Thank You for Smoking
Intro:
The essay “Thank You for Smoking,” written by Peter Brimelow, is far from an influential essay on why people should smoke. Through this essay, Brimelow makes an effort to convince the audience smoking is actually beneficial to your health. I find it hard for people to write about what they think are the benefits of smoking when there are so many obvious reasons why you should not smoke.
The main audience being targeted in this article is those who already smoke and those who are thinking about smoking. One thing mentioned in the article is the fact that smokers are usually lighter in weight. In my personal opinion, I would rather eat a balanced diet and walk daily rather than walk around with a cigarette in my mouth and risk lung cancer.
Inductive or Deductive:
When trying to find if an essay is logically stated, you first must find if it is inductive or deductive. This is an example of an inductive essay. What inductive means is that the author goes from using specific samples to generalizations that are drawn from those examples (McFadden).
Major Claim:
The major claim is usually the topic sentence or main idea in the article (McFadden). Through the major claim, Peter points out that smoking has beneficial factors. He states those who smoke are less likely to get many diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, endometrial cancer, prostate cancer, osteoarthritis, and colon cancer (Brimelow 142).
Another example used in this essay is the author’s comparison of driving automobiles to smoking cigarettes. Brimelow states, “But so is driving automobiles dangerous to your health (over 40,000 deaths a year)” (141). This to me just seems like a completely ridiculous comparison to include in this article, especially when in the prior paragraph he states that there are approximately 400,000 deaths annually, which are smoking-related (Brimelow).
Minor Claim:
One minor claim pointed out through this essay is how smoking
The essay “Thank You for Smoking,” written by Peter Brimelow, is far from an influential essay on why people should smoke. Through this essay, Brimelow makes an effort to convince the audience smoking is actually beneficial to your health. I find it hard for people to write about what they think are the benefits of smoking when there are so many obvious reasons why you should not smoke.
The main audience being targeted in this article is those who already smoke and those who are thinking about smoking. One thing mentioned in the article is the fact that smokers are usually lighter in weight. In my personal opinion, I would rather eat a balanced diet and walk daily rather than walk around with a cigarette in my mouth and risk lung cancer.
Inductive or Deductive:
When trying to find if an essay is logically stated, you first must find if it is inductive or deductive. This is an example of an inductive essay. What inductive means is that the author goes from using specific samples to generalizations that are drawn from those examples (McFadden).
Major Claim:
The major claim is usually the topic sentence or main idea in the article (McFadden). Through the major claim, Peter points out that smoking has beneficial factors. He states those who smoke are less likely to get many diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, endometrial cancer, prostate cancer, osteoarthritis, and colon cancer (Brimelow 142).
Another example used in this essay is the author’s comparison of driving automobiles to smoking cigarettes. Brimelow states, “But so is driving automobiles dangerous to your health (over 40,000 deaths a year)” (141). This to me just seems like a completely ridiculous comparison to include in this article, especially when in the prior paragraph he states that there are approximately 400,000 deaths annually, which are smoking-related (Brimelow).
Minor Claim:
One minor claim pointed out through this essay is how smoking
Cited: Brimelow, Peter. “Thank You for Smoking…?” The Genre of Argument. Ed. Irene L. Clark. Boston: Thomson Heinle, 1998. 141-143. Clark, Irene L. The Genre of Argument. Boston: Thompson Heinle, 1998 McFadden, James. Introduction to Toulmin Method. Lecture. Sept. 12 & 14, 2003. Buena Vista University. Storm Lake, IA.