Binge Drinking Must Be Stopped

Thesis: Although Henry Wechsler and Froma Harrop condemn the issue of binge drinking among students and agree on its negative effects, they suggest different solutions to tackle it in different manner. However, Wechsler's article appears to me to be more convincing than Harrop's due to a variety of reliable evidence, his high standing in the academic community, and persuasive rhetoric, and the fact that Harrop's position does not fit my personal opinion.

Audience: Vesalius professors and students

Purpose: is to compare and contrast two articles: "Binge Drinking Must be Stopped" written by Henry Wechsler and "Child Care for Colleges Students" written by Froma Harrop to decide which is more convincing.

Reasons of using a particular organization

I structure the essay by using mix of block and point-to-point organization. In the point-to-point organization, I use one paragraph to highlight the similarities between the two texts due to the small number of points. Then, in the block organization, I demonstrate differences by using two paragraphs to analyze Wechsler's text and the next two ones for Harrop's text in the same order. This is because I would like to maintain the whole picture of each article while contrasting them.

Comparison and Contrast

Although Henry Wechsler and Froma Harrop condemn the issue of binge drinking among students and agree on its negative effects, they suggest different solutions to tackle it in different manner. However, Wechsler's article appears to me to be more convincing than Harrop's due to a variety of reliable evidence, his high standing in the academic community, and persuasive rhetoric, and the fact that Harrop's position does not fit my personal opinion.

There are three notable similarities between the two articles. First of all, both authors acknowledge the existence of the excessive drinking issue at universities and colleges and disagree with it. For example, Wechsler claims that there is "a high rate of binge drinking and a wide range of problems associated with this behavior" and it is "a reality of college in America." Similarly, Harrop states that binge drinking such as quaffing five glasses of Jim Beam in five minutes is like driving of bridges or swallowing goldfish. Secondly, they both agree that the issue can lead to dramatic, grievous consequences such as alcohol poisoning, accidents and death. For instance, Wechsler quoted the specific death of Scott Krueger. Similarly, Harrop mentions that there might have been six college students died from the same cause. Finally, they both argue their points of view within two short journalistic articles.

Despite some similarities, there are many significant differences. Wechsler is the director of the College Alcohol Studies Program at the Harvard School of Public Health. Approaching binge drinking problem on many college campuses, he argues that it must be forbidden. This is due to tragic outcomes such as alcohol poisoning or death resulted from it according to a survey conducted at 140 colleges and universities. One specific example he quotes is the death of Scott Krueger, a first-year student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology due to alcohol poisoning resulted from overindulgent drinking. Then, he examines the causes of the problem. Although it is partly due to the students themselves, he claims that the main causes come from college authorities in the sense that they do not take proper action to stop the problem. This is because they are oblivious to it; they do not take responsibility when it occurs off campus; they do not enforce the policy effectively. Therefore, he suggests a need for greater coordination and prompt action among college presidents, administrators, students, local authorities and community.

Wechsler addresses not only the Boston Globe's readers but also college presidents, administrators, students, parents, community licensing board, fraternities and alcohol outlets. Putting himself in loco-parentis, he convinces his audience to ban overindulgent drinking by taking immediate, proper actions cooperatively. In order to make his arguments persuasive, he employs a variety of reliable evidence such as the survey; the specific example of one student's death; statistics such as "86 percent of college students drink"; the way to track down binge drinking parties such as by riding with a security van on