PB1B

• Part 1: Think about a public argument that you’d like to make for WP1. What issues do you care about what? What would you like to advocate for or against, and why?

Coming from a background where there is barely any limitation on legal drinking age, I was surprised that Americans are not allowed to drink until the age of 21. Speaking from personal experience, I don’t think drinking at a relatively early age, maybe started from 18, has that much of an impact on teenagers. In that regard, I am going to argue for this case, which I think the U.S can lower its drinking age from 21 to a younger age.

• Part 2: Looking ahead to WP1, you’ll need to write a Letter to the Editor (actually two of them!). Take a look back at the 3 examples that you collected for PB1A.  What “moves” (decisions, techniques, or strategies) did these writers made which you’d like to consider using in some way for your WP1 assignment.
• Personal Anecdote: the easiest way to approach the audience so that they can relate to the event
• Call to the action at the end: to once again draw people’s attention to the issue. Practical solutions also add on to the persuasiveness.
• Raising question: questioning the decision behind this event.
• Reference to famous people( if possible)
• Restating the historical facts
• Repeating sentence structure
• E.g: For decades...
• List out the harms  of marijuana (Your topic, if it has one) or maybe the benefits of your topic

• Part 3: Evaluate these three Letters to the Editor: Who do you think wrote the best LTE, and why?  What “didn’t work” and why? As you answer these questions, think about the intended audience of each piece.

I think Samsom, the author of “The 24-hour study spot: a preamble to student protest”, wrote the best LTE. Moves he made are effective in terms of building up connections with the audience, reasonable questions, and follow-up solutions. It is an overall comprehensive LTE that follows the structure of concerns, rebuttal, explanations, evidence and solutions. The audience can easily catch up with the author’s idea. Moreover, since the letter addressed a school-related issue, Samsom decided to use an example from a student to further illustrate his point, and the audience will tend to support actions that speak for them.

As to the rest of the letters, I did understand their concerns, but I didn’t feel the urgency to necessarily act on it or even to be involved. Maybe it is because I am not the target audience, but they both need more solid evidence to back off their argument, especially when they are discussing a big topic like Working-class.