Should Smoking Be Banned in Public Areas?

Should Smoking Be Banned in Public Areas?

Should Smoking be Banned in Public Areas?

By Angie Charameda

Introduction:

After completing a unit on the effects of smoking on the human body, you will now write a proposal to one of your county officials stating why or why not it is beneficial to ban smoking in public areas throughout your area. You will use facts and evidence from multiple websites to prove your reasoning and support your argument. You will set up a letter in a professional manor and state where, when, and why you want or do not want this ban to happen. As a group you must some to a decision and only write one letter. If your group decides that they would like to send their letter into the official that they have chosen that is an option. You will have three class periods to research and write your letter.

Task:

The task of writing a letter to a county official is very professional and should be well thought out. This will be a persuasion task. You will work as a group to collect data and form an argument. Then you will organize your thoughts and write a professional letter to your county official that you select. You will be reading your letters to the class and the class will respond to your letter and give you ideas on how to make it better. You have a short period of time to complete this assignment so you must work quickly and stick to only facts and evidence that specifically relate to your argument. There are several roles to take on and you will decide this in your group. Some students may take on more than one. There will be six people per group.

1. Researchers 2. Organizers 3. Writers/ Stenographers 4. Spell/Grammar Checker

Process:

The group will work together to come to an agreement on what they want to write for. You will look online and find an official to write your letter to. Together you will decide on what your main points will be in the letter. The researchers will get online and find credible facts and evidence to support your argument. There should be three people finding pros for banning and three people finding cons for banning no matter what you are trying to persuade the official to do. This way in your argument you can state some of the opposite opinion and give a logical argument as to why this is not a good idea. After finding the information the organizers will put the information in a logical order and decide what will actually be used. The writers/typers will then start to form outlines on paper for the information to be presented in the letter. After the group has agreed on how the outline will be organized, the stenographers will type up the letter. After the letter is complete the spell/grammar checker will then read over the paper to find any errors that the computer may not have picked up. It will be wise to have several different people do this task so that is checked and rechecked.

Some questions you might ask yourself as you go through this process might be:

  1. What are the risks of second hand smoke?
  2. How will smokers feel about your decision?
  3. How will non-smoking areas in public places affect the employees of the environment?
  4. What are some benefits of having non-smoking areas?
  5. Would outside designated areas be a good idea?
  6. What are specific risks of second hand smoke to children in public places (i.e. restaurants)?
  7. Does the official already have any views about this issue?

Here are some web sites that could help when researching the information for the letter:

Resources: In addition to the websites already provided, you may search websites that you come across. Books, television programs, or experts can be used as sources of additional information.

Evaluation:

Before you turn in your letter make sure to evaluate whether or not everyone in the group did their part and helped contribute to the finding of the information.

Each student will receive and individual grade based on a scale of 100 points.

Criteria for grades:

  1. On day one a list of all sources found by each individual. A list will be fine to hand in. (10 pts.)
  2. A rough draft from the group on day one of what their stand-point will be and who they will be writing to. (10 pts.)
  3. Peer evaluation due on day three. Each student will evaluate every member in the group on a rubric given by the teacher. You will evaluate how well each member cooperated and contributed to the group. (20 pts.)
  4. The format of the paper is professional and is organized in a logical order. (30 pts.)
  5. Grammatical value. (15 pts.)
  6. Reference list. You must site at least four sources for your letter. (15 pts.)

The letter should be headed to the official with the address where he or she can be located in the top left hand corner. You then address the letter to the official by using Mr., Mrs., Ms., or Dr. The letter should be well organized to defend the argument with an opening paragraph two to four body paragraphs and a closing paragraph. The facts and evidence in the letter should be true and credible. The letter should be signed by all group members who contributed information and ideas for the letter. The letter should be in Times New Roman in 12 pt. Font. When you hand in the letter please include a list of all other websites that were found while researching and include their URLs.

Conclusion:

You have now written a letter to an official stating facts on an argument of whether or not smoking should be banned in public places. Please answer the following questions as truthfully as possible.

  1. Do you feel like you had enough time to complete the letter and defend your argument?
  2. What did you learn about smoking in public places?
  3. Do you feel like working in a group on this project was beneficial? Why or why not?
  4. Do you think that there was enough information to argue your point?
  5. What suggestions do you have for someone doing this project in the future?
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