Rachel Beck
Professor Carr
RWS 200
2/27/14
Electronic Cigarettes: the Future of Smoking? Today, if you were to sit at a bar on the Lower East Side, you may find yourself next to a guy smoking a light-up plastic tube that smells like cherries and think to yourself, even Humphrey Bogart couldn’t make one of those look cool. Or if you haven’t seen the 1941 film, Casablanca, you may still chuckle a bit. But could these vaping devices be the future of smoking? Author Andrew Stuttaford in his article, “Vaper Strain” published by the National Review in 2013, addresses the topic of these electronic cigarettes, arguing that these healthy alternatives are, in fact, the future of smoking. He believes they are often demonized for no good reason and he advocates for the product by addressing some of the key health concerns that consistently show up in debates on e-cigarettes. His purpose is to address these concerns, but ultimately show how the benefits of e-cigarettes outweigh their potential detriments. In his attempt to debunk arguments from the critics of e-cigarettes, he adopts a sarcastic tone for his audience, the readers of the National Review.
Stuttaford’s sarcastic tone is used to introduce e-cigarettes to an older audience, predominantly one of older cigarette smokers who grew up in a time when smoking was a part of the American culture. The very first sentence in his article is introducing e-cigarettes – what they do and how they work – knowledge that is commonly known among younger generations, but is often unknown among older generations. He notes that “[a]s I write, I am vaping,” which immediately develops a level of credibility because his audience then knows that he isn’t just an observer writing on the topic of e-cigarettes, he is a consumer of the product. Stuttaford understands that these older smokers probably look at e-cigarettes and laugh, so he