Paper 2 Very Important

jhayes

etudes_n2.docx

Home >English homework help >Paper 2 Very Important

The general topic of the paper is the American dream and its effects on one or more characters in The Great Gatsby.

Top of Form

View

Table Of Contents

Paper 2 » Module 7.2: Items 1-6 Evaluation Criteria

Bookmark it! My Bookmarks

7. Paper 2

7.2. Module 7.2: Items 1-6 Evaluation Criteria

Remember to check Evaluation Criteria in Modules

Items 1-6:

Following the Evaluation Criteria Lesson 1.

Elements of Organization

I. Opening paragraph: It needs a thesis statement and an organizing idea. It should end with a statement of significance.

IV. Closing paragraph: It needs a summary, a conclusion, and a hint of things to comeHint: If you end up writing the opening and closing of the paper at the end of the writing process, after you have written most of the two segments of the body of the paper, you would be right on task.

Two-part Body: II.

Note: This segment of the paper is basically a copy-and-paste from Paper 1. It has to be integrated into this new paper, Paper 2, but the basic content can be the same. Where I predict you will make some changes will be in II A and II E. Of course, you will make corrections and editing changes, but the content may be the same as Paper 1. A.

A sub-thesis statement about the American dream in general terms but also in the context of the novel, and an organizing idea that states in three sentences what the three ideas are in II. B, C, and D.

About 5-10 sentences.

II A needs to support the overall thesis in I A. Notice that II is developed at the information level using examples and description. B. What is the American dream in general terms (but be prepared to relate your description to the novel)? (General) This will be about 20 sentences. C. What is the American dream in the novel? (More specifically) About 20 sentences. D. Relate the American dream to characters in the novel. (Even more specifically) About 20 sentences. Note: II B, C, and D basically should be copied and pasted from Paper 1. E. A closing that contains a summary that will restate what was covered in II B, C, and D. About 5-10 sentences and a sub-conclusion, which will be a restatement of the sub thesis in II A. 2.

Methods of Development: Use description and example for this first segment (II) of the body of the paper.

Mode of Order: The overall mode of order for this segment of the paper is general-to-specific; however, consider what the mode of order is for each section within the segment as well.

5. Transitions: Note: You need a very short transitional paragraph of one or more sentences to make the transition from informational level development to analysis. Avoid making reference to technical terms such as information-level, analysis, cause, effect, etc., in doing so.

In other words, between II and III you need to write a one-sentence transitional paragraph that moves the reader from examples and description of the American dream to the consequences of the dream.

III. This segment of the paper is developed at the analytical level using cause and effect. A. A sub-thesis that develops an idea about the American dream as a cause that has effects or consequences for characters in the novel. For the sub-thesis, develop the American dream as a cause. Notice that III is developed at the analytical level using cause and effects. About 5-10 sentences B. What is the effect of the American dream on a character in the novel? How does the American dream make this person behave? How does this person end up as a consequence of the dream? About 20 sentences C. What is a second effect of the American dream on that character in III B OR an effect on a second character? About 20 sentences D. What is a third effect of the American dream on that character in III B & C OR an effect on a third character? About 20 sentences

When you discuss the three effects of the American dream, you could choose a major character, such as Gatsby or Carraway, and develop three effects of the dream on him, or you could choose three characters and develop the effects of the dream on those three characters, first one, then another, and then a third.

Gatsby and Carraway are complicated characters who have stories that are developed more than some of the minor characters, so you could readily identify three different effects of the dream on them. They go through a number of stages. If you use more than one character, which is another way to do the assignment, you can isolate a single effect of the dream on each one of the three whom you have chosen.

E. A closing that contains a sub-conclusion, which will be a restatement of the sub-thesis in IIIA, and a summary that will restate what was covered in III B, C, and D. About 5-10 sentences. About 5-10 sentences

2. Methods of Development: Use cause and effects for III, an analysis level development of the topic of this paper. Review cause and effect in Modules.

3. Mode of Order: The overall mode of order for this segment of the paper is time OR importance; however, consider what the mode of order is for each body-paragraph within the segment as well.

4. Mechanics: For a passing grade, review your paper for effective mechanics, with no more than four errors per page. Include two new quotes from The Great Gatsby, which makes a total of at least four quotes in Paper #2. Use a works cited page, referencing the novel, at least.

Notice that it is “the American dream”: lower case “t” and “d.” Only the “A” is capitalized. Always underline the title of the novel, The Great Gatsby. You need to mention the author and the novel's title once in the first sentence of the paper, but after that you can refer to him as Fitzgerald and to the novel as the “novel” to avoid repetitiveness.

5. Transitions: Use “first,” for the first five-paragraph segment of the body of the paper (II) and “second,” for the second five-paragraph segment of the body of the paper (III). Remember that you will have a one-sentence paragraph (one or two sentences) separating II from III. Use “In summary,” and “In conclusion,” in the closing. What transitions are you using to communicate your methods of development and your modes of order?

Format: Double space the entire paper beginning with your last name and page number in the upper right-hand corner, ; note it on sample papers. Four-line heading: Remember to put English 101, Paper #2 and your section number at this point. Follow the style from Modules' MLA. So the four-line heading will look like this, with two minor changes that are noted below after the English 101: Johnny Johnson Professor Sprague English 101, Paper #2, XXXX (or whatever your section number is) 4 November 2008 (or whatever the accurate date is). Use a title that hints at the thesis. Don't try to write the title until your paper is over, so you can be sure that it hints at what the overall idea of the paper is. Indenting: Every time you indent, you indicate that a new paragraph is starting. Indents are about five spaces.

Formal tone: Eliminate the use of the following: “I,” “me,” “my,” “mine”; “we,” “us,” “our,” “ours”; “you,” “your,” and “yours”). Formal exposition is not about us; it is about the topic that is being developed. Works Cited: This should be the last numbered page of your paper. Outline. For your outline for Paper #2, copy and paste your thesis statement, the two sub-thesis sentences for the two-segment body, and the conclusion onto a separate piece of paper at the end of your paper. It should be an unnumbered page because an outline is not part of MLA style. The outline is just for English 101. Use Roman numerals for the four pieces (I-IV). Study the Evaluation Criteria Lesson for additional information about how Paper#2 will be evaluated.

7.4. Module 7.4: Outlining

A Full Outline would look like this:

I. Opening Paragraph:

A. Thesis statement: This is the overall main idea of the essay (4 sentences)

B. 2 Organizing Ideas

C. Statement of Significance

II. Developed at the information level using examples and descriptions (a paragraph of 5 sentences, 3 20 sentence paragraphs, a closing paragraph of 5 sentences)

A. A sub-thesis statement about the American dream (starts with “First,”

B. The American dream in general terms.

C. The dream applied to the novel.

D. The dream applied to characters in the novel.

E. Closing Insert a short one-sentence transitional paragraph here.

III. Developed at the analysis level using cause and effect (a paragraph of 5 sentences, 3 20 sentence paragraphs, a paragraph of 5 sentences)

A. Sub-thesis about the American dream as a cause (starts with “Second,”

B. One consequence of the dream on a character.

C. A second consequence of the dream on a character.

D. A third consequence of the dream on a character.

E. A 5-sentence paragraph that closes III, the second 5-paaragraph segment of Paper 2, the Closing

IV. Closing paragraph (4 sentences)

A. Summary, using the phrase “In summary,” which should be two sentence long.

B. Conclusion, using the phrase “In conclusion,” which should be a restatement of the thesis in different words.

C. Hint of things to come.

The outline that you need to attach to your paper as the last page (unnumbered because it is not part of MLA) will look like this:

I. Thesis statement

II. First sub-thesis sentence

III. Second sub-thesis sentence

V. Conclusion

7.5. Module 7.5: Checklist

Make sure that you revise and improve the segment of Paper 2 that comes from Paper 2. See comments from your professor and make changes, but also make your own improvements.

Checklist for Paper 2

1.Is the page numbering correct?

2. Is the works cited page numbered correctly?

3. Do you have an outline at the end of your paper, unnumbered?

4. Is the works cited page correctly formatted?

5. Do you have double spacing?

6. Do you have a title, and does it hint at your thesis?

7. Your outline should have four parts to it; does it?

8. Paper 2 should have an opening paragraph, a five-paragraph segment forming the first part of the body of the paper and a five-paragraph segment forming the second part of the body of the paper. Finally, it should have a closing paragraph; does it?

9. Is the overall content of the first segment's five paragraphs based on Paper 1?

10. This first segment of the body should be developed by information-level methods of development, examples and descriptions.

11. The overall method of development for the second segment of the body of the paper should be at the analysis level using cause and effects.

12. Do you have a clear mode of order for cause and effects?

13. Do you have "first" for the first five-paragraph segment and "second" for the second five-paragraph segment?

14. Do you have the correct transitions to introduce your closing?

15. Is there an effective relationship between thesis and conclusion?

16. Do you have three pieces to your opening and to your closing?

17. Do you have at least four quotes from the novel?

18. Did you use MLA guidelines for your quotes, including signal phrases, in-text citations, and a works cited page?

19. Is your last page an unnumbered page that is your four-sentence outline?

Top of Form

View

Table Of Contents

Paper 2 » Module 7.6 Sample Paper 2

Bookmark it! My Bookmarks

7. Paper 2

7.6. Module 7.6 Sample Paper 2

Chandler 1

Angela Chandler

Professor Sprague

English 101, Paper 2, Section #8044 21

March 2009

The Accomplishments of the Tainted of the American Dream

OVERALL OPENING THESIS PARAGRAPH

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby develops the corruption of the American dream as the downfall of its characters. The American dream was once a pursuit of happiness, but through the novel and its characters, it has become a corrupted pursuit of greed and wealth. Jay Gatsby dreamed of wealth and love and ended up dying with no friends, no love, and no respect. Everybody wants to live the American dream, but does everyone want to pay the price that the pursuit of that dream may cost?

FIRST FIVE-PARAGRAPH SEGMENT (THAT WAS TAKEN FROM HER FIRST PAPER)

First, the novel brings to light the corruption of the American dream through the pursuit of pleasure and wealth at any cost. The American dream was an idea that started with our founding fathers when they wrote the Declaration of Independence. In the novel, we see how this idea has been twisted into a misshapen version of the original idea through greed and decayed morals. Then, through the eyes of Fitzgerald’s characters, we will learn that money cannot buy our dreams, no matter how much of it one might have. We live in different economical times, but it doesn’t take being fabulously wealthy to lose sight of the true meaning of our dreams.

The original idea of the American dream was thought to be based on the “pursuit of happiness”.The phrase “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” outlines every Americans’ idea of success. Our founding fathers unknowingly conceived the American dream when they wrote the Declaration of Independence. In his book The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation, Jim Cullen explains “These words speak to us. It’s not only that they laid the foundations for sweeping social movements like the struggle to end slavery. . . . These words actually structure the minutiae of everyday existence: where we go to school, who we marry, what we buy” (38). When these words were penned, they were in a document that freed us from another country and made us citizens of our own nation and not immigrants to a new land. These words are what drive immigrants here to find new opportunities. Immigrants come to America with dreams of rising above racial and social boundaries to become wealthy and successful. In the early part of the 20th century, immigrants would come to Ellis Island by the boat loads and stand in lines just for the chance to raise their families free from poverty and political persecution. They came here dreaming of the streets being paved in gold and of opportunities abound for their children.

Today, the American dream has been greatly mutated into a power hungry pursuit of money and pleasure. Big business rules the land and the cost of living is so high that we’re forced to dream of having more money to lead a better life. American historian James Truslow Adams once wrote in his book The Epic of America, “But there has also been the American Dream, that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of a social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are,regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position”(404). According to Adams, we should all have the chance to achieve what we are capable of, and not just strive for materialistic pursuits. The Epic of America was written in 1931, during a time of economical depression. This may have been a time when many Americans dreamed of having more money to attain happiness. We are once again in an economical depression, and we find ourselves even more obsessed with the quickest way to pursue a dollar. America was the land of opportunity, but ultimately has corrupted the pursuit of happiness with illusions of grandeur. Americans want it all and they want it now. We are no longer willing to work for it; we want it handed to us and expect our dreams to come to us.

Fitzgerald explores the corruption of the American dream through the lives of various characters obsession with wealth and pleasure. In the novel, we catch a glimpse into the lives of the wealthy, and we see how their riches do not enrich their lives. The rich and beautiful are just as miserable as the poor and downtrodden. The American dream, as seen through Fitzgerald’s eyes, has decayed into materialism and a loss of values. Many of the characters in this novel spend their money on possessions and glamorous parties to bring meaning to their lives. Their lives are empty and lack a purpose. One example of this is Tom and Daisy’s child. Tom and Daisy are main characters in the novel, yet we only hear mention of their child a couple of times throughout the novel. In the first chapter of The Great Gatsby, Daisy reminisces about the birth of her little girl. To portray to the reader how jaded her view of the world has become she relates this quote: “I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool-that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool” (17). It shows that people can have all they think they have ever dreamed, and realize that they would not wish these things on their children. Wealth cannot overcome the corruption of the American dream as portrayed by the separation of old and new money. While Daisy and Tom are example of East Egg residents or “old money”, on the other side of the bay lies West Egg or “new money”. The economy was booming in 1922 and the opportunity to make money was on the rise. The more money people made, the more they spent and the more they expected to come to them. It became an endless cycle of materialism and greed. The new money was good example of this. They had acquired their money through this booming economy, either through the stock market, or possibly more illicit ways such as bootlegging. They tended to be ostentatious with their money, buying the biggest houses and flaunting their money in front of everyone. The old money looked down upon this, seeing the new money as a lower class of being. So even though the West Eggers have achieved their dreams of gaining riches and buying big homes and spending lavish amounts of money, they were still spurned within their social class as being lower class. They were looked down upon by the East Eggers. Yet both sides of the bays, old and new money, expected every opportunity afforded to them through their great wealth. The characters in the novel have come to expect their dreams to come to them. Most working class citizens understand the value of a dollar. They’ve worked hard for that dollar and they will work hard for their dreams. In the novel we are faced with a different breed of American citizen. The upper class American. The old money had everything handed to them, from money to their property to their educations. They do not understand a day’s hard work. Many opportunities open themselves to people with money, especially those who have a name behind that money, and old money has both of those things.

The new money came about because of the growth of the economy. They may understand how hard it is to earn something you work for, but money corrupts. They have what they want, and now they want their dreams to come to them. Everybody believes that if you can just be a little wealthier you can have everything you want. You can be free to pursue your dreams.

THE SECOND FIVE-PARAGRAPH SEGMENT THAT IS DEVELOPED BY CAUSE AND EFFECT

The pursuit of wealth is not equal to the pursuit of happiness.The American dream can be related to the characters of the novel in different ways. J ay Gatsby, Jordan Baker and Tom Buchanan are three excellent examples of the relationship between wealth and the corruption of the American dream.

Jay Gatsby pursues his dream of re-creating the past in the future. He was a poor man from North Dakota who dreamed of being with a girl. He had to leave this girl when he went into the military and when he came back, she was married to a wealthy socialite. He knew he had no chance of ever winning her if he stayed poor, so he pursued wealth through crime. He becomes the newly rich and buys the biggest mansion in West Egg directly across from Daisy’s home in East Egg. He throws lavish parties every weekend just in the hopes of luring Daisy across the bay. He staked everything he ever had on the only dream he ever wanted, a dream that was stuck in the past. Even after he worked hard to amass his fortune and create an entire new persona for himself, he still falls short of his dream. In the end, Gatsby ultimately fails in attaining his dream. Once Daisy learns of Gatsby’s methods of gaining his fortune, she is driven closer to Tom and chooses to stay with Tom in the end. Gatsby dies alone, stuck on a dream of the past that he sees for the future. Jordan Baker pursues her dream of being a successful golf player, through deceit. She is a shallow, dishonest person who really only cares about herself. We learn in chapter three that she lies and she cheats. Nick relates a story about Jordan’s first big golf tournament where “there was a row that nearly reached the newspapers-a suggestion that she had moved her ball from a bad lie in the semi-final round” (57). This is our first glimpse at Jordan’s true personality. She tends to lie to cover anything unsavory about herself. She wants to be a golf champion, and it’s apparent that she will use any means to reach her goals. Tom Buchanan, his dream being realized through football in college, is now a restless person seeking anything to distract him from everyday life. He and his wife move from place to place, never settling down anywhere permanently. Tom constantly picks up new hobbies, such as polo horses, to distract himself from his domestic life. He even goes as far have an affair, and makes no real effort to hide this affair from his wife. Yet when his lover taunts Tom about his wife, he is quick to strike her out of anger. It seems Tom is frustrated with the life he leads. He finds different ways of occupying himself to help him forget his past. He clings to an old dream which makes him bitter. All three of these characters have the money that seems to be required to realize their dreams, yet all of them ultimately failed at their dreams. Jay Gatsby died with nobody at his side, Daisy having stayed with her husband. Jordan Baker lies her way through life and has to cheat to attain her dream of being a golf champion. Tom Buchanan is not happy with the way his life has turned out, so he turns to arrogance and bullying to achieve his happiness, which he still fails at. Americans may believe that the answer to their dreams is money, but money does not equal happiness.

The American dream was originally a dream of achieving goals no matter a person social or racial background. According to Fitzgerald, the American dream was corrupted in the 1920’s and turned into a pursuit of wealth and personal pleasure. This can be related to three of the main characters in the novel who even with wealth, they all seem to fail at their dreams in one way or another. The American dream has become a corroded illusion of effortless wealth through sometimes reckless means. The American dream has always been viewed as a goal to strive for, but when that dream has been far corrupted, the consequences can be dire indeed. The corrupted American dream is the catalyst for Jay Gatsby’s deterioration. Gatsby strived to attain wealth, but used underhanded dealings for his goal. Though he was rich, his money did not gain him respect in society. Ultimately, his desire for an unobtainable dream leads to his lonely death.Jay Gatsby lived a dishonest and unfulfilled life, full of people who mocked and laughed at him and forgot him when it was time to attend his funeral. In an attempt to fulfill his American dream, Jay Gatsby acquires his wealth through illicit deeds. In the beginning of the novel, all that is known about Gatsby is that he is extremely wealthy. Rumors circulate amongst Gatsby’s party-goers about the source of his money. One of Gatsby’s guests speculates that Gatsby has killed a man. Yet another guest believes he was a German spy. Nobody seems to know for sure where his money came from, yet everyone comes to his parties to indulge in it. Later on in the novel, Nick Carraway relates Gatsby’s past. Nick explains that Gatsby was humiliated when he had to work his way through college as a janitor. Gatsby leaves school behind to work on Lake Superior as a clam-digger and a salmon-fisher. It is during this time that he meets Dan Cody and takes up residence on his yacht. During this period, Gatsby falls in love with the wealthy lifestyle and devotes himself to gaining his own wealth. In chapter seven, the confirmation of Gatsby’s criminal connection is revealed. In chapter four, the character Meyer Wolfsheim is introduced. There are several small hints to reveal Wolfsheim’ criminal connections. After Wolfsheim has made his departure, Gatsby reveals the first real clue to Wolfsheims true criminal dealings. Nick asks Gatsby about Wolfsheim’s occupation which Gatsby comments: “He’s the man who fixed the World’s Series back in 1919.” (73) Later, in chapter seven, Gatsby’s connection to Wolfsheim is confirmed when Gatsby fires all of his servants and replaces them with shady characters connected to Meyer Wolfsheim. As a result of Gatsby’s criminal background, he is unable to go into great detail about his background. This leads to the many rumors circulating about Gatsby amongst society.

Though Gatsby is able to realize his dream of being wealthy, he is unable to live an honest life. Gatsby is even unable to be straightforward with those he loves and considers to be friends. While Gatsby was prosperous in his dream, he ultimately failed at gaining the respect of his peers. This is another example of the corruption of the American dream. Gatsby gained his fortune very quickly. He came from a poor background and did not have the “proper” upbringing of old money. He throws lavish parties in the hopes of attracting the attention of his lost love Daisy. Yet, it is the rest of the East Eggers or “old money” that attend these parties. Most of Gatsby’s guests do not even know him by sight. They come to his parties and revel in his money, yet when most speak of him, they gossip of heinous crimes he may have committed or don’t quite believe that things are what they seem. One example of this is given in chapter three. Nick and Jordan run across a man with enormous owl-eyed spectacles rummaging through Gatsby’s library. This man proclaims that the books are “Absolutely real-have pages and everything. I thought they’d be a nice durable cardboard. Matter of fact, they’re absolutely real.” (45) This shows that people think Gatsby puts on a show, but underneath he is a fake. He is hiding something. Later on in the novel, Gatsby is entertaining guests from East Egg, Mr. and Mrs. Sloane, and Tom Buchanan. He invites his guests to stay for dinner, but they refuse. To be polite, Mrs. Sloane invites Gatsby and Nick to dinner insincerely. Gatsby accepts, not realizing that Mr. Sloane really does want to leave and the invitation was only meant as a courtesy. Tom is appalled at Gatsby’s acceptance of the invitation and utter lack of social grace. This further proves Gatsby’s lack of respect amongst his own kind. Though he his deemed the “Great Gatsby”, this maybe just a metaphor for the illusion that Gatsby lives behind. Finally, Gatsby’s covetous pursuit of Daisy results in his untimely death. Gatsby went after his fortune and became a wealthy man for one reason. He was determined to win a girl. He threw lavish parties and bought the biggest house in West Egg for just one reason. The name of that reason was Daisy Buchanan. Chandler 5 Gatsby met Daisy right before he went to war. When he came back, she was married to Tom Buchanan. He decided that Daisy’s love for him was powerful enough that he could win her away from Tom if he had the right social standing. Once he gained everything he needed to win her, he silently pursued her. He threw his lavish parties in hopes of luring her across the bay. When that didn’t work, he enlisted the help of his neighbor, Nick Carraway. He had Nick set up a meeting between them at Nick’s house. Once they were reunited, Gatsby was relentless in his pursuit of Daisy. He flaunted his feelings for her in front of anyone who would watch, including Daisy’s husband Tom. Once Tom figured out what was going on between them, he accuses Gatsby of criminal dealings in front of Daisy. These accusations seem to cause Daisy to pull away from Gatsby, and in the end, she stays with Tom. Gatsby is loyal to Daisy though through the end of the novel. Driving back from New York, Daisy is driving Gatsby’s yellow car and fatally hits Myrtle Wilson. Everybody assumes Gatsby was driving, and Gatsby takes the blame for Daisy. He still has such love for her, that he is willing to destroy his own life to keep her reputation intact. Once George Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, finds out it was Gatsby driving, he goes to his house and shoots Gatsby, then shoots himself. Gatsby sacrifices himself for and unattainable dream. Just as greed has been the downfall of the American dream, greed was the ultimate downfall of Gatsby himself.

Jay Gatsby was a man of wealth who had to use criminal activities to gain his fortune. He lived among the wealthy, but he did not have their respect as their peer. Though he seemed to have everything he ever wanted, he did not have the woman he loved. He lost her for good and died with nobody around him. In the end, the degradation of the American dream destroyed Gatsby’s life.

OVERALL CLOSING PARAGRAPH

In summary, the American dream is about pursuing a better life, which has been mutated into a dream of pursuing wealth and pleasures. The novel and its characters exemplify the greedy pursuits of a better life for them, no matter the consequences. Jay Gatsby pursues riches and notoriety in the hopes of winning a girl he could never be with. His pursuit of the dream leads to a sad conclusion to his life, which barely even registers in the lives that surrounded him. In conclusion, the characters pursuit of the American dream in the novel is a reckless pursuit of a corrupted dream with a dismal cost. Though we are free to pursue our dreams, we are equally as free to pursue our ruin.

Chandler 6

Works Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Scribner, 2004 Cullen, Jim.

The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation. New York: Oxford, 2003 Adams, James Truslow. The Epic of America. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1931

Outline

I .F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby develops the corruption of the American dream as the downfall of its characters.

II. First, the novel brings to light the corruption of the American dream through the pursuit of pleasure and wealth at any cost.

III. Second, the corrupted American dream is the catalyst for Jay Gatsby’s deterioration.

IV. In conclusion, the characters pursuit of the American dream in the novel is a reckless pursuit of a corrupted dream with a dismal cost.

7.8. Module 7.8: Cause and Effect As a Method of Development

Instructions: Consider these thoughts as you plot out the second 5-paragraph segment of the body of P2.

Cause and Effect Cause and Effect As a Method of Development

When your purpose is to explain why something happened or may happen, you are writing about causes and effects (results, consequences). On the surface, cause-and-effect relationships may seem simple: This happened because of that. In fact, however, causal relationships are rarely simple. Usually there are multiple causes for an effect, and several consequences may spring from a single cause. Moreover, causes and effects tend to occur in chain reactions, like dominoes falling: A cause creates effects, which then become causes of still other effects, and so on. Consider the causal relationships in the following short paragraph.

The suburb could not have developed without the family automobile. In turn, the growth of suburbia made the automobile king, a necessity of life and in some ways a tyrant. Each family needed a car because suburbanites worked at some distance from their homes and public transportation to many of the new com munities did not exist. Because it was necessary for a suburban housewife and mother to cover considerable distances each day, the two-car family became a common phenomenon: one suburban family in five owned two vehicles. — Joseph Conlin, The American Past

Writing about cause - and-effect relationships requires special care for logic .

HERE IS ANOTHER VIEW OF CAUSE AND EFFECT:

Cause and Effect

1. What is cause and effect? The method of development in which the writer analyses the reason(s) for an action, event, or decision, or analyses resulting consequences to support a point.

2. Why do writers use cause and effect? To

· Discover order in a reality that is apparent chaos

· Inform

· Speculate

· Change behavior.

3. What types of transitions does a writer use with cause and effect writing? Because one event directly and sequentially influences another, sometimes the information is organized in time order. However, such a relationship may be an illusion, so rigorous scrutiny is necessary to confirm that the timing really was a contributing factor.

Most of the time, cause and effect information is organized using order of importance.

4. How can readers and writers recognize cause and effect when they see it?

a. Look for the status or composition of an object or situation to change as a result of something else. Indicator words are these and their various forms:

as a result because of the reason for consequence decrease

influence change why cause effect

b. Ask whether there is a cause or effect which dominates.

c. Look for the structure. Possibilities:

· The cause(s) comes first, then the effect(s).

· The effect(s) comes first, then the cause(s).

· The writer traces a complex causal chain.

5. How does one write a cause and effect essay?

a. Choose a manageable subject that yields information needed by a specific group of people.

b. Decide on the thesis and state it in one of the prescribed patterns below.

c. Compose the examples and organize them with transitions to support each point.

d. Check drafts for oversimplifications and other errors in logic.

e. Strike a balanced tone: neither overstate nor understate the position.

6. How do the thesis patterns for cause and effect go?

· {Effect} happens as a result of {Cause}.

· {Effect} (verb) {Cause A, Cause B, and Cause C}.

· {Cause} brings about {Effect}.

· {Cause} (verb) {Effect A, Effect B, and Effect C}.

7. How can one practice recognizing cause and effect thinking? In outside reading (not English or reading textbooks), look for examples of cause and effect paragraphs or essays and make note of the elements. Look also for examples in film.

An Example and Outline for Cause and Effect Writing

In what area of your life do you see a cause and effect relationship making a difference? What does a reader gain from looking at this with you? If you’re assigned a cause and effect essay, make sure there is a valid purpose for making the analysis, then outline the content as follows:

I. Opening will start with the thesis; an opening that uses a college level strategy, tells how the subject came up, states the thesis, and names the audience who can benefit from knowing the information.

II. The source of this 5-paragraph segment is based on the work from you P1.

III.

A. Sub-opening is about the cause

B. THREE Effects

E. Sub-closing

IV. Closing

As you read Module 7.9, remember what your cause and effects in the second segment of the body of Paper 2 must do.

In your opening for the second segment, you must identify the cause. This cause will be the pursuit of the American dream. For the body of the second segment of Paper 2, you must have three consequences for three characters (or three effects on a major character like Gatsby or Nick). Use three characters (or one character like Gatsby) and the effect the pursuit of the dream had on each one. Do this by tracing the process of what happened or by describing the way that the dream affected each of three characters.

What were the causes of the American Civil War? the causes of World War I? the causes of the American Great Depression? What caused the AIDS epidemic? the bubonic plague? What are the causes of unrest in Ireland? the Middle East?

What effects can be attributed to phenomena such as El Niño? the hippies of the 1950s and 60s? the Civil Rights movement of the 50s and 60s? Affirmative Action? Apartheid? the uses of DDT? holes in the ozone layer?

Cause and effect papers are among the most common (and among the most fun to write) papers in a composition course. It is intriguing to explore the causes of some event that you always took for granted or to chronicle the effects of some phenomenon in society or nature. The two strategic points you have to consider are (1) whether you're exploring causes or effects or both causes and effects, and (2) what is the order of the causes or effects you're going to pursue — from least to most important or vice-versa.

In the following two paragraphs, Bob Kutter analyzes the effects on American workers of an economy that relies increasingly on technology. In a sense, the paragraphs provide an outline for exploring the various causes and effects which are the substance of the article. In these paragraphs, what sentences could be listed as major points and what sentences play a supporting role? What is the role of the first sentence in each paragraph?

The erosion of the middle of the labor market is easy to misinterpret, because its roots are multiple. During the 1970s, the entry into the work force of an unprecedented number of women and of young adults born during the baby boom resulted in too many workers for the jobs available, and depressed wages. The decline of the middle also has something to do with the explosive growth in world trade since 1960. As manufacturing technologies have become more mobile, and multinational firms more footloose, production jobs have migrated from the U.S. to countries where wages are low. In addition, technology itself has helped to provoke the shifts in the job market. For example, fewer American workers would have been needed to make steel in 1980 than in 1960 even if the pressures of global competition had not been a factor, because new machines have made many of their tasks redundant. Finally, the high rate of unemployment caused by these trends has tended to drive wages down further, especially at the low end, since it forces unskilled workers to compete for their jobs with unemployed people who are willing to do the work for less.

Although demographic shifts, stepped-up world trade, unemployment, and especially the advance of technology all have had an effect on the shape of the job market, middle-level jobs have been disappearing ultimately as a result of the ways in which technological gains are being distributed. When a machine replaces a production worker, both the firm and consumers as a group benefit. The loss falls mainly on the worker who is displaced. If that loss is generalized to millions of high-paid workers, they suffer as a group, and the economy as a whole suffers a loss of worker purchasing power. Thus the lack of a mechanism to distribute some of the financial gains from technology to the work force comes back to haunt the entire economy.

You will have to determine which causes or effects you're going to write about. For instance, if there are too many causes for you to deal with in the scope of your essay, you'll have to decide what are the main causes, the ones you have to treat, and then suggest to your reader that there are other, relatively minor, causes outside the scope of your essay. Even in an essay as extensive as Kutter's, there are surely things he could have said but chose not to. In an essay on the effects of El Niño, the price you pay for orange juice might not belong in an essay alongside the devastating effects of tornadoes and ice-storms and mudslides and people's fear of uncontrollable weather patterns.

The cause and effect essay can end in a number of ways. It might be enough for your paper to point out causes or effects that people might not have thought of before, or to sort out those causes or effects so that people can grasp them with fresh insight or in a newly organized fashion. On the other hand, your essay might lead to a call for action based on patterns of cause and effect that you have perceived. The essay, for example, from Mother Jones magazine, ends with a plea for Americans to change the way they use antibiotics in situations where the antibiotics won't do any good. The alternative to this over-use of antibiotics — the consequence if this trend is not reversed — is well spelled out in the essay.

The one caution you have to keep in mind is not to become logically simplistic when considering causes. It is nearly cliché to say that the Civil War was fought to free the slaves of the American South, but it is also far from the whole truth. There were monumental economic and political causes behind that war; without those "other" causes there might not have been a war at all. There is an important logical fallacy called Post hoc, ergo propter hoc ("After this, therefore because of this"). We can't assume that just because something follows something else chronologically that the earlier event caused the later event. Other causes — intervening causes or causes we might not be aware of — might be at work.

The Linking of Events Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist Rube Goldberg was most famous for his ability to link one event to another — in outrageous fashion. This series of causes leads to the effect of a sharpened pencil. Goldberg Cartoon Open window (A) and fly kite (B). String (C) lifts small door (D) allowing moths (E) to escape and eat red flannel shirt (F). As weight of shirt becomes less, shoe (G) steps on switch (H) which heats electric iron (I) and burns hole in pants (J). Smoke (K) enters hole in tree (L), smoking out opossum (M) which jumps into basket (N), pulling rope (O) and lifting cage (P), allowing woodpecker (Q) to chew wood from pencil (R), exposing lead. Emergency knife (S) is always handy in case opossum or the woodpecker gets sick and can't work.

You can tell how one student writer began to gather thoughts about a paper on the effects of the weather phenomenon known as El Niño. How far can that paper go? How far into the spring and summer of 1998 could citizens of North America and elsewhere blame weird weather events on El Niño? Are the extraordinarily high prices for lettuce and tomatoes in May and June entirely the fault of California storms spawned by El Niño in February and March? The writer has to determine a cutoff point for pursuing causes back to the Adam and Eve of all causes. A paper that included the causes of this weather phenomenon would be an altogether different matter, also.

A cause and effect paper often appears to be structured along the lines of a process paper and the structure can, in fact, be similar. The difference, of course, is that a process essay explains how something works or how something came to be as it is, whereas a cause and effect essay explains why something works as it does or why it came to be what it is.

Sample Student Essay

Included here a sample cause-and-effect essay that briefly explores the reasons (causes) that soccer will not "make it big" in the United States. It was written by a community college student, Dewey Cheatham, who graciously gave permission to reprint his essay here.

Dewey Cheatham English 101: W443 Professor Pepin February 29, 2014

Soccer: Why It Can't Make the Big Time in the U.S.A.

Soccer — or football (or foosball or futbol), as it is called by the rest of the world outside the United States — is surely the most popular sport in the world. Every four years, the world championship of soccer, the World Cup, is watched by literally billions all over the world, beating out the United States professional football's Superbowl by far. It is estimated that 1.7 billion television viewers watched the World Cup final between France and Brazil in July of 1998. And it is also a genuine world championship, involving teams from 32 countries in the final rounds, unlike the much more parochial and misnamed World Series in American baseball (that doesn't even involve Japan or Cuba, two baseball hotbeds). But although soccer has become an important sport in the American sports scene, it will never make inroads into the hearts and markets of American sports the way that football, basketball, hockey, baseball, and even tennis and golf have done. There are many reasons for this.

Recently the New England Revolution beat the Tampa Bay Mutiny in a game played during a horrid rainstorm. Nearly 5000 fans showed up, which shows that soccer is, indeed, popular in the United States. However, the story of the game was buried near the back of the newspaper's sports section, and there was certainly no television coverage. In fact, the biggest reason for soccer's failure as a mass appeal sport in the United States is that it doesn't conform easily to the demands of television. Basketball succeeds enormously in America because it regularly schedules what it calls "television time-outs" as well as the time-outs that the teams themselves call to re-group, not to mention half-times and, on the professional level, quarter breaks. Those time-outs in the action are ideally made for television commercials. And television coverage is the lifeblood of American sports. College basketball lives for a game scheduled on CBS or ESPN (highly recruited high school players are more likely to go to a team that regularly gets national television exposure), and we could even say that television coverage has dictated the pace and feel of American football. Anyone who has attended a live football game knows how commercial time-outs slow the game and sometimes, at its most exciting moments, disrupt the flow of events. There is no serious objection, however, because without television, football knows that it simply wouldn't remain in the homes and hearts of Americans. Also, without those advertising dollars, the teams couldn't afford the sky-high salaries of their high-priced superstars.

Soccer, on the other hand, except for its half-time break, has no time-outs; except for half-time, it is constant run, run, run, run, back and forth, back and forth, relentlessly, with only a few seconds of relaxation when a goal is scored, and that can happen seldom, sometimes never. The best that commercial television coverage can hope for is an injury time-out, and in soccer that happens only with decapitation or disembowelment.

Second, Americans love their violence, and soccer doesn't deliver on this score the way that American football and hockey do. There are brief moments, spurts of violence, yes, but fans can't expect the full-time menu of bone-crushing carnage that American football and hockey can deliver minute after minute, game after game. In soccer, players are actually singled out and warned — shamed, with embarrassingly silly "yellow cards," for acts of violence and duplicity that would be smiled at in most American sports other than tennis and golf.

Third, it is just too difficult to score in soccer. America loves its football games with scores like 49 to 35 and a professional basketball game with scores below 100 is regarded as a defensive bore. In soccer, on the other hand, scores like 2 to 1, even 1 to 0, are commonplace and apparently desirable; games scoreless at the end of regulation time happen all the time. (In the 515 games played in the final phase in the history of the World Cup games through 1994, only 1584 goals have been scored. That's three a game!) And if there is no resolution at the end of overtime, the teams resort to a shoot-out that has more to do with luck than with real soccer skills. Worse yet, it is possible for a team to dominate in terms of sheer talent and "shots-on-goal" and still lose the game by virtue of a momentary lapse in defensive attention, a stroke of bad luck, and the opponent's break-away goal. Things like that can happen, too, in baseball, but the problem somehow evens out over baseball's very long season of daily games. In soccer, it just isn't fair. Soccer authorities should consider making the goal smaller and doing away with the goalie to make scoring easier. And the business of starting over after each goal, in the middle of the field, has to be reconsidered. It's too much like the center-jump after each goal in the basketball game of yesteryear.

It seems unlikely that Americans will ever fully comprehend or appreciate a sport in which players are not allowed to use their arms and hands. Although the footwork of soccer players is a magnificent skill to behold, most American fans are perplexed by straitjacketed soccer players' inability and unwillingness to "pick up the darn ball and run with it!" The inability to use substitutes (unless the player to be substituted for is lying dead or maimed on the field of play) is also bewildering to Americans, who glorify the "sixth man" in basketball and a baseball game in which virtually the entire roster (including an otherwise unemployable old man called "the designated hitter") is deployed on the field at one time or another.

Finally, the field in soccer is enormous. Considerably larger than the American football field, the soccer field could contain at least a dozen basketball courts. Americans like their action condensed, in a small field of vision — ten enormous sweaty people bouncing off one another and moving rapidly through a space the size of a medium-sized bedroom, twenty-two even larger people in bulky uniforms converging on a small, oddly shaped ball. In soccer, on the other hand, there is a premium on "spreading out," not infringing upon the force field occupied by a team-mate, so that fancy foot-passing is possible. This spreading out across the vast meadow of the soccer playing field does not lend itself, again, to close get-down-and-dirty television scrutiny.

Soccer is a great sport and it certainly deserves the increased attention and popularity it is getting on all levels. But — primarily, again, because it does not lend itself to television — it will never make it big in the United States the way these other sports have, not until it changes some of its fundamental strategies.

7.10. Module 7.10: Evaluation Elements

Criteria for Paper 2

Do you have an outline at the end of your paper that shows a

1. I, II, III, IV organization?

2. Do II and III show a A, B, C, D, E organization?

3, Is the works cited page correctly formatted?

4. Do you have double spacing?

5. Do you have a title, and does it hint at your thesis?

6. Paper 2 should have an opening paragraph,

7. a five-paragraph segment forming the first part of the body of the paper and

8. a five-paragraph segment forming the second part of the body of the paper.

9. Finally, it should have a closing paragraph; does it?

10. Is the overall content of the first segment's five paragraphs about the American dream and the novel?

11. This first segment of the body should be developed by information-level methods of development, examples and descriptions.

12. The overall method of development for the second segment of the body of the paper should be at the analysis level using cause and effects. Is it developed by cause and effects?

13. Do you have a clear mode of order for cause and effects?

14 Do you have "first" for the first five-paragraph segment and "second" for the second five-paragraph segment?

15. Do you have the correct transitions to introduce your closing: “In summary”, and “In conclusion,”?

16. Is there an effective relationship between thesis and conclusion?

17. Do you have three pieces to your opening and to your closing?

Thesis, Organizing Idea, Statement of Significance

Summary, Conclusion, Hint of Things to Come

18. Do you have at least four quotes from the novel?

19. Did you use MLA guidelines for your quotes, including signal phrases,

20. In-text citations, and

21. a works cited page?

7. Paper 2

7.13. Sample Thesis Sentences for Paper 2

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby has a hero who is destroyed by his total faith in the American dream.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby shows the way blindly pursuing a dream dooms the dreamer to a tragic ending.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby connects the certainty that the American dream is an entitlement to the tragic failure of the hero to achieve it.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby judges the hero's relentless pursuit of a dream as tragically flawed.

F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby has a narrative structure that foreshadows the fact that the flawed hero is doomed to a tragic failure.

typeEditor

false

Preference