Rhetorical Analysis: The Fight against College Alcohol Abuse
How does a college student’s life on campus affect the actual purpose of going to college? Many would agree that the purpose of going to college is to further education andto become successful in the future. But going to college is a lot more than just learning especially, for many freshmen and other students who would like to enjoy the freedom that comes from living on their own for the first time away from the vigilant eyes of their parents or guardians. The college experience comes with a life of its own filled with social events, rallies, and partying. Actually, there are many lists online that rank the nation’s top “party schools,” schools that are indeed famous for that. When you go to a college party you almost always find alcohol, but the truth is that alcohol is easily accessible on most college campuses. In her article, “The Fight Against Alcohol Abuse,” Melissa Parsons takes alcohol use to a different level, arguing that it has now become an epidemic we should worry about. She calls this phenomenon alcohol “abuse” rather than simply alcohol “usage” and points out that there should be more done to create some sort of a balance. In order to persuade her audience, Parsons’ uses various rhetorical strategies such as exemplification, cause and effect, and word repetition.
Evidently, Parsons’ makes it clear that college drinking isn’t a new problem, but one that has become an even bigger one. She uses studies of different college campuses that show that alcohol abuse is a significant contributing factor to academic problems. She states that binge drinking is also a problem for students that do not binge-drink, yet still face the secondary effects of alcohol abuse. Thus, alcohol abuse affects everyone not just the drinker. Even though the dangers of alcohol abuse affect mostly the drinker, her article is directed towards everyone involved. These include the parents, other students, and faculty of the colleges. A lot of activist groups like the Alcohol Coalition have taken initiatives to help students make healthier choices. In her opinion, therefore, everyone needs to work together to find a way to end alcohol abuse on college campuses. However, this way of life is deeply rooted in the culture so it is hard to come undone.
The most effective and most used rhetorical strategy that Parsons’ displays in her article is exemplification. Exemplification is the use of statistics and facts added to an argument. Parsons’ article is loaded with lots of case studies, surveys, facts and statistics. For example, she uses a prestigious college’s, Harvard School of Public Health, findings on fraternity and sorority members, “4 out of 5 of those living in fraternity or sorority houses were “binge drinkers””. This type of information that combines an authoritative source and an alarming statistic drives home the idea of the seriousness and how common the issue really is. Similarly, another study found that “alcohol was involved in 90% of all sexual assaults and date rapes on campus,” bringing to the reader’s attention the magnitude of the problem and how it can affect relations between male and female students. As stated above, this specific quote also provides the reader with evidence that alcohol abuse does not only affect the drinker, but also those around them. Because exemplification relies on evidence and facts, it has a logical appeal, logos.
Another rhetorical strategy used numerous times throughout Parsons’ article is cause and effect anaylsis. A cause and effect anaylsis anaylzes why something happens and describes the consequences of a cord of events. Her very first sentence is a cause and effect anaylsis, “Causing approximately 50 deaths from drinking each year and many more hospitializations from poisoning or related accidents, alcohol remains the top health risk to college students.” By using this eye-catching cause and effect, Parsons does a pheneomenal job attracting the reader to her article. Also this anaylsis strengthens her argument because it brings up the frequency of alcohol related accidents and because of this frequency it has remained the biggest health concern for college students. So what is the effect of alcohol abuse besides the sad endings with of hospitlizations, drunk driving and even death? Another important cause and effect anaylsis Parsons’ addresses is “…administrators across the country are taking steps to attack the problem head on. Many universities are establishing alchohol- free housing policies primarily to ensure the health and safety of their students.” This issue has become such a problem that administrators are dealing with it in an extreme way. This particularly adds that yes, there is something being done, but it is actually by someone else involved. It reassures that steps need to be taken by everyone to resolve this issue. Now the reader has hope, all those incidents related to alcohol are now causing some type of change to fix the problem. The cause and effect analysis in this article relates to pathos, an emotional appeal. Like I mentioned, she has many examples of what alcohol abuse leads to which causes the reader, especially her particular audience, to feel weary, sad and in shock by how much this is effecting our college campuses and then happy that there are activists taking intiative to end this.
The last rhetorical strategy found in this article that has to be the most interesting is word repetition. Word repetition is the constant use of specific words to help persuade a reader. Parsons’ choice of repetition was of the term “binge-drinking” or “binge-drinkers”. Binge drinking means a person is consuming an excessive amount of alchohol that may lead them to become heavily intoxicated. She uses the word “binge” numerous times in her essay. This supports her argument extremely because we now see that it is not social drinking, but rather in fact these students are getting heavily intoxicated. This gives the reader a whole different vibe. If she had just continually used drinking or just alchohol usage, it wouldn’t have seemed to be as problematic as it really is. The repetition of binge drinking appeals to pathos. It shows the reader how the serious the drinking is and gives them a different outlook on what is actually going on.
Altogether the use of exemplification, word repetition and cause and effect anaylsis indeed help deliver this argument home. The use of facts and statistics never can fail because it is solid hard evidence. She ties this to her opinion to end the abuse and it is successful. Word repetition creates a specific emotional appeal to her audience because of the fact that this effects our own family members and friends. They are the ones who are binge drinking . It isn’t just an isolated part of a community. It is happening nationwide on many college campuses. Her cause and effect anaylsis introduces activism. This is important to her argument because now the audience can see that it is such a huge issue and there are measures being taken to end it. The mix of pathos and logos heavily supports her argument.
Michelle Parsons really does a great job in getting her point across. She addresses the problem throughout the essay and even went an extra step to show the activism taking place. Furthermore, the use of rhetoric in her writing is excellent. Anybody reading this article will know that the author has really done her research on the topic. More importantly, along with all the facts and statistics, she engages the audience emotionally. The people who are binge drinking are our daughters, sons, relatives, students, and friends. Automatically, this becomes a problem for everyone involved because these aren’t strangers.When your friend, son, daughter, cousin, or student decides to go away to college, alcohol abuse should be a huge concern, especially when they are conducting internet searches on the nation’s top party schools then wanting to apply there.
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