DL#4 HW#3

Research Proposal
Overview:
The research proposal I am interested in is how alcohol turns into abuse. I will look into how a person can turn casual drinking into dependency and what can happen after that. There are many different types of dangers that alcohol can bring that affect different people. I will research how alcohol affects the innocent and the people who are abusing it. I am interested in this because it seems that too many people are dependent on alcohol. I also chose this topic because it touches close to home and almost everyone deals with alcohol abuse sometime in their life.
Focused Research Question:
What are the dangers of drinking alcohol and when does it turn into abuse? I will research past my own family experiences and the obvious on what happens when people drink alcohol. How does it affect themself and others around them?
Controversial Discussion:
This topic is controversial because almost every person can relate. Everyone drinks alcohol sometime in their life and almost everyone knows someone with a problem. Everyone knows that drinking and driving is bad, but they all don't know what it can do to the body over time. If alcohol can cause deadly diseases just like other substances, the information needs to be widely spread.
Reflection on Experience:
My whole life I have known someone who is an alcoholic. As a child my dad was in and out of jail for drunk driving and my mom was always honest about why he was there. To this day my dad has never stopped drinking even though he has had his drivers license taken away twice. My parents got divorced when I was four years old because of his drinking habits. He would spend his whole paycheck on alcohol and countless other money. A few years later my mom married another alcoholic. The difference between the new husband was that after he was arrested once for drunk driving he quite for good. Now that I am older I understand what alcohol has done to my dad's life. A few months ago he was diagnosed with Hepatitis-C, the one that is caused from a diminshing liver. I know he will never quite drinking and he is killing himself by it everyday. It has hurt his family so much and he has two young sons (three and seven years old) who don't know a thing about his problem.
I just graduated high school and have friends who treat alcohol like they can't have fun without alcohol. I'm not exactly sure why there is such an attraction with underage drinking, but I think being underage has a lot to do with it. I think this attraction will only bring trouble down the road. By the time teens turn 21 they will already be used to drinking alcohol, and will go crazy since they can now legally drink.
Purpose:
My purpose in researching this topic is to learn how alcohol can damage the body and also hurt others. By writing on this topic I hope to educate my audience on the dangers of alcohol that can harm the body and others.
Perspective and Opinion:
I believe I know a lot of the dangers of drinking alcohol such as hurting/killing innocent people and themself by drunk driving, dependency, cirrhosis, Hep-C, poisoning, and birth defects. My opinion is that teens around my age view drinking as forbidden so they want it even more instead of just waiting until they are 21. Since many of the people in that group have that mindset they feel they needtodrink at every social gathering, yet aren't prepared for the consequences. I believe I have quite a bit of experience on how alcohol affects the family of alcoholics.
Audience:
My direct audience is the teacher and the students. My indirect audience is basically everyone, specifically teenagers. Everyone needs to know of the dangers of alcohol because sometime in their life they will experience alcohol abuse. Teenagers especially need to know of the dangers so they are aware and can make the right decisions.
Analysis of wants and needs of audience:
I think my audience wants to know how alcohol can affect a person's body long after drinking. What diseases can they get from drinking alcohol? Is each person different and how long must a person be drinking to get a disease? Is it healthy to drink while pregnant? I think teenagers want to know what will happen if they ever get caught drinking alcohol underage? What if they were driving while drunk? The audience also wants to read an interesting paper that they will retain information from, but not be bored while reading.
Analysis of limitations, opportunities and challenges:
There really isn't an opposing side. I've never heard anyone say it is okay to drink while drunk, or say alcohol isn't dangerous from time to time. There is tons of information out there about why alcohol is bad so I don't think I will have trouble finding enough research. I will have the opportunity to understand more on why it is hard for alcoholics to just stop drinking because that is something I do not understand.
Research Plan and Timeline:
Obviously I only have four weeks to complete this, but I don't really work well with planning things out. Since we have deadlines to work with I will just work on the parts that need to be done for that day. I feel better when I jus sit down and write, instead of planning outlines, even though I may feel overwhelmed. I have an idea of how I want the paper to be organized and will reseach that information as it fits into my paper. First I want to explain the diffent types of diseases and disorders, like cirrhosis and birth defects. Then I will go on to explain how alcohol abuse affects family and friends.