Smoking in Society

SAMPLE PERSUASIVE OUTLINE - POOR

Student X

February 17, 2005

Section AX

Topic: Smoking in Society

Goal: I want to persuade my audience that smoking is a health risk to all of society and that smokers should be encouraged to quit.

Thesis: It is imperative for smokers to quit, benefiting society as a whole a well as themselves.

Introduction

Attention Material: I am from a family where both of my parents dont smoke. There is although a person of my circle who smokes a lot everyday and that is my unlce. All my life I can remember him smoking and trying to quit but never being able to. The only moment in his life when it seemed completely necessary and possible for him to quit was the day he found out he had cancer, but even by then time was running out. He died in March of 2003; At some point in your life, you will know someone who smokes or someone who deals with health problems associated with it or maybe even you may already have some issues from smoking or being around those that smoke.

Thesis: It is imperative for smokers to quit because it benefits society as a whole as well as themselves. Fighting against the use of tobacco is important because it causes many diseases and is a player in air pollution.

Transition: Actions and decisions are made each day around youth can lead them to have a skewed understanding of what is right and wrong and issues should be addressed appropriately.

I. Youth model behaviors of older individuals they respect and believe in and will mimic them.

A. Children model their parents' behavior as well as authority figures and relative when it comes to tobacco use (Journal of Public Health Mgmt and Practice). They will also listen to what authority figures say about smoking. During child development there are lessons that he child must learn or do learn on their own and those that are needed to be taught to them. For example, traffic safely, talking to strangers, and etiquette are things that parents or authority figures teach, but how much education dealing with harmful substances or cigarettes is really highlights/ Is it even done enough/ Look around and see how many people you see smoking and note how many of them are younger than you. A future depends on those that are coming behind us, but with harmful substances already making their way into the lives of youth, a future could be pretty bleak.

Transition: Involvement of education and influence are only a step in any direction, the risks involved can be pretty extreme and life altering.

II. Not only does smoking affect the smoker, but those whom they share their space with.

A. Second hand smoke causes just as many of the same health issues to those around a smoker and as could be produced in the smoker. As reported by the Center for Disease Control, illness from smoking ranges from lung cancer, ischemic heart disease, and chronic airway obstruction as well as shortening a person's lifespan averaging 13.2 years for me and 14.5 years for women (National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion). These are risks that many smokers know may just be regurgitated facts, but is not hearing them once more another chance to decide that health is better than a cigarette? Much of the health issues that society deals with today would be greatly decreased if more and more people began to quit smoking.

Transition: Prevention can be found at the base of the issue of cigarettes: the manufacturer.

III. Philip Morris is the largest tobacco company in the US and makes many of the brands of cigarettes on the market today.

A. Within its website there is useful information discussing the health risks of smoking, prevention methods for youth, ways to quit, policies, facts, practices, etc. How well does a company want its product to be cast in a negative light? One would think that showing all of the negatives is a clear sign that the product at hand is indeed unnecessary. However, despite facts and information Phillip Morris continues to make cigarettes and many continue to purchase them. In the past three years, with increased cigarette prices caused by increased taxes and tobacco litigation payments, with increased anti-tobacco campaigns from groups such as the American Legacy Foundation,