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How to write a Cause and Effect Essay: Steps and Outline

How to write a Cause and Effect Essay: Steps and Outline

How many times have you been assigned to write a cause and effect essay? It can be a difficult assignment, but if you follow these steps carefully, it will become much easier.  This blog post will outline the steps for writing an effective cause and effect essay.

What is a Cause and Effect Essay

A cause and effect essay is a type of argumentative essay. It sets out to prove that one event causes another, or that one thing caused another. As such, the writer needs to provide evidence for their claims and back up their points with examples from sources such as books, journals, interviews etc. It is used to analyze different effects that a single action or event had. This type of essay will often use the following format: “Cause” + “Effect.”. These essays are typically used in science classes when looking at the causes and effects of natural disasters or other events. It may seem like this would be an easy task, but there are some steps you need to take before writing your first paragraph.

They are considered as part of Expository Writing since cause and Effect Essays explore the causes behind a phenomenon, then provide an effect of that event to illustrate one’s point.

Steps of writing a Cause and Effect Essay

The following steps will help you write an effective cause and effect essay:

Step 1: Introduce the topic

Step 2: List all causes that you have determined to be relevant to your subject matter; list them from most important cause to least important cause. At this stage, find evidence of that in the form of facts or examples from sources such as books or articles that are written by experts on the subject.

Step 3: List all effects related to those causes that follow logically and state how this event affected other things in society- even if it was negative consequences.

Step 4: Analyze each effect in terms of its impact on the reader or audience (I am addressing my audience) and present your opinion on what should happen next.

Step 5: Come up with possible solutions for this problem so that people don’t have to suffer anymore because of it!

Step 6: The final steps are always editing which includes fixing grammatical errors, punctuation mistakes, spelling issues etc. And finally proofreading which means making sure everything is spelled correctly by looking over it again before giving it to an instructor or professor for feedback/grading purposes.

How to Start a Cause and Effect Essay

A cause and effect essay can have two different structures which are chronological order (also known as time sequence) or reverse chronology order. Chronological means that events happen one after another but if they’re backtracked from their natural progression then this reverses into reverse chronology where events happen before each other (from past to present). Using either structure is acceptable because both show how things might influence each other. In Cause and Effect Essay structure, the cause is typically first followed by an effect.

One way to start off writing your paper would be by talking about what caused the problem/issue you’re discussing; such as how it may have been caused by a certain change in the environment, an event that occurred and set this chain of events into motion or what you think might be causing it.

State what happened. At this point, you’ll want to start off by telling what happened first. This is usually the introductory sentence for your essay. For example, “In 2008, Hurricane Ike made landfall on Galveston Island.”

Once your reader has grasped how this issue was most likely created, they will then want to know what are some possible outcomes or effects; such as those which can result from its occurrence. These different effects could include positive ones like good things happening because of something bad; negative ones like suffering through unpleasant consequences when there were other choices available; and potential future results if nothing is done about the cause now but just kept going on with no solution sought for these issues.

Clearly state your thesis statement at the beginning of your paper so readers know what point you are trying to make throughout the entire piece.

Explain why it occurred. You’ll want to explain why this event occurred including any contributing factors such as location (e.g., Galveston Island), weather conditions etc.

Cause and Effect Essay Outline and Structure

Structure

A cause and effect paper is written by making use of three main points which are linked together in order to form an argument for your topic (each point has its own supporting evidence). Include links to outside sources that support each point you make.

Generally, a cause of effect paper starts with an incident, then explains what happened as a result.

Introduction

The introduction of a cause and effect essay should include the topic, an overview of what is going to be discussed in the following paragraphs and a statement about how this information could affect readers. This will make it easier for them to understand why they should keep reading and not give up after few sentences.

Body

The first body paragraph should introduce both sides of the issue with supporting evidence from different sources (outside or personal experience).

The second one should support that particular argument by giving more arguments, facts etc., as well as some new ones that have just appeared on the horizon.

Conclusion

The conclusion is the last section, where you have to tie up any loose ends that were left open during your paper. This includes restating main points, tying them together with personal experiences or outside sources as well as giving an opinion on what can be done about this problem/issue at hand. Another thing one should do after writing their conclusion is summing up by discussing how they feel about this issue which they are arguing through their paper. That way readers will know whether the writer agrees with their position or not based off of these personal feelings.

Outline/Template

The outline of a cause and effect essay is like any other type of paper which has:

Introduction

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Body

Paragraph 1

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Paragraph 2

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Paragraph 3

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Conclusion

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

The structure for this type of paper consists out of using supporting evidence from outside sources or personal experience to support each point in order to make it more credible with readers.

25+ Good Cause and Effect Essay topics

  1. Write an essay about why obesity rates have been increasing over the last few decades
  2. Disease in America
  3. The cause of obesity
  4. Alcoholism Research Paper
  5. Causes for World War One
  6. The economic effects essay on the Great Depression
  7. The effects of pollution
  8. Education in America
  9. Teenage pregnancy
  10. The causes of the Civil War
  11. Abortion in America
  12. Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide
  13. Causes for Slavery
  14. Global warming is a hoax!
  15. Gun control laws should be stronger
  16. Free trade has its benefits as well as disadvantages
  17. High taxes can hurt economic growth homework essay
  18. The benefits of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
  19. Causes of terrorism
  20. Why is Social Media so addicting?
  21. What are some causes for bullying in schools?
  22. Censorship on college campuses should be banned, why or why not?
  23. Effects and impacts of smoking cigarettes during pregnancy
  24. The effects of pollution
  25. The negative effects of fracking
  26. Effects and impacts on the environment from using plastic bags in grocery stores
  27. What are some causes for harassment?
  28. Cognitive dissonance is a cause of mental illness
  29. Why did you choose to attend this school?

Cause and Effect Essay Examples

Sample 1:

Essay about Cause of Obesity

You might write an essay about why obesity rates have been increasing over the last few decades. This would include talking about various factors which may contribute to this trend such as increased access to fast food restaurants or more sedentary lifestyles due to technology. The focus on your paper will be examining what caused something else rather than discussing possible solutions for a problem (e.g., “What are some ways we can fight against obesity?”)

Obesity is caused by many factors. It can be genetic, environmental or hereditary. Environmental factors are the most common cause of obesity these days. This in turn leads people to be more sedentary which means they spend less time moving around and burning calories through physical activity (Larimore) as well as consuming too much food that contains high levels of sugar, fat and salt because it’s readily available at any given moment. Another factor could be a person’s socioeconomic status which may put them at risk for eating unhealthy foods because healthy ones are unaffordable (Hearne). Those with an active lifestyle have been shown to eat healthier diets than their counterparts who live a sedentary lifestyle.”

Sample 2:

The effects of pollution:

Pollution is one of the causes for global warming. The primary cause for air pollution is carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion, which also contributes to climate change as CO₂ absorbs heat and traps it in Earth’s atmosphere. One major effect of this problem that many people don’t think about are the acid rain droplets that fall on plants and trees; these can kill them when they come into contact with leaves or needles, causing a shortage in food sources like fruits, vegetables, etc. (Source: “What Causes Air Pollution? | Reduce Pollution Now!”). Another major impact our environment faces because of pollution is ocean acidification – increased levels of carbon dioxide gas in the atmosphere are causing an increase in levels of carbonic acid and decreasing pH levels. A major issue with this is that, as a result of these changes to ocean chemistry, there will be less dissolved calcium carbonate available for marine life – including coral reefs which provide habitat for many species and act as food sources.

Sample 3:

Effects and impacts of smoking cigarettes during pregnancy – What’s bad about it and what to expect. Smoking could lead to health problems such as lung cancer, blood clotting disorders, heart disease and stroke- among others. For pregnant women who smoke cigarettes throughout their pregnancies can have an increased risk for miscarriage; premature birth; developmental delays in infants; low birth weight babies which will result in children with a higher chance at developing asthma. If you’re going through withdrawal symptoms like shaking, irritability, craving for cigarettes and difficulty in concentrating then you know what it’s like to stop smoking.

Smoking can give birth defects such as cleft palate, club foot or hydrocephalus which is an accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain cavity that causes severe mental retardation. For pregnant women who smoke during their pregnancies would increase a woman’s risk of having low weight babies; miscarriage; premature births and stillbirths

Smoking will cause constrictions on blood flow meaning less oxygen to the body tissues leading to tissue damage and death when not enough oxygen is delivered throughout your system. Some long term effects include reproductive problems including infertility; cancers due to tobacco use: lung cancer (most common), pancreatic cancer, cancers of the larynx and pharynx; esophageal cancer from smoke inhalation. Smoking will contribute to heart disease by adding stress to your blood vessels which increases pressure on them leading to a higher chance for heart attack or stroke.

A smoker’s coronary arteries have been found narrower than those who don’t smoke in studies done over many years. Smoking also contributes as one of the causes that leads up to pulmonary emphysema which is an accumulation of air-filled sacs in the lungs due to smoking. Smoking also takes away oxygen from tissue cells meaning there is less energy produced because they aren’t getting enough nourishment needed. It can cause wrinkles around eyes quicker since it decreases elasticity of skin which is a natural reaction to smoking. This can also lead up to cancer like lung and throat cancers.

Smoking not only affects the smokers health, but it also takes away from family life when homes are filled with smoke that lingers because of tobacco products left uncleaned or lit cigarettes thrown on the ground outside while walking in doorways. Smoke fills rooms quickly so even babies living inside households where one person smokes will have increased risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

There are many other side effects as well such as tooth decay or gum disease caused by nicotine’s effect on blood flow in gums and teeth buds, plaque build-up around mouth area due to chemicals found in tobacco smoke sticks into saliva which   then hardens around teeth and gums, as well as a higher risk for heart disease that is caused by increased levels of bad cholesterol or blood clots in the arteries.”

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