Introduction
 
We wanted to find out why people smoke because we think people think smoking is cool. Other people have found out that smoking is not good for you so we wanted to find out why people smoke. These are our research questions.

* Why did you start smoking? * Why do you smoke? * Do you want to smoke? * What is a good thing about smoking? * Have you ever tried to give smoking up? * Why do people smoke?

Methodology

We chose questionnaires to collect our data because they would be easier to understand. First of all we wanted to interview ten adults we know but we thought it would be difficult for them to come to school. We designed a questionnaire and did a pilot interview but it didn’t help much because the child we tried it out on didn’t smoke. We found out that you need a quiet room to do interviews and you mustn’t tell people to hurry up when they answer questions or they might feel bad. In the end we asked ten university students to fill in our questionnaire because we thought we would get more replies back because one of our teachers works there.

Findings

We got all ten of our questionnaires back.

1. Why did you start smoking?
     
We found out that six people started smoking because their friends and other people around them smoked. Other people started smoking because they wanted to find out what it was like or to relax or to look like a film star.

2. Why do you smoke?

Five people said they smoke because they enjoy it, three people said because it is a habit and hard to stop. Two people said because they like being with other people. One person said they like it because they get more fresh air from smoking outside and another person said because it stops them working.

3.  Do you want to smoke?

Six people said yes and four people said no.

4. What is a good thing about smoking?

One person didn’t know what was good about smoking. Other people said it helped them breath better when they are upset, you can have a break, meet other smokers, it gives you something to do with your hands, it’s stylish and tastes good, Three people said it was relaxing. One person said it was great and two people said there was nothing good about it.

5.  Have you ever tried to give up smoking?

Eight people said yes and two people said they had tried to cut down or not tried to give up seriously.

6.  Why do people smoke?

Three people think it is to be cool or stylish.  Six people think it is because it is a habit or because of other people. One person thinks that tobacco companies get people to start when they are young and then they can’t stop.

Discussion

We thought we would find out that the students started smoking because it was cool. We also thought they would all have tried to give up smoking. Our data showed us that not everyone had tried to give up smoking and that people mostly start because their friends are smoking. Our research question was answered but we didn’t realise that people would like smoking. We also thought that if someone tried to give up they would have succeeded but smoking is an addiction.

Conclusion

If we could do our research all over again we would improve it by having a person that actually smokes for the pilot. We would also send out more questionnaires to get more data. We would like to do some more research into how people get addicted and how cigarettes are made.