IMRaD

IMRaD Report

Lowering the legal drinking age in the U.S. to 18

Abstract

Many views on lowering the drinking age to 18 and how it can reduce many unnecessary risks and problems related to underage drinking in the U.S. have grown recently. To study this 5 people from each age group from 17-20, 21-30, 31-45, and 46+ were questioned on whether or not they think the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18. This research shows that overall people do not believe that the legal drinking age should be lowered by 2 votes. This suggests that not as many people agree with lowering the drinking age as were predicted.

Introduction

Research from the early 1980s until the present has shown a continuous decrease in drinking and driving related variables which has parallel the nation's, and also university students, decrease in per capita consumption. However, these declines started in 1980 before the national 1987 law which mandated states to have 21 year old alcohol purchase laws (Ruth C. Engs). Since the drinking age has been 21 there have been many dangerous problems related with underage drinking. The views of people living in the U.S. from the ages of 17 and up and whether or not they agree with the current drinking age is not very clear and collecting these results will help get a better understanding of what our U.S. citizens want.

Method

Participants: 20 people living in the U.S. were asked their view on lowering the drinking age. 5 from each age group from 17-20, 21-30, 31-45, and 46 and up.

Procedure: Each participant was simply asked a set of questions that show their points of view on the current drinking age. Each participant was asked

1.     If they think the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18.

2.     If they agree with the current legal drinking age.

3.     If they think the legal drinking age should be raised from 21.

Results

Table 1 shows that actually when taking the public’s opinion into consideration people who don’t agree with lowering the legal drinking age to 18 outweigh the people that agree. Out of 20 participants, 11 of them did not agree with lowering the legal drinking age, and only 9 actually believed that it should be lowered.

                        Table1:

Age Group	Agree with lowering drinking age	Disagree with lowering drinking age
17-20	4	1
21-30	2	3
31-45	2	3
46+	1	4

Discussion

This study shows that even with all of the troubles and abuse of alcohol consumption by under aged young adults more people believe that the legal drinking of 21 should not be lowered to 18. These participants were not informed of the common problems that occur with the drinking age being above 18. It is possible that if these participants would’ve been informed of these problems that they may have changed their views. This study is also only limited to a small group of 20 participants which isn’t a very large group when wanting to consider the outlooks of the people living in the U.S. Further research in other states and regions in the U.S. would bring in much more data in places all over the U.S. to create more accurate data.

Works Cited

 Engs, Ruth C. (1997, 2014). Why the drinking age should be lowered: An opinion based upon research. Indiana University: Bloomington, IN. Retrieved from IUScholarWorks 

Research Questions

1.) Do you think the legal drinking age should be lowered to 18?
a. - strongly agree
b. - agree
c. - disagree
d. - strongly disagree

2.) Do you agree with the current legal drinking age of 21?
a. - strongly agree
b. - agree
c. - disagree
d. - strongly disagree

3.) Do you think the legal drinking age should be raised?
a. - strongly agree
b. - agree
c. - disagree
d. - strongly disagree

4.) What age group do you fall under?
a.) - 17-20
b.) - 21-30
c.) - 31-45
d.) - 46+

Two Topic Questions

1. Should College-Athletes be paid?

• about 5-10 college students, get their feedback on the topic

    2. Should the legal drinking age be lowered to 18?

• 5-10 young adults around the age of 18
• 5-10 adults 21 or older

IMRaD differences

This assignment is different from the research paper that we did in several ways. For IMRaD you must develop and use your own research by interviewing others on a specific topic and use the information I collect from them to configure this paper. This report will also be much shorter than the lengthy research paper. Instead of using data and research from others I will be creating and using my own research for this paper.

Reflection on Remediation

I'd say that the biggest problem I had with my remediation of my research paper was trying to fit the research paper into the power point that I made to re mediate the paper. At first I was putting several sentences on each slide but after we discussed it in class I shortened the sentences up into a few bullet points to help me regulate my voice over. The voice over for my power point made it much easier to explain my research paper to the audience. The pictures I added to most of the slides also made it a lot easier to portray my research paper through the power point and helped to keep the audiences attention as well. I used the same citations that were I used for my research paper but added a few for my pictures and video that I put on my power point.

Media Design for Remediation

I plan on creating a power point to re mediate my research paper. Shortening up the lengthy paper and giving it some color and adding visuals will help the audience to get more into the topic and help them really understand what the main point is. I think this is probably the best idea for re mediating my paper because it wont bore the audience and wont be too busy to confuse the audience either, it should be the right amount of information and visual aid to help bring the paper to life and keep the audience interested.

Remediation

I think I'm leaning towards using a power point to re-mediate my  research paper on whether or not college athletes should be payed. For all the information that takes up the majority of my research paper I think it would be best to make a power point to liven up the paper and make it a lot more interesting than just a bunch of words.