Does anyone have time to read over an article and help me identify any fallacies or rhetoric.

Google "We could, for example, save lives by denying drivers' licenses to those over 65, but we do not" (without quotes) and click on the De-Demonizing Rum: What's wrong with 'underage' drinking? - legal ...

I have been struggling with this article and could use all the help I can get.

Thanks

I've skimmed that article and will be happy to discuss it with you. In my opinion, the author is way off-base in his reasoning that we should lower the drinking age. He's ignored many of the reasons for setting the legal age at 21. And it's ridiculous to equate the judgment of those ove 65 with those under 18.

I don't know which list of fallacies and rhetorical devices you're using, but this site may help you.

http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/fallacies.html

When you've found some of the fallacies, please post your ideas, and I'll be glad to discuss them with you.

Anonymous -- or Josh -- I deleted your last message because it contains your email address. In order to keep our board safe for everyone, we do not allow email addresses to be posted.

We are all volunteers here in the Jiskha forum and do not accept paid tutoring jobs. You might try one of the "Experts" linked at the top or one of our paid sponsors, such as Tutor.com. Another source of help for you would be someone in your local area recommended by your school.

In the meantime, we'll be happy to help you "for free" on this board. But we do expect you to make as much effort as we tutors do.

Another suggestion.

Read two of the descriptions of fallacies in either your text materials or the site I recommended. Then, reread the article carefully to see if you can find examples of those two fallacies.

Repeat with two more fallacies and so on until you've gone through the entire list.

Then, post a few of the fallacies you found, quoting the exact words from the article that you believe are examples of those fallacies.

After reading through the article, I found several fallacies. The first one I found was the Straw Man fallacy in "It is a ludicrous and demeaning..." Would "...Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission's sting operations (Make your kid a snoop!)..." be an example of another fallacy? If so which kind?

Am I missing some?

Can you help me with finding rhetoric?

Here's the link to your article. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_12_53/ai_75333113

Your example of the straw man fallacy doesn't really illustrate this fallacy. The straw man fallacy uses an opponent's argument and then knocks it down. I don't see any good examples of straw man fallacy in this article.

Your examples have more to do with rhetoric (diction and tone) -- using inflammatory words than with fallacies. I'm sure you can find many examples of prejudicial use of tone and diction.

Let's look at the "weak analogy" fallacy. This author compares people over 65 who are automobile drivers with people under 21 who drink alcohol.

How about the "appeal to authority" fallacy? The author cites his presumably wise parents for allowing him to drink when he was younger. Who can argue with "wise parents?"

You have a good start. Keep studying this article for more examples.

Do you have any suggestions in how to identify rhetoric?

Look at the author's choice of words. Are they emotional or factual?

Look at the author's tone. Is he angry, happy, persuasive, passive?

Does this sound correct?

“For the most striking thing of all about the minimum drinking age of 21 is how unsuccessful it has been” (Stuttaford, 2004). Along with the rest of the article, this quote is evidence that the author is biased towards eliminating or lowering the minimum legal drinking age.

Would this be an example of moral reasoning?

“Parents, not bureaucrats, are the best judges of how and when their offspring should be permitted to drink” (Stuttaford, 2004).