Selecting a Topic

Some potential ideas that I could write about for my paper could be:

• why smoking tobacco cigarettes illegal
• congressmen should get paid less
• protecting the second amendment
• receiving government aide qualifications reform
• video games and violence

All of these topics I could write about. However, I will go with, why smoking tobacco cigarettes should be illegal.

I am grateful that I am able to choose my topic because I have  the power to choose a meaningful subject to me that I can easily write about. In my freshman year of high school I was assigned to write about why Romeo and Juliet should be considered literature. I remembered how I struggled with even understanding the story. How was I suppose to argue that it was literature if I could not understand the play? I scraped an essay together that I was not proud of and received a grade I was not proud of. Luckily I am excited to write about my topic on smoking.

This site provides a lot of details and evidence. It also is linked to 30 sources with at least 5 credible sources. http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/22/suppl_1/i27.full

This site also has gone into great detail about the cons of smoking. Its sources are mainly from the CDC and other government websites.  http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/tobaccocancer/cigarettesmoking/cigarette-smoking-illness-and-death

This site is where a vote was taken on the subject and why the voters felt that way. This is important because I can view both sides of the argument and help when I branch out in my research.  http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-cigarette-smoking-be-banned

Of course this site, Wikipedia, cannot be used as a source for the paper, but it had included a lot of references. These can greatly help my argument.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_tobacco

As I did a quick Google search on the topic I found a wide range of coverage on the subject. Debate sites, pro con sites, news links, videos, human health sites, and other articles. On the third link a vote had been taken on should cigarettes be illegal with 79% of people saying yes. But, more importantly on this site there was a lot of comments and opinions on why people voted that way, which will help me on my research for the paper. Overall, I now have a greater sense of what is out there, the quality of research on the topic, and how people feel about the subject and why they feel that way.