Claim: Smoking cigarettes is known to be dangerous to people’s health.

This may seem obvious, but in fact historically cigarette companies strongly challenged this very point—and you need to reassert it because if cigarettes are not dangerous to your health, then the rest of your argument will fall.

Where, then, to find proof of cigarettes’ danger to health? Ask yourself, who collects data and performs research on tobacco and health? The United States Government, universities, and health related organizations. How do you find information from these groups? This is a time when using Google would be an appropriate strategy as Google searches government web pages, university web pages and organizational web pages. Start with the government. Why? Because the United States federal government is the largest sponsor of scientific research in the world (indeed in the history of the world) and because (in theory anyway) the government does not lie to us and because government information is considered a primary source.

Construct the search: site:gov smoking health site:gov restricts the search to government web pages.

Among the first web pages that comes up is one from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that states in its “Overview” that: “Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, causing more than 440,000 deaths each year and resulting in an annual cost of more than $75 billion in direct medical costs.”

Further down is one from Medline Plus. This page contains a link to information from the American Cancer Society, including the following: “Cigarette smoking is a major cause of cancers of the lung, larynx, oral cavity, pharynx and esophagus and is a contributing cause in the development of cancers of the bladder, pancreas, uterine cervix, kidney, stomach, and some leukemias.”

Now, I can write:

Smoking cigarettes is known to be dangerous to people’s health. According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, causing more than 440,000 deaths each year.” (CDC) Moreover, the American Cancer Society notes that, “Cigarette smoking is a major cause of cancers of the lung, larynx, oral cavity, pharynx and esophagus and is a contributing cause in the development of cancers of the bladder, pancreas, uterine cervix, kidney, stomach, and some leukemias.” (American Cancer Society)

I make my next claim.

It ought, then, to be against the law to use the media to promote cigarette smoking, especially to minors, who lack both experience and maturity to make a decision that puts their health at so grave a risk.

Having made this claim, I look for information on media and youth smoking. I may want to look at specific forms of media—magazine advertising, for example. I may also want to look for information about the free speech rights of businesses—since forbidding advertisement is a limitation on free speech. I should use Google to get statistics that will provide a sense of the scope of the problem. I will also want statistics showing me the number of minors as a whole. That means the census.