Ejemplo de ensayo argumentativo en inglés sobre las conductas de riesgo y la sociedad
Here is an example of an argumentative essay in English about risky behavior and American society.
Every day people take risks. Driving a car to work in the morning is a risk the average person takes daily without thinking about the consequences. Many different forms of risk exist such as physical, financial, and social risks. The United States of America has been made possible by the risks the forefathers of the nation took. American society today may take risks that societies in the past would never have taken and vice versa. Can anybody say that Americans are getting riskier in their behavior? This is the question writer William Dowell argues in his article. In William Dowell’s article, “Life on the Edge,” he supports the argument that American society has been captivated by risk-taking by using several one sided examples; the information Dowell presents is debatable, which makes his point of view difficult to agree with.
In order to provide evidence for his belief that American society is full of risk-takers, Dowell uses comments from so-called experts like Johnathan Senk to show that extreme sports are gaining popularity in America. He tries to prove this by talking to expert risk-takers about why they take these risks and how they feel while doing them. Former Army Ranger Senk’s own words emphasize how he feels about participating in extreme sports: “Every time I’m out doing this I’m searching my soul; it’s the Lewis and Clark gene to venture out, to find what your limitations are” (Dowell 461). Senk’s comments do not provide adequate evidence because his opinion is slanted. Senk, a former soldier, does adventure racing, which requires climbing, rappelling, rafting, and surviving because he enjoys it, and it makes him feel alive; his view does not represent a majority of America. Dowell puts this in the article to sway readers to believe that many people in American society today feel the same way; however, this is not the case. Only several hundred people take part in the grueling competition that is adventure racing, so it does not affect American society as a whole.
Dowell tries to build credibility for his argument about risk and America by introducing concepts and quotes from educated people like Psychologist Frank Farley of Temple University. Dowell brings in Farley to provide some knowledge about physical and intellectual risk taking personalities. Farley discusses how each Type T personality of a risk taker is similar. Dowell quotes Farley saying, “there is a direct link between Einstein and BASE jumper Chance McGuire” (Dowell 460). This quote of Farley’s statement comparing McGuire, a BASE jumper, to Albert Einstein, an important historical figure, is slightly far-fetched. Dowell includes this quote to show that risks were taken even by history’s most highly regarded people; however, the comparison does not justify his belief about American risk. Chance McGuire is a man who enjoys jumping off of high places because it gives him his fix of adrenaline; he does not provide society with anything beneficial. Albert Einstein took risks to further the field of science; he won awards and is remembered by most people as a genius, and how Farley can even begin to compare the two is rather absurd. Dowell’s inclusion of this comparison shows that he lacks solid substantial, logical evidence, so he is forced to stretch a comment given by Farley in order to make it seem relevant. Dowell fails to build credibility for his argument by using this rather weak example.
Dowell also tries to use another example of risk, unprotected sex, as a way to ensure readers that his argument about risk is valid. Dowell attempts to use the risk involved in unprotected sex to back up his point about risk in American society; however, the way he talks about it and the examples he uses are puzzling and leave the reader to question his reasoning. He quotes Jack, an anonymous person, about gay men and the risky practice of “barebacking” to emphasize how Jack feels about taking this risk: “One thing that barebacking allows is a certain amount of control over the risk. In sex, we have the ability to face the risk and look it in the eye” (Dowell 461). Jack describes the feeling of having control over risk and the taste of freedom one gets from facing risk. Dowell chooses to include unprotected sex in the text to provide further evidence for his theory; however, he talks about the gay community exclusively and how the rise of “barebacking” causes a greater risk of contracting AIDS in gay men. He could have easily mentioned the risk of unprotected sex that exists in all communities, as well as provide a more well-balanced approach. It seems as though he chose to focus on the prevalence of unprotected sex in gay men only for the fact that it may have shock value for some readers. A reader casually going through the article might be caught off guard when he mentions unprotected gay sex, perhaps even causing the reader to take another glance at Dowell’s writing. It is as if Dowell is saying that AIDS and unprotected sex are only a problem in gay men, when in truth they are as much of a risk to everybody else as well. His intentions for including the rise of unprotected sex in his article show that he is a writer desperately seeking to grab the audience’s attention with misleading information.
Dowell also uses several statistics on injuries in extreme sports to justify his argument about risk in American society. Dowell claims that the “rising popularity of extreme sports bespeaks an eagerness of millions of Americans to participate in activities closer to the metaphorical edge… a sense of pushing out personal boundaries” (Dowell 458). By saying millions of Americans take part in extreme sports he is creating a misleading assumption about American society. He chooses statistics showing large increases in snowboarding, mountain biking, and many other adventure sports. Participation in these adventure sports has indeed grown from past years, but if only a few million participate out of a country of three hundred million, Dowell cannot justify his claim on American society as a whole when his evidence only applies to a fraction of the population. He then gives statistics relating extreme sports and hospital visits. Dowell writes, “U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission reported that 48,000 Americans were admitted to hospital emergency rooms with skateboarding-related injuries… 33 percent more than the previous year” (Dowell 458). His statistics are from a valid source so it makes them credible, but injury numbers and hospital visits from routine activities such as driving a car are probably far greater than injury numbers related to skateboarding. It is safe to say the total number of hospital visits due to car accidents makes the total number of people that go to the hospital because of extreme sports injuries seem minuscule. To say that Americans are injuring themselves due to extreme sports at an alarming rate is not true; Dowell is simply making mountains out of molehills.
In “Life on the Edge,” William Dowell tries to support his argument that America as a society has grown obsessed with risk by providing examples, statistics, and testimony from expert risk-takers. Dowell unfortunately does not present the argument logically and lacks strong evidence. His attempts to fool readers into agreeing with him are weak and illogical. The way he presents his case through his article does not persuade readers because of the many flaws his argument contains. Dowell’s argument is an interesting one, risk and America go hand in hand, and only time will tell how much risk is too much.