Cause and effect essay

STEP #1: MAKE A LIST

Identify and make a list of CAUSES and EFFECTS.

· KEY IDEAS: These causes and effect will be the KEY IDEAS in your essay.

· CAUSAL CONNECTION: Make sure that these causes and effect relate to each other closely. In other words, there should be a clear relationship of how specific effect result from certain causes.

· PLAN AHEAD: Be sure to choose causes and effect for which you have plenty to say and can support with examples from the reading.

See this example below, formulated from an article about Ebola:

EFFECT: Congress has called from a travel ban for West Africa.

CAUSE #1: Several Americans have contracted Ebola.

CAUSE #2: American citizens have panicked.

Now, write your own list of EFFECT and CAUSES from the topic community college dropouts:

STEP #2: WRITE A THESIS

Put your list together to form a thesis statement.

· THESIS: You will use the list of causes and effects to create your thesis statement. Remember a thesis statement includes the key topic/argument (the cause and effect relationship) and the main ideas (causes and effects). The purpose of a thesis statement is to tell readers about the CONTENT and ORGANIZATION of your essay.

· CONTENT: Your thesis statement will include the KEY IDEAS of your essay. You will use the list of causes and effects that you created to compose that thesis statement.

· ORGANIZATION: You will put those main ideas in the same order that they will appear in the essay itself.

See this example below which follows from STEP #1

(EFFECT) Congress has called from a travel ban for West Africa, because (CAUSE #1) several Americans have been diagnosed with Ebola, (CAUSE #2) and American citizens are afraid of getting infected. Note: in your thesis statement, you will not write the words in parenthesis. Those are only for your understanding.

When you write your own thesis statement, you can follow the same format. Fill in the blanks:

(EFFECT)______________________, because (CAUSE #1) ______________________ and (CAUSE #2) _________________________.

Rewrite your thesis statement as a clear sentence (without the parenthesis):

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

STEP #3: WRITE AN INTRODUCTION

Write a complete introduction that includes these elements:

1. CAPTURE the audience’s attention.

2. Give BACKGROUND information, including the title and a brief 1-2 sentence summary of the issue.

3. Include the THESIS that you created above. NOTE: the main ideas in the thesis (the causes and effects) will match the key ideas of the TOPIC SENTENCES in the Body paragraphs.

See this example below which follows from STEP #2

(CAPTURE) Nearly 5,000 West Africans died from Ebola by the end of October of 2014 according to the Centers for Disease Control (James). (BACKGROUND) A dangerous virus that causes severe internal bleeding, the disease was first identified in 1976, but a recent outbreak of Ebola is the deadliest so far. Most of the sickness is confined to West Africa, but there have been a few reported incidents in the United States (Johns). (THESIS) Congress has called from a travel ban for West Africa, because several Americans have been diagnosed with Ebola, and American citizens are afraid of getting infected.

Write your introductory paragraph your own thesis in sections:

1. CAPTURE ATTENTION : ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. GIVE BACKGROUND

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. THESIS (FROM ABOVE)

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

STEP #4: PLAN YOUR TOPIC SENTENCES

Now that you have an introduction and a thesis statement, it is time to plan the topic sentences of your essay.

· TOPIC SENTENCE: Keep in mind that each part of your thesis statement will be matched with a topic sentence which begins a body paragraph.

· TRANSITIONS: Be sure to use good transitions which make connections inside the paragraph and from paragraph to paragraph.

See this example below which follows from STEP #3

THESIS: Congress has called from a travel ban for West Africa, because several Americans have been diagnosed with Ebola, and American citizens are afraid of getting infected. (from the end of the Introduction)

BODY

TOPIC SENTENCE #1—EFFECT: Recently Congress has called from a travel ban to prevent travel from West Africa.

TOPIC SENTENCE #2—CAUSE #1: Several Americans have contracted Ebola

TOPIC SENTENCE #3—CAUSE #2: American citizens are afraid that they will be exposed and get infected with the virus.

Re-write your thesis (as a reference), and then create the topic sentences for the body paragraphs of your own essay:

1. THESIS : ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. TOPIC SENTENCE #1

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. TOPIC SENTENCE #2

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. TOPIC SENTENCE #3 : ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

STEP #5: PLAN YOUR EFFECT PARAGRAPH

If you have carefully followed steps #1-4, you should have a strong organizational plan. Now it is time to map out the content of your essay. This is what it will look like:

EFFECT

1. Topic Sentence:

2. Subpoint 1:

· Include evidence with citation. Your evidence will be from the articles and will include statistics, facts, direct quotations, paraphrasing, etc. In your outline, you need not include the full details of the evidence, but you should include a brief one or two sentence summary for each. You will develop this fully in your essay. Remember to cite this information with an MLA in-text citation.

· Include explanation. This is the information that you critically interpret from the evidence. It relates the evidence to your topic sentence and thesis statement. This explanation will answer the questions, “Why does that evidence matter?” “How does it prove the topic sentence?” Remember not to include any of the key CAUSES in this because you will develop those in the next part.

3. Subpoint 2:

· Include evidence with citation. Evidence includes supporting details, statistics, facts, etc. from the source/reading. (See above) This evidence proves your topic sentence. Remember to cite this information with an MLA in-text citation.

· Include explanation. This is the information that relates the evidence to your topic sentence and thesis statement. This explanation will answer the questions, “Why does that evidence matter?” “How does it prove the topic sentence?” Remember not to include any of the key CAUSES in this because you will develop those in the next part.

4. Conclude the main idea by showing how it connects to the thesis. 

See this example of an EFFECT paragraph which follows from STEP #5:

Topic Sentence : Recently Congress has called from a travel ban to prevent travel from West Africa.

Subpoint 1 : Congress has ignored the advice of medical experts and called for a travel ban.

· Evidence: On October 16, 2014, lawmakers in Washington called for a ban on travel from West African nations (McAuliff)

· Explanation: Medical experts assert that there is very little danger to American citizens from people travelling to and from West Africa.

Subpoint 2 : Most Republicans are urging President Obama to put restrictions in place.

· Evidence: 64 Republican Congressmen and 9 Democrats are in favor of the ban (The Hill Staff)

· Explanation: Most of the lawmakers who are urging the President to impose the ban are Republicans, while the Democrats are in favor of waiting to see if the disease can be contained.

Conclude : A large majority of Republican lawmakers are calling to put a ban on travel from West Africa.

Re-write your own EFFECT topic sentence that you created in Step # 4 and add subpoints that relate to the topic:

EFFECT=BODY PARAGRAPH #1

Topic Sentence: _______________________________________________________

Subpoint 1: ______________________

· Evidence and citation:

· Explanation:

Subpoint 2: ______________________

· Evidence and citation:

· Explanation:

Conclude: _______________________________________________________

STEP #6: PLAN YOUR TWO CAUSES PARAGRAPHS

Now you will plan your CAUSES paragraphs using the same technique as shown above.

Re-write your first CAUSE topic sentence that you created in Step # 4 and add subpoints that relate to the topic:

CAUSE #1=BODY PARAGRAPH #2

Topic Sentence:_______________________________________________________

Subpoint 1: ______________________

· Evidence and citation:

· Explanation:

Subpoint 2: ______________________

· Evidence and citation:

· Explanation:

Conclude: _______________________________________________________

Re-write your second CAUSE topic sentence that you created in Step # 4 and add subpoints that relate to the topic:

CAUSE #2=BODY PARAGRAPH #3

Topic Sentence:_______________________________________________________

Subpoint 1: ______________________

· Evidence and citation:

· Explanation:

Subpoint 2: ______________________

· Evidence and citation:

· Explanation:

Conclude: _______________________________________________________

STEP #7

CONCLUSION: Write complete conclusion. For example, in the conclusion, you can bring the points together and offer a solution, speculation, etc.

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