What about those who are addicted but don’t wish to be? Caught under the spell of smoking are thousands of people who want to give up. You and I would have thought it was easy to give up but the answer it isn’t! They are helpless against smoking and the habit, like an endless battle, the fact is they lose it. There are many products to help kick the habit, for example patches and gum but in the end they don’t satisfy the hunger
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of the ravaging nicotine addiction. The message is ‘Don’t start smoking in the first place!’ It is almost impossible to stop. Why do people start when all over the packets are the words in bold type: SMOKING KILLS! (Show example)
New statistics show you are more likely to start smoking form the age of 13, this is proven every year by many teenagers worldwide. How can teenagers afford £100 a month for their habit? What forces them into starting one of the cruellest habits imaginable. To look big? To look more like an adult? To get rid of stress? These are all the wrong reasons to smoke. The biggest factor of teen smoking is Peer Pressure. If your friends pressure you into smoking then they’re obviously not good mates to have. It is not a stable friendship when someone is being pressured into something. Many worry that if they say ‘no’ they’re mates will think they’re stupid but you have to realise they are the stupid ones. Why give money to smoking companies when you could spend it on so many other better things? Just remember they will be the ones sharing hospital beds with 10,000 other smokers in hospital every year. Two-thirds of these people say they began because of peer pressure and they end up regretting it. Remember that your parents will always know you are smoking, your hands will turn a sick yellow and your hair and nails will fall out, your looks will fade away to nothing. Did they know the effects when they began?
There are many debilitating effects of smoking. This is what happens when you take a single puff of a cigarette: The hot smoke, as if it were lava from an erupting volcano, scalding your throat and the delicate lining of the lungs. It irritates the bronchial tubes; therefore making you cough, violently, as your body desperately tries to get rid of the smoke but ends up fighting a losing battle. Your airways become empty roads of liquid tar that suffocates the body. Poison collects in the bottom of your lungs as the toxic chemicals are absorbed into the bloodstream. By this time the nicotine has already won control of your mind. (Show picture of lungs in the book)
Some say the effects of giving up are worse than the ones caused by smoking in the first place – But as they say things can only get better, and they do, well, after the first few months. 50, 000 people a year give up on smoking after years of struggling. Once over the addiction they enjoy having oxygen flow through their veins like gushing streams, skin as a fair as snow whites, clothing that doesn’t smell of an old ashtray and most of all a cleaner, healthier and fresher future. However, your body can never be the same again, the damage has already been done.
Could the addiction from the year 1586 finally be conquered by the people of today and made illegal once and for all?
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Commentary for my Persuasive Speech – By Louise Collins
My opening line is meant to be a meaningful, yet contradictory sentence. Using the word ‘expensive’ highlights the bad points of smoking and it’s addiction and then using an opposite, such as ‘worthless’ to make it seem as if you waste so much on it. It shows my hatred of smoking in a more thoughtful way. It has two meanings to the emotive language because it talks of smoking being expensive financially and also emotionally. It explains my views on smoking straight away.
The emotive language used in my speech is meant to provoke an air of hatred within the listeners. So I used strong words such as ‘dangerous’, ‘harmful’, ‘hazardous’ and ‘fatal’. They are used to make you think of the terrible effects of smoking and why it is so bad. I wanted to produce a biased argument against smoking and I think the listeners will hear this through my speech. My emotive language is meant to shock and question peoples’ opinions of this important subject. I tried to integrate emotive language into facts and statistics. It is meant to sounds dramatic, for example, ‘dilapidated factories’ these are powerful words that I feel needed to be included to dramatise my subject.
I used many rhetorical questions throughout my speech many, which I thought created a vivid image in the audience’s minds. My favourite question would be: ‘Why do people turn their bodies into dilapidated factories with airways f tar and destruction?’ I think this question will have the biggest effect on the listeners and will create a powerful emotional response. In my rhetorical questions I introduced statistics to shock the audience and to get them to understand my point of view.
I tried to use repetition when I described the affects of smoking, for example, ‘jittery, irritable and anxious’. They give rhythm to my speech and were used to produce my point as being meaningful and also to get the audience to imagine strong imagery. I also attempted list of threes when I was connecting legal and illegal drugs. I gave a list of three illegal drugs, ‘Heroin, LSD and Cannabis’ this showed just how many illegal drugs compare to the ‘legal’ tobacco.
When I wanted to get a serious point across I used a shorter sentence; this also gave sentence variation to my speech. I explained my pint in a longer sentence and used an imperative statement to sum up my thoughts. Such as ‘It is our job to take action and inform our country of this silent but deadly killer!’ It emphasises a certain point I wish to make. This gave the listeners a direct order and if said in a stern voice should have the desired effect.
Many statistics were in my speech, they were all meant to shock and question what we once thought. They are meant to make you think about a certain point in more detail. For example, ‘There are 4000 chemicals in just one cigarette’ I also used statistics during rhetorical questions to make my point even more effective, such as, ‘Why is it that £10,000,000,000 worth of cigarettes are sold every year in the UK?’ I got these from a reliable source and I hope the audience finds them informative and gives them something to think about.
I used personal pronouns such as our, we and you in my speech to make the audience feel more involved, when I used imperatives they contained personal pronouns as they are orders made for the listeners. The personal pronouns in my speech make each and every person feel as if they are being talked to individually but are being told as a group.
My last paragraph is the only one to tell of good things that happen when you stop smoking. It gives you a final message of caution and a message of hope for the future. Then ends with my important rhetorical question, ‘Could the addiction from the year 1586 finally be conquered by the people of today and made illegal once and for all?’ Which indirectly gives an order to the audience and hope to those who are already under the spell of smoking…
