Connor OGara

Professor Padgett
English 102
February 15, 2016
Why Do People Begin to Smoke Cigarettes?
Some questions that are generally brought up for this assignment are ones like
Why are you interested in this? The reason I am interested in this topic is because of a
personal relationship to cigarettes. I never smoked one cigarette in all of high school, in
fact, I was offered on plenty of occasions and was able to turn them down every time. I
then got to college and realized the two occasions are totally different. Coming to college

Adam Padgett 2/22/16 11:41 AM

Comment [1]: This feels like filler to me.
Adam Padgett 2/22/16 11:41 AM
Comment [2]: Sound similar to having a
personal relationship with Jesus is this
intentional?

brings a cluster of people together. Everyone is different and has been brought up in
different ways. For example one of my best friends chain smokes cigarettes and has been
ever since his freshman year of high school. In the college system these two types of
people are brought together and by doing this ideas and habits get passed around. In my
mind I always thought that cigarettes lead to certain death but here I was standing right in
front of someone that has been smoking them for a few years and he seemed fine. My
cares went out the window one night and after that I would occasionally smoke them no
more than a few times a month because I thought of it as a normal college habit that

Adam Padgett 2/22/16 11:42 AM

Comment [3]: Watch out for run on
sentences.

Adam Padgett 2/22/16 11:43 AM

Comment [4]: Interesting, so you started
smoking in college.

anyone could kick. Once second semester started I was smoking a bit more now but was
never addicted. I never even made it to the point of addiction before my body totally gave
out on me. I had to go to the Emergency room because my throat swelled up and my
chest felt so much pressure that I couldnt even walk. Every single doctor asked me if I
smoked and with my mother in the room I answered yes every time. I had apparently
been walking around with untreated bronchitis for a few months and had recently picked
up pneumonia. None of these seemed to be holding me back from my regular life at least

Adam Padgett 2/22/16 11:43 AM

Comment [5]: !

until I started smoking more cigarettes. The cigarettes mixed with the bronchitis and
pneumonia made me cough so hard that air escaped my lungs and was now sitting around
my heart and chest. This is called pneumomediastinum. I spent five days in the hospital
and hated every second of it. Most of that easily could have been avoided if I didnt
smoke.
This is informative article, the Center for Disease Control has laid out all of the
possible and expected diseases that smoking can lead to. This has no bias in any way and
is purely for informational purposes. There is no mention to stop smoking in this article;
instead facts are given so that the readers can make an informed decision on their own.
The second article was taken from Jstor and is an in depth look at a college class
regarding cigarettes over American Culture. The professor of this class writes about how
cigarettes have changed along with the American society over time. This article along
with the first seems to be an informative piece with little to no bias however, this article
talks about the consumer and merchandise side as well. The third article is a scientific
report that tests the amount of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders that smoke cigarettes over the
past 20 years. The scientists came to the conclusion that there were significant drop offs
from 8th graders 20 years ago and todays 8th graders yet there were little differences in the
number of 12th graders smoking.

"Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking." Centers for Disease Control andPrevention.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 01 Oct. 2015. Web. 08 Feb. 2016.

Adam Padgett 2/22/16 11:45 AM

Comment [6]: just start talking about the
source, no need to introduce it like its a
magic act. Is it an article? Im not sure. I
need more info.

Adam Padgett 2/22/16 11:46 AM

Comment [7]: Be careful about deeming
anything as bias-free. Consider the
difference between saying unbiased and
bias-free.
Adam Padgett 2/22/16 11:49 AM
Comment [8]: Can you be more specific
on what kind of information?
Adam Padgett 2/22/16 11:49 AM
Comment [9]: The database isnt as
important as the journal itself. Try to keep
your discussion on the publication itself,
and not so much on the database.

Gardner, Martha N.. Risk, Pleasure, and Change: Using the Cigarette to Teach U. S.
Cultural History. The History Teacher 47.1 (2013): 924. Web.

"Proxy Login - University Libraries - USC." Proxy Login - University Libraries - USC.
Pubmed, n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2016.

My research paper may be a little difficult to really get started because there is so
much information at my disposal. There are plenty of scientific studies on the internet
today that describe the horrible consequences of smoking cigarettes but that doesnt
explain why people start smoking. Im sure I could Google why adolescents start
smoking but the number of answers would be overwhelming. Every person is different
and they all have different stories of smoking for the first time. Learning why people start
to smoke cigarettes is the first place to start to get people to never smoke.
Connor,
I really like the introduction you start this paper with. It is engaging and interesting and
really shows why you have a particular interest in the topic. Having that said, Im sorry
you had to go through all that. Sounds terrible. I do think the answer to your research
question is probably fairly easy to answer, which is: smoking is social, cigarettes have
nicotine, which is addictive and makes your brain feel good, and people dont usually get
hospitalized for an infection after beginning to smoke. So, you might need to find more
nuance in your discussion if you want to continue down this inquiry. I think the book is
closed as it pertains to smoking. Yes its bad, we all know it, and smokers will smoke
anyway. So maybe if you really expanded your research, you could learn something new

Adam Padgett 2/22/16 11:55 AM

Comment [10]: This should really be
incorporated in your discussion above. This
feels like lazy writing.

about the world of smoking. So, research, with an open mind, about whats going on
currently with this large tobacco companies. Really scour the news in search of new
controversy that might not be obvious to most. Teach me something new about the topic.
I already know smoking is bad, and I dont need statistics (at this point) to be convinced.