The New York Times
March 6, 2008
Unknown author
"What the country needs is a uniform set of rules, based on the soundest research. That is the best way to keep teenage drivers, and everyone who shares the roads with them, safer." The author that wrote this article on driving age and drinking age laws was extremely biased. This can be seen in the quote above. He did not support the facts he wrote, like the fact that automobile accidents are the leading cause of death for fifteen to nineteen year olds, but he did state his opinion on what could be done to prevent this. He says that one way to reduce the risk of this happening is a graduated lisence which is phasing in of privileges for young drivers. Overall, this article is informative and biased, but I do not like the fact that the author never sites where he gets his information. He always starts sentences like "Research shows," or "While researchers know what works," and I would like to know who these researchers are and how they know this information. The article makes the reader doubt his information because of how he puts the point across.
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5 comments:
This article sounds like it was interesting and had some good points. Its sad that the author didn't cite his sources, it probably would have established him/her as a credible writer on this issue.
Things like this make me think of MADD and their often bias facts and incorrect statistics that they present in order to get laws changed to outrageous restrictions. Writers like this and MADD both have no real credibility, they just use bogus research and studies to support THEIR points, no matter if they are true or not. I agree that there needs to be some credibility.
The author should definitely consider citing his research. It is very important in establishing himself as a trustworthy writer. I think the author should have made an attempt to relate to teenagers, which would be the group most interested in the outcome of these decisions. However, his biased tone would not appeal to many teens.
While this is one of those topics that is very important to our society, I did not like the way that the author did not cite their sources. It made the author lose some credibilty because for all we know, his sources could have come from just about anywhere.
Teenagers new to driving is probably one of the most potentially dangerous things on the road besides drunk drivers. The combination of these things can be very deadly. I think the author of this article had a bad experience with a teenager driving and just wants to get his opinion heard. He probably just wants to help, even though this article was not well researched.
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