Reading/Writing Level 4 What is a Cause-Effect Essay?

Two methods for writing a cause-effect essay:

Spring 2013

1. Focus-on-causes method. You can choose to write an essay on why people become addicted to something and come up with possible reasons they may have for an addiction. Each paragraph in the body would contain a different cause. 2. Focus-on-effects method. Another way to write your essay would be to look at the effects of being addicted to something. This means that each body paragraph would talk about the results or consequences of an addiction. Cause-effect essay methods answer two different questions. Essays that use the focus-on-causes method answer the question, Why does something happen? Essays that use the focus-on-effects method answer the question, What happens when..?

Here is what an short outline of a focus-on-effects method might look like. Topic: Addiction to Marijuana I. Introduction (Paragraph 1) A. Hook: According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (2012), Marijuana is one of the most commonly used illegal drugs in the United States. B. Background Information: It seems that many people feel it is okay to abuse Marijuana. It might be that the people who use this drug a lot do not understand how it affects their body and mind. C. Thesis statement: The fact is that Marijuana addiction has many effects, including creating problems with peoples learning (effect 1), health (effect 2), and life (effect 3). II. Body A. Paragraph 2 (Effect 1) topic sentence: Marijuana addiction has a negative effect on learning. 1. Even after someone stops using Marijuana they may have difficulty remembering things. Supporting 2. If someone smokes a lot of Marijuana, then they may have a hard time in school and have trouble learning things even if they have stopped smoking it. Details 3. Students who smoke a large amounts of Mariuna have bad grades and do poorly in school.

B. Paragraph 3 (Effect 2) topic sentence: C. Paragraph 4 (Effect 3) topic sentence: III. Conclusion (Paragraph 5 ) (restated thesis):