This document provides guidance on writing cause and effect essays. It discusses identifying causes and effects, organizing the essay by importance or order of events, and developing a thesis statement. Examples of effective organizational structures are given. Transitional phrases for linking causes and effects are also listed. The document emphasizes analyzing the logic of causal relationships and avoiding false assumptions of causation.

1. Cause and Effect
Essay
Prof. Mara Luna
ENGL 3104

2. Academic Achievement
• While there are many reasons why students decide to go to
college, most students want to complete their classes and
chosen degree successfully.
• However, many factors can contribute to this success or help to
prevent it.
• The essays in this unit investigate what causes students to be
successful.
– To help parents understand the work their child will be doing throughout
the school year.
– To explain your expectations of their child.
– To share information about how parents can support their child’s learning.

3. Building Vocabulary
• In English, it is very common for certain verbs and particles
(prepositions) to occur together.
• Sometimes, these verb + particle combinations form a new verb,
which has its own meaning different from the original verb. These
new verbs are called phrasal verbs.
• Phrasal verbs are common in speaking and in less formal writing,
but you will encounter them in all kinds of writing.
– put on = to dress in
– put out = to extinguish
– put away = to clean up
– See list on page 228

4. Writing
• Everyday we try to figure out the causes for something.
• For example, when a problem arises, when any significant
change in our lives occur, when we identify emotional problems,
etc.
• Knowing the cause can help us cure a problem, prevent a
problem from reoccurring, or help us to repeat success.
• Likewise, we try to analyze results or effects.
• Therefore,the cause-and-effect analysis is an important
analytical skill to develop, and writing papers that analyze cause
or effects will help you develop this skill.

5. Multiple Causes with a Single Effect
• When we analyze the causes of something, we usually find that it
is a combination of causes that actually produces the result.
• Usually, there is not a single cause; rather, a combination of
factors.
• In analyzing a tropic, a writer could plan to spend about one
paragraph on each of the causes; each paragraph would have
to provide an explanation of the cause to show how it
contributes to the effect.

6. Organizing the Causal Analysis Essay
• Being aware of the types of causes you are analyzing can help
you to organize your essay effectively.
• Some common ways to organize information are:
o Order of familiarity: obvious to less obvious.
o Order of interest: less interesting to more interesting
o Order of importance: less significant to most significant

7. Organizing the Causal Analysis Essay
• However, causes are not always unrelated. In many cases, there
are immediate causes (direct causes) and remote causes, which
are further removed in time but are still important reasons behind
the effect being analyzed.
• In this case, you must analyze the causes and then choose the
organizational pattern that gives the most emphasis to the most
important causes.
• Sometimes the remote causes are actually the most important.
In other cases, the immediate causes are more important and
deserve the most attention in your essay.

8. The Thesis Statement for the Causal
Analysis Essay
• A thesis statement for a causal analysis essay can simply state
the causes to be discussed.
– Conflicts over money, interfering relatives, and career problems all
contributed to the demise of their relationship.
• Another option is to give a summary of the causes.
– Conflicts about several unresolved issues ultimately caused the demise of
their relationship.
– In both cases, the tropic is the demise of their relationship and the central
idea is reasons for its demise.

9. False Cause Reasoning
• When discussing causes and effects, be certain that your
analysis is logical.
• One of the logical fallacies –errors in reasoning- to avoid is called
the fallacy of false cause.
• This problem in logic occurs when the writer assumes that just
because an incident happened first, it caused something that
came after.
• When analyzing the relationship between two events, make sure
to look beyond the chronological order and ensure that other
events, facts, or actions support the causal relationship.

10. Single Cause with Multiple Effects
• Just as an effect can have multiple causes, so can a single
cause have multiple effects.
• When an analysis is primarily of effects, expect to devote a
paragraph to each effect.
• Each paragraph should explain the relationship between the
cause and the effect.

11. Organizing the Effect Analysis Essay
• As with causes, effects can be unrelated (causally) to each
other, even though they all stem from the same cause.
• Although effects can be of equal value of importance, usually
some are more important than others. In this case, like causes,
organize the paragraph dealing with the effects according to
order of importance.
• Effects –like causes- can also be immediate or remote.

12. The Thesis Statement for the
Effect Analysis Essay
• Like a causal analysis essay, the thesis statement for an effect
analysis essay does not have to be persuasive.
• The thesis statement can have a more simply stated central
idea.
– The tax increase will bring benefits to our city.
– Of course, the topic here is tax increase, and the central idea is that it will
bring benefits to the city.

13. The Causal Chain
• Another type of cause-and-effect analysis is the causal chain.
• In a causal chain, the causes and effects are always directly
related, in fact, they are linked.
• In the causal chain, one effect can become a cause of another
effect, which in turn can become a cause of another effect,
and so on.
• In fact, another name for the pattern is “the domino effect”
because the causes affect each other one after the other like
dominoes falling.
• The causal chain if often used in science to analyze various kinds
of cycles, such as biological or chemical chains.

14. Introductory Paragraph:
The Relevant Quotation
• Sometimes writers choose a quotation that is famous, clever, or
from an expert on their topic and work it into their introduction to
attract the reader’s attention.
• A quote from an authority can lend credibility to your essay and
catch the attention of people who have heard of this authority.
• A lighthearted, humorous quote can set the tone for an upbeat,
encouraging essay. Note that it is not always necessary to begin
the introduction with a quote for it to work as an attention-
getting device.
• Much like the funnel essay, the quote starts out looking at a
broad topic and then the author narrows it down to a specific
kind.

15. Transitions and Expressions for
Cause and Effect
Type Example
Phrases because of + noun
To introduce cause: as a result of + noun
Verbs 1) result from
To express cause: be caused by
To express result: 2) result in
cause
lead to
Coordinating Conjunctions so + result (informal)
for + cause (formal)
Introductory Adverbs therefore, consequently,
thus + independent clause,
as a result, for this reason

16. Additional Resources
• Writing cause and effect essays:
http://eslbee.com/cause.htm
• How Do I Write a Cause and Effect Essay?
http://www.wju.edu/arc/handouts/cause_effect.pdf
• The Cause and Effect Essay presentation
http://www.slideshare.net/julia_martinez/the-causeeffect-essay