ENGL 202 ESSAY STRUCTURE: FOCUS ON EFFECTS
HOOK (1 sentence):
Purpose: to grab the reader’s attention
INTRODUCTION Include: a question, opinion, general fact, anecdote (story) ,
or common saying or idiom
BACKGROUND (2-3 sentences):
Purpose: to explain or define the topic
Include: any definitions, background information + the
primary effect of your chosen causes
THESIS (1 sentence):
Purpose: to tell the reader exactly what the essay is about
Include: “causes of” / “reasons for” the topic and it must
include your 3 causes presented below
TOPIC SENTENCE (1 sentence):
Purpose: to tell the reader what the paragraph will be
about (the main idea)
BODY Include: transition word, “cause of”/ “reason for”,+ cause 1
PARAGRAPH 1: SUPPORTING DETAILS (at least 3 sentences):
 Supporting detail 1: e.g. explain how the cause creates the
Cause # 1 problem/effect
 supporting detail 2: e.g. fact/more information
 supporting detail 3: give an example
CONCLUDING SENTENCE (1 sentence): optional
Purpose: to summarize the current paragraph and/or
introduce the following one
TOPIC SENTENCE (1 sentence):
Purpose: to tell the reader what the paragraph will be
BODY about (the main idea)
PARAGRAPH 2: Include: transition word, “cause of”/ “reason for” + cause 2
SUPPORTING DETAILS (at least 3 sentences):
Cause # 2  Supporting detail 1: e.g., explain how the cause
creates the problem/effect
 supporting detail 2: e.g., fact/more information
 supporting detail 3: give an example
CONCLUDING SENTENCE (1 sentence): optional
Purpose: to summarize the current paragraph and/or
introduce the next topic sentence
TOPIC SENTENCE (1 sentence):
Purpose: to tell the reader what the paragraph will be
BODY about (the main idea)
Include: transition word, “cause of”/ “reason for”, topic,
PARAGRAPH 3: and cause 3
SUPPORTING DETAILS (at least 3 sentences):
Cause # 3
 Supporting detail 1: e.g., explain how the cause
creates the problem/effect
 supporting detail 2: e.g. fact/more information
 supporting detail 3: give an example
CONCLUDING SENTENCE (1 sentence): optional
Purpose: to summarize the current paragraph and/or
introduce the following one
RESTATED THESIS (1 sentence): Paraphrase!
Include: the topic, “causes of”/ “reasons for”, and the 3
causes from the body
[OPTIONAL] SUMMARY SENTENCES (1 to 3 sentences):
Restate and paraphrase the main ideas from the body
paragraphs [e.g one sentence per cause]
- Avoid introducing new ideas
CONCLUSION
(Write your point form outline here)
“Think happy thoughts “. A common saying that people tend to use in
stressful situations.
However, it does not apply on every situation. For instance, when it
comes to a case like poverty, there is no absolute possibility of thinking
happy thoughts. For the term “poverty “is placed in the dictionary of
pain and struggle. Especially if this term is implanted in an individual
since childhood and considered as a habitual lifestyle.
Thesis Statement:
Listing the negative effects on people of growing up in poverty could
rather be a challenging mission, but it is proper to say that the main
three effects are deterioration of health, radical change in personality
and risky threats on educational lives.
One of the impacts of growing up in poverty that effects people
negatively is deterioration of health that starts from childhood and
begins to appear later in the future.
 Poverty can cause health damages as a result to consuming
undrinkable water and expired food to save money for later
days.
 Poverty effects mental health by causing depression and
chronic stress.
Poverty can ruin your health not just physically but also mentally and
shapes a huge obstacle for getting treatment at proper facilities.
Another effect is that people who grow up in poor environments are
more likely to experience radical changes in their personalities as they
grow.
 Poverty could generate a constant feeling of withdrawal like
being deprived from participating in certain activities and
causes lack of passion toward things like perusing a hobby.
 Poverty can also cause lack of confidence and subliminal
self-hatred. Making one feel desperate and discouraged.
Poverty can build up a person’s character in a harsh way and change his
perspective of life.
The third effect poor environments cause on people is depriving many
genius minds from getting the suitable education.
Difficult circumstances can lead to a decrease in educational

attainment in so many ways such as shaping distractions and
fading concentration away.
 Poverty could lead to abandoning education at the expense
of providing needs despite the existence of high educational
efficiency.
Many people haven’t been able to complete their education and
graduate because of the tough circumstances poverty has imposed upon
them.
Posting the pessimistic impacts on individuals of experiencing
childhood in neediness could be summed up in three points:
disintegration of wellbeing, revolutionary change in character and
hazardous dangers on instructive lives.
MESSAGE/ADVICE (1-2 sentences):
Give the reader a final message
Use modals (should/could/might) to say what people can
do to improve the situation (reduce/fix the causes of the
problem)