangering their own lives as well as the lives of others.

When this liquor permit was experimented with in Boulder, Colorado, there was a drastic change in behavior by the college students. Accidents and drinking violence dropped to less than half of the previous levels they had been at as well as the attitudes of the fraternities and sororities. Because these teens would introduced to and allowed to use the alcohol before they went off to college, they were much more aware of the consequences that they would face if they abused their alcohol privileges. They became safer drinkers rather than the inexperienced ones at most universities.

There are a few downsides to this proposal as in most cases. It is feared that advertising may use this new permit to their advantage and begin to target younger audiences in the alcohol ads. As serious as this is, it could be prevented if the advertising companies were simply censored or told they were not allowed to. Also, this permit would completely change our alcohol culture, which means it would take time before it became entirely effective, But I believe that it is a step in the right direction to getting teen drinking to a safe level.