Microsoft Word - Guidelines-ENG1004 Cause and Effect Essay-W2016-Online.doc
Select an event, occurrence, process, problem, or condition and write about it in a way that deepens a reader's understanding of how specific forces work to create particular results. Support claims with relevant evidence, demonstrate critical thinking skills, and apply effective writing strategies and appeals. Focus on a specific purpose, subject, and audience as you compose multiple revisions prior to editing for grammar, punctuation, and clarity of delivery.
What: Select an event, occurrence, process, problem, or condition and write about it in a way that deepens a reader’s understanding of how specific forces work to create particular results (see some sample topics in the Cause-and-Effect Analysis Lecture).
Support claims with relevant evidence, demonstrate critical thinking skills, and apply effective writing strategies and appeals. Focus on a specific purpose, subject, and audience as you compose multiple revisions prior to editing for grammar, punctuation, and clarity of delivery.
Why: This assignment asks you to demonstrate form, organization, syntax, diction, style, and tone appropriate for a given audience and subject. It also expands your understanding of cause/effect relationships while reinforcing your appreciation of writing as a process requiring substantive revision.
Writing a Cause/Effect Essay is beneficial in other ways, too.
Critical thinking and skillful writing used in development of this project teach valuable skills for everyday life and for the workplace. This project guides you to explore forces that result in outcomes and to explain your findings with clear reasoning, supporting details, and logical analyses of information.
Companies rely on accurate assessments of business decisions in order to make wise choices for the future. Strengthening your ability to provide detailed information about a topic, and the forces operating upon it, can enhance your company’s potential for success.
This type of essay is also a great way for your instructor to assess your skills of organization, critical thinking, and grammar/punctuation in a way that will empower your work on research papers later in the term.
How: Your textbook, The College Writer, describes the Cause/Effect essay in the following way:
In a cause and effect essay, the writer develops the thesis through cause and effect reasoning. That is, she or he analyzes and explains the causes, the effects, or both the causes and the effects of a phenomenon.
Here are some steps to guide the development of this project:
1)Think of a specific event or situation and brainstorm details related to its cause, its effect, or its cause and effect.
2) Narrow the scope of your essay. A five-page paper won’t be enough space to describe all causes and all effects of a particular event or situation; an excellent paper will detail one or two things in depth instead of several things superficially.
3)Develop a working thesis statement that represents your strategy for the presentation of the topic.
4Since we have not covered research skills or citation methods at this point in the course, you do not need to write about a topic that requires research or citation, nor do you need to develop a paper on a complex event or situation. Feel free to select a simple subject and describe its cause or effect, or its cause and effect.
5)Use tools discussed in class to craft this project: process writing, the parts of an essay, writing strategies, and grammar/punctuation skills; use sample essays in your course textbook to guide the project’s development.
6)Revise the entire document several times to ensure your thoughts are clearly conveyed and paragraphs are logically developed.
7)Do not use 1st or 2nd person point-of-view words (I, we, me, my, mine, our, us,
you, your, etc.) in your final draft. Only use 3rd person point-of-view words: it, he, she, his, her, they, their, the reader, one, etc.
8)The final draft of your essay must be 5 pages in length, typed and double-spaced with 1-inch margins. Use Times New Roman style and 11 or 12 point font.
9) Edit for spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
You will be working with an OWL specialist to create multiple drafts of this assignment toward a polished, well-crafted final version of your work.
Sample Topics for Cause-and-Effect Analysis
1. At what age should a person start working for pay, and why?
2. What effects do you expect your education to have on your choice of a career and your performance in it?
3. What effect has the job market on you and your friends?
4. Why would a man or a woman enter a field that has traditionally been filled by the opposite sex, such as nursing and engineering?
5. How has the Internet changed the music industry?
6. What makes a professional sports team succeed in a new city?
7. Why is (or was) a particular television show, movie, or video so popular?
8. Why does the U.S. spend so much money on health care?
9. How can a long period of involuntary unemployment affect a person?
10. Is a college education worth the expense?
11. Why do marriages between teenagers fail more often than marriages between people in other age groups?
12. Why might some resort to a public act of violence, such as bombing a building?