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WRITING A CAUSE/EFFECT PAPER
When you get the prompt, you must first
FIND THE DIRECTIONS!
(usually at the bottom of the page). You will then identify:
1. Purpose (what is your essay going to be about? The negative effects of arrogance? The causes of underage drinking?)
2. Audience (who will be reading it? Magazine readers? Fellow students?)
3. Context (what are you writing this for? Speech? Editorial? Magazine Article?)
Your introduction must contain:
1. An introduction of the topic you plan to discuss.
a. Before we can analyze the causes and/or effects of an event, behavior, or condition, we must first introduce the topic to our audience.
b. Take a look at these examples:
Ex: Underage drinking is a serious problem among teenagers in America today.
Ex. In today’s society, more and more teens are abusing alcohol.
* This would serve as an adequate "opening sentence" for your introductory paragraph. *
2. An explanation of any background information your audience may need to know about the topic before you begin analyzing its causes and/or effects.
- What do I need to know about this topic before I can begin analyzing its causes or effects? Do I need to define the term? Do I need to give background or historical information about the topic? How must I introduce this event to my audience?
- Here is an example of a few sentences that explain important information about underage drinking that our audience may need to know. Notice the inclusion of information from the prompt:
According to "Focus Adolescent Services," alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence are not only adult problems — they also affect a significant number of adolescents and young adults between the ages of 12 and 20, even though drinking under the age of 21 is illegal. It has been estimated that over three million teenagers are out-and-out alcoholics. Several million more have a serious drinking problem that they cannot manage on their own.
These sentences are adequate background information on the topic, providing useful statistics and data that suggest underage drinking is a serious problem. Notice how neither the words "CAUSE" nor "EFFECT" are mentioned vet!
3. A CLEAR thesis statement
a. State clearly whether you are discussing causes, effects, or both. Introduce your main idea, using the terms "cause" and/or "effect."
b. Take a look at these examples. The first is for an “effect” paper; the next is for a “cause” essay.
Ex: For their own health and well being, teens in this country need to be made aware of the negative
physical, psychological, and social effects that underage drinking can have upon their lives.
Ex. The problem of underage drinking stems from physical, psychological, and environmental causes.
Your overall essay will argue the claim that underage drinking is negative. Each body paragraph, however, will explain WHY underage drinking is bad!
Each body paragraph must contain:
1. A Topic sentence identifying the first type of cause or effect - THIS IS YOUR CLAIM!
- Write a Topic Sentence in which you identify the category of cause or effect to be discussed.
b. When we examine causes and effects, they usually fit into several categories, groups, types.
You can have social, political, or economic causes. You can examine short term and long
term effects, or physical, psychological, or environmental effects.
c. Take a look at this example of a topic sentence that you might use if you were writing about the
causes of underage drinking:
Underage drinking can be caused by several physical factors.
For the purpose of our underage drinking prompt, the statistics on the prompt page lend themselves to the physical and psychological effects of underage drinking on teenagers.
Underage drinking can have very serious physical effects for teens.
2. Statement of the first cause or effect.
- You must identify the cause or effect belonging to the category you've identified in your topic sentence.
Here are some sample causes you might write about for the topic of underage drinking:
Physical
Causes / Psychological
Causes / Social / Environmental
Causes
genetics, low tolerance level / depression; anxiety; low self-esteem / alcoholic parents/family members; permissive parenting
b. Here are some sample effects (based on the information in our prompt) that you might write about for the
topic of underage drinking:
Effects / Psychological Effects / Social Effects
decreased brain function
alcohol-related accidents
We have determined that our essay will be about the EFFECTS of underage drinking. In our topic sentence, therefore, we would first discuss the physical effects of underage drinking on teens. How would we write this in a sentence?
Ex: One of these physical effects is decreased brain function in teens who are heavily exposed to alcohol consumption.
3. Explanation of First Cause or Effect – GIVE INFO ABOUT THE SPECIFIC CAUSE OR EFFECT BEING DISCUSSED IN THIS CATEGORY!
- Give some sort of statistic or proof from the prompt that will explain how you know that your cause leads
to the topic under discussion, or that your topic under discussion leads to your effect.
- You must use specific details from the prompt - that's why the information is there!
- In a “cause” essay, you might answer the question…..
How do you know that underage drinking has physical causes?
According to the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “Some of the behavioral and physiological factors that converge to increase or decrease a person's risk for alcohol problems, including tolerance to alcohol's effects, may be directly linked to genetics.”
- In the case of our prompt, which is on the effects of underage drinking, we must answer the question.....
How do you know underage drinking leads to decreased brain function?
According to The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University, recent studies
have shown that heavy exposure of the adolescent brain to the chemicals present in alcohol may interfere with brain development, causing loss of memory and other skills.
*Notice how the SOURCE of the quote/statistic is identified before the quote/statistic is used!*
*Note also that quotation marks are used when quoting the source exactly, but not when the source has been paraphrased.*
4. Analysis of First Cause or Effect -- THIS IS YOUR INTERPRETATION!
- You must show you're your reader why the relationship between the cause and the topic matters, or why the topic and the effect matters. In other words, why it's good or bad.
- You're going to use your own knowledge, in most cases, or information from the prompt to analyze the relationship between the cause and the topic under discussion, or the topic under discussion and its effects.
In the case of the CAUSES of underage drinking, you’d have to answer this question:
Why is growing up in a family of alcoholics linked to underage drinking?
But since we are writing about the EFFECTS of underage drinking, you'll answer this question:
Why is loss of brain function bad?
Teens need these functions to perform well in school, to think about consequences of behaviors, and to recall important pieces of information that will help them in their daily lives. When those skills decrease due to decreased brain development, these young people will begin to experience additional negative consequences related to poor school performance, such as failure to grasp and recall key concepts and, ultimately, failing grades. In serious cases, alcohol can affect the brain's ability to control other body functions as well If the brain "forgets" to tell the heart to beat or the lungs to move air around the body, other serious physical disorders can occur - even death!
Pay close attention to how the "chain reaction" approach is employed here. Through a logical train of thought, we arrive to the conclusion that brain damage is bad because of the additional negative consequences (failing school, heart/lung disorders, death) that can arise as a result. You’d follow that same “chain reaction” logic when considering how, specifically, growing up in a family of alcoholics can CAUSE underage drinking.
5. Transition sentence, a bridge between the two causes or effects
- In other words, you must recap where you've been, and show where you're going. This sentence is really a combination of a closing sentence for cause/effect # 1, and a topic sentence for cause/effect #2.
b. For our sample body section, we must connect "decreased brain function" to "alcohol-related accidents." What will that sentence look like? Here's a fine example:
In addition to the complications that arise as a result of alcohol-related brain damage, underage drinking is also the cause of a number of alcohol-related accidents among young people under the legal drinking age.
Pay close attention to the transition words used in this sentence: "In addition" and "also." The presence of these words give your reader cues that you are about to change gears in your essay.
6. Explanation of Second Cause or Effect -- THIS IS YOUR EVIDENCE!
- Give some sort of statistic or proof from the prompt that explains how you know your identified cause leads to the topic under discussion, or how you know the topic under discussion leads to the effect you've identified.
- You must use specific details from the prompt - that's why the information is there!
- In the case of the underage drinking prompt, we must now answer the question.....
How do you know underage drinking leads to alcohol-related accidents?
d. Ex: According to The Center for Science in Public Interest, Alcohol is a factor in the four leading causes of death among persons ages 10 to 24: (1) motor-vehicle crashes, (2)unintentional injuries, (3) homicide, and (4) suicide.
*Notice how the SOURCE of the quote/statistic is identified before the quote/statistic is used!*
7. Analysis of Second Cause or Effect -- THIS IS YOUR INTERPRETATION
- You must show you're your reader why the relationship between the cause and the topic matters, or why the topic and the effect matters. In other words, why it's good or bad.
- You're going to use your own knowledge, in most cases, or information from the prompt to analyze the relationship between the cause and the topic under discussion, or the topic under discussion and its effects.
- In the case of the underage drinking prompt, you'll have to answer this question:
Why are alcohol-related accidents bad?
d. Ex: These shocking statistics cut to the heart of the issue: the choice to engage in underage drinking can physically alter people's lives forever. For those who receive extensive physical injuries from alcohol-related accidents, many adjustments will have to be made to their daily lives to accommodate the physical consequence of their choice. For those who die in alcohol-related accidents, they leave behind a legacy of pain and anguish for their loved ones. For those whose choice to drink and drive takes the life of someone else, they have to live with the psychological consequences of killing someone else because of their alcohol abuse.
Pay close attention to how the "chain reaction" approach is employed here. Through a logical train of thought, we arrive to the conclusion that the effects of alcohol-related accidents upon teens begs the question, "Is it really worth it to drink as a teen?"
8. Concluding sentence
- Your sentence must wrap up the first category of causes/effects and lead into the next category
- You must restate the two causes or effects you mentioned in the paragraph.
- You must restate the sub-topic.
- For our purposes in this underage drinking example, we'll be moving from PHYSICAL EFFECTS to a discussion of PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS. What will this statement look like?
Given the dangerous physical effects that underage drinking can have upon young people, it is difficult to imagine that so many teens engage in this risky behavior. But, sadly, physical consequences are just one of the types of effects that alcohol can have upon young people today.
At this point, we have completed one full body section of our cause/effect essay on underage drinking. You would use the exact same thought process when writing the next body section on the PHYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS of underage drinking.
In your conclusion, you must have:
1. Acknowledgement of opposing viewpoints.
In other words, not everyone in the free world is going to agree with what you have to say. For every viewpoint, there's an opposing viewpoint. For everyone who argues that TV violence leads to violent youngsters, there will be an equal number of individuals who argue that violence on the TV can actually be good for kids. For our purpose, who could argue against our position that underage drinking is bad for teens? And where would we get that information? Below is a statement of an opposing view that many parents use to justify providing alcohol to their underage children:
Many individuals, including parents of teenagers, feel that a big part of the enticement for kids to engage in alcohol abuse is the sense of excitement that accompanies sneaking to drink alcohol. Doing something that is forbidden by authority figures is what makes drinking so popular among teenagers today. These individuals argue that by providing a "safe place" for their children to drink alcohol, they can teach their kids how to drink responsibly and keep them off the roads and out of danger
2. Refute the opposing viewpoint that you just brought up.
In other words, point out the weaknesses in your opposition, and replace their opinion with your own by reminding your audience of YOUR good ideas. How will we do that with our underage drinking example? We cause even our opposition to think of the worst-case scenarios that could come about as a result of putting their ideas into practice. It might look a little something like this:
While this argument may come from the best of intentions, supervised experimentation with underage drinking simply isn't realistic. First of all, if teens will drink at home under their parents' supervision, they'll think that it's ok to drink in situations where they are not supervised. Also, if parents teach their children that drinking alcohol before it is legal to do so is appropriate behavior, then what other illegal behaviors might those children think are permissible? These well-meaning individuals may actually be encouraging the very same negative physical and psychological effects that they were hoping their children would escape.