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ENGL 101 Sections 16

Cause and Effect Assignment

“Wicked Ministers have bin the proximate cause of our miseries”

Digby. “Speeches . . .” 1641. OED

The Task:

Your fourth major paper will be an academic research paper in which you will employ cause and effect reasoning in order to support a claim of some sort. Like the compare and contrast essay you just finished, this is a form of reasoning — a way of forming an argument in other words — designed to properly discriminate between two things which have happened in some sort of sequence and are related by cause and effect.

In this essay you will approach a problem by either analyzing its cause (by asking why), or by predicting its effect (by asking what if). Given the brevity of the assignment, you should restrict your essay to one or the other approaches – either cause or effect. You may select any topic you like, but I recommend you consider a topic that is germane to your field of study, job, or daily life. Consider this an opportunity to either learn more about something which puzzles you or to question something which you might have previously taken for granted. Some examples might be:

“Why is obesity a chronic problem in North Carolina?”

“Why do we call the Dark Ages, dark?”

“Why don’t the Jets play better?”

“Why do English Departments teach composition?”

“What if football had less umpires, like soccer?”

”What if Pat McCrory is elected governor?”

“What if the U.S. Government closed Guantanamo Bay prison?”

“What if there were more charter schools in Harnett County?”

First you should decide on a topic, and explore it a bit. Find something that interests you. Ask yourself “why” and “what if.” Speculate. Brainstorm. Consider what you know about the topic and what you merely suspect. Then, narrow the topic to something manageable. “Why did Rome fall?” is a topic for a cause and effect essay, but not in 1200 words; on the other hand, “Why did the Roman Army become a mercenary force?” is a possible topic derived from this larger one.

Once you have settled on a possible topic make some provisional claims about what has caused some event, attitude, or thing; conversely, you may make a claim about what effect might be generated by an actual or proposed event, attitude, or thing. The argument, or claim, which you make should be arguable and require you to discriminate between causation and correlation, as well as proximate versus remote cause. Be mindful of fallacies which can creep into cause and effect reasoning, the chief of which is post hoc, ergo propter hoc.

As with all the writing we will be doing for the balance of the semester, this is an argumentative work. Assume a possible audience for your work, and keep this audience in mind. Use appropriate academic language and define any specialized terms. Your task is to argue for a particular understanding of a cause or of an effect, and persuade your audience. You are not just writing a descriptive or informative essay. Research will be necessary in order to make a claim as to cause and/or effect, and to successfully reason to a conclusion. This cannot be done successfully by simply citing someone else’s conclusions. Prior to beginning work you should refer to Chapter 16 of The Longman Writer (pp. 331- 348), and review some of the sample essays which follow.

Work Cited

Nadell, Judith, John Langan, and Eliza A. Comodromos. The Longman Writer. 8th ed. Brief ed. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.

Deadlines:

· Tue, Oct 9: You will present your thesis to the class and be prepared to defend it. This presentation will consist of placing your thesis statement (composed as a single declarative sentence) on the overhead projector and explaining, in 2 minutes or less your topic and whether you are focused on arguing cause or effect. You will also address your purpose and proposed audience, as well as share your brainstorming techniques.

· Tue, Oct 16: 1st draft without peer reviews due at the beginning of class, hardcopy. To be discussed in class with peers.

· Tue, Oct 23: 2d draft with peer reviews due to me, ON PAPER, at the beginning of class.

· Tue, Oct 30: Final paper due on Blackboard by midnight.

Specifications:

Your paper must…

· be 900 - 1200 words.

· be peer reviewed.

· have a descriptive title.

· contain a clear thesis statement that summarizes your claim as to cause and/or effect and that is specific, significant, and arguable.

· explain and support your thesis through the use of academically and ethically sound evidence.

· use proper MLA documentation and manuscript format. You must cite at least three reference sources for evidence on your topic. If your topic is a creative work (a song, for example) you must also cite the source of the work, in addition to the three reference citations. (Your paper may contain graphics or links if to other media if you wish.)

· include at least two quotations in the text of the essay, properly composed and documented.

· contain an introduction in which the thesis statement is found, and a conclusion which supports and amplifies the thesis statement.

· contain unified, coherent, well-developed paragraphs with strong topic sentences, with clear and logical transitions between the paragraphs.

· be formatted according to the guidelines listed in your syllabus.

See the syllabus for both Grading Standards and Grading Rubric for an overview of how your paper will be evaluated.