Cause and Effect Essays

Cause and Effects Essay

• What is a cause and effect essay?
Cause and effect essays are concerned with why things
happen (causes) and what happens as a result (effects).
Cause and effect is a common method of organizing and
discussing ideas.

• A Cause and Effects essay can be:

• Causes (Reasons)
• Effects (Results)
• Cause and Effects (Reasons & Results)
 Writing tips
When writing a cause / effect essay:

 For causes
To determine causes, ask, "Why did this happen?“

 For effects
To identify effects, ask, "What happened because
of this?“
 Writing tips
Example:

Cause
You car is out of gas.

Effect
It won't start.
 Writing tips
Example:

Cause
Amin got home late.

Effect
He missed his favourite TV programme.
 Writing tips
Example:

Cause
Jack missed the bus.

Effect
He woke up late.
 Writing tips
• Read the question and identify its focus – Causes, Effects.
• Brainstorm your ideas.
• Develop your thesis statement. State clearly whether you
are discussing causes, effects. Introduce your main idea,
using the terms "cause" and/or "effect.“
Writing tips (example)
Question: Why do people lie?
(Focus on CAUSE)
• Minimizing a mistake.
• i.e: To save face:-
• unfinished homework –
making excuses

Thesis statement:
• To get out of difficult
situations.
The fact is that human beings lie for
• i.e: Don’t want to face
many reasons.
consequences – lie to
avoid difficulties

• White lie
• i.e: Don’t want to hurt
someone else’s feelings
Writing tips (example)
Question: WHAT ARE THE EFFECTS
OF WATCHING TOO
MUCH TV?
(Focus on EFFECTS : POSITIVE/
Thesis statement:
NEGATIVE)
Watching too much television often
does have a negative effects on
children.
• One negative effect of
television on children
is laziness
• -2 supporting details
Children may have difficulty
distinguishing between what
is real and what is not.
• 2 supporting details
• Children who view
violent acts on TV are
more likely to show
aggressive behavior.
• 2 Supporting details
 Writing tips
• Find and organize supporting details. Back up your thesis
with relevant and sufficient details that are organized. You
can organize details in the following ways:

• Chronological. Details are arranged in the order in

which the events occurred.

• Order of importance. Details are arranged from

least to most important or vice versa.

• Categorical. Details are arranged by dividing the

topic into parts or categories.
Writing tips
Use appropriate transitions. To blend details smoothly in
cause and effect essays, use the transitional words and
phrases listed below.

• For causes
because, due to, one of the causes is, another is, since,
for,
first, second

• For Effects
consequently, as a result, thus, resulted in, one result is,
another is, therefore
List of transitions signals.
http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/trans1.html
 Writing the essay
When writing your essay, keep the following suggestions in
mind:

• Remember your purpose. Decide if your are writing to

inform or persuade.

• Focus on immediate and direct causes (or effects.)

Limit yourself to causes that are close in time and
related, as opposed to remote and indirect causes,
which occur later and are related indirectly.
 Writing the essay
• Strengthen your essay by using supporting evidence.
Define terms, offer facts and statistics, or provide
examples, anecdotes, or personal observations that
support your ideas.

• Qualify or limit your statements about cause and

effect. Unless there is clear evidence that one event is
related to another, qualify your statements with
phrases such as "It appears that the cause was" or "It
seems likely" or "The evidence may indicate" or
"Available evidence suggests."
Writing the essay
• To evaluate the effectiveness of a cause and effect
essay, ask the following questions:

• What are the causes? What are the effects? Which

should be emphasized? Are there single or multiple
causes? Single or multiple effects? Is a chain reaction
involved?
Essay with both cause and effect

• You have the options to write :

• First on causes and then the effects
• or
• Effects and the causes

Copyright- K.Sujatha 2009

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and_effect_essay.php