Step 2: Create an outline. An outline provides a map for your writing and you should never try to write an essay without one. Some teachers even require you to write an outline before you are allowed to start an introductory or body paragraph because they improve the quality of writing so significantly.
Use ideas from your brainstorming session to "jot down", or quickly write, ideas for how your whole essay might progress (these do not have to be in complete sentences). An outline makes organizing much easier but does not have to be rigid—feel free to make changes as needed. See the following cause and effect essay outline example for help.
Title: How Fighting Fast Food Can Help End Obesity
I. Introduction
II. Body Paragraph 1: Availability and overeating
III. Body Paragraph 2: Affordability and overspending
IV. Body Paragraph 3: Convenience
V. Conclusion
Step 3: Choose the right language. Now you can write a great cause and effect essay using your outline. There are several language formulas that can effectively show cause and effect relationships, so take the time to choose the best ones for your piece. As always, vary your sentence structures for a smoother read and use plenty of evidence to write a convincing essay, then try some of these phrases to take your cause and effect arguments to the next level.
Make your cause and effect essay more coherent with linking language—or sentence connectors—that make the relationships between causes and effects crystal clear.
Use the following conjunctive adverbs to smoothly transition from one idea to the next in your cause and effect writing.
Writing essays is inevitable for all students. And while many of them consider this kind of academic assignment difficult and boring, others truly enjoy writing their essays on the widest array of topics. Do you want to know their secret? It’s simple: they just know how to write essays well! And those who don't also have a solution – they are ready to pay for essay best services to get completed paper without a hassle. Finding the essay writing service out there to fall back on is great but honing your own writing skills will never go amiss.
If you are reading this article, then you’re already on your way to start loving essay writing. By the time you finish reading it, you will have all the necessary instruments at hand to craft an impressive essay of one particular type – that is, a cause and effect essay (sometimes also called cause-effect or reason and result essay).
It is impossible to do something well without knowing what exactly it is that you have to do. So, let’s start with the basics – the cause and effect essay definition.
A cause and effect essay (also called cause-effect or reason and result essay) is a type of an analytical academic paper in which the relationship between causes and effects of a particular event or phenomenon is being analyzed. It usually answers the questions, “why?” (cause) and “what is the result?” (effect), and utilizes subjunctive mood extensively. If already at this moment you feel you're unlikely to be able to cope with writing an essay yourself – relax and get help from professional dissertation writing services .
Now that we know what a cause and effect essay is, we can start working on its structure. Having a clear structure is essential for the successful completion of your assignment. So, it’s highly important to devote enough time to this part of the task. If you think it's pretty challenging for you or you simply don't want to spend time on it, you can always look for coursework writing help , custom essay writing and get help from experts in the field.
There are two main ways to structure a cause and effect essay – using a block or a chain pattern. Your essay outline will differ depending on what option you choose.
Get your assignments done by real pros. Save your precious time and boost your marks with ease.
A cause and effect essay outline consists of a minimum of four sections – an introduction, at least two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Each section, in turn, consists of several parts, and their contents vary depending on what pattern – block or chain – you choose.
Let’s start with a block structure. This is how it will look like:
Depending on your topic and approach, you can focus more on the effects or the causes and have various numbers of both. For example, if you put the main focus on the effects, your outline may look like this:
If you choose the chain pattern, it will mean that in your body paragraphs, every cause will be immediately followed by its effect. The outline will then be as follows:
In this case, too, the numbers of causes and effects may vary – it is their sequence that matters.
Now, let’s look closer at every section of the structure.
Every essay starts with an introduction. In this section, you must introduce your topic to the reader, give some background information, and explain how you’re going to approach the discussion.
This is what an introduction section of a cause and effect essay must include:
If you’re wondering how to start a cause and effect essay, you can use some of the proven techniques like using a quote, a rhetorical question, or a statement that is surprising or paradoxical. Then, after giving some background information, move on to a thesis statement.
A thesis is the part of your essay in which the main point of discussion is stated. It should be clear and concise and allow no ambiguity.
Example: “The gender gap is still very far from being closed. Globally, gender parity stands at 68.6%, according to the Global Gender Gap Report (2020). In this essay, we’ll look closely at some of the causes and effects of this phenomenon”.
Depending on what type of structure you choose, your body paragraphs may be slightly different. But, in any case, they should contain the following elements:
These may be arranged in a different way, but their presence is essential. Let’s again turn to our gender inequality topic and see how it works. In the causes section, we will list the various causes of the discussed phenomena:
Each of these causes should be supported by evidence to be persuasive to the reader. This is how it may be put in a paragraph:
“One of the main causes of such inequality is the societal mindset that still regards women as primarily being responsible for providing home comfort and childcare. Most men still expect their wives to stay at home and sacrifice their careers in order to take the majority of household responsibilities (support with evidence – statistical figures, etc.).
Treat the next causes in the same manner.
This paragraph is basically the same as the previous one, with the only difference that here, we will discuss the effects of the phenomenon. Let’s continue with our topic:
Keep in mind that the effects must be direct consequences of your causes – you can’t just pick random facts. You should also make that connection clear in your text.
Example: “Such prejudiced societal mindset regarding women and their role in the society results in higher levels of frustration among women. They feel that they have reached their glass ceiling just because of the fact that they have been born female – i.e., something they just couldn’t affect in any way (support with evidence)”.
Then, go on in the same manner in the next body-effects paragraphs.
After you’ve discussed all the causes and effects that you planned, continue with making a short conclusion. It must contain the following points:
This is what it will look like in our case:
“As we see, gender inequality is still a pressing issue in the modern world, and it’s far from being solved. This phenomenon has multiple causes, the most obvious of which are society’s prejudiced attitude, lack of childcare, and lack of political representation for women. The effects of these problems are plausible: women end up feeling frustrated, having lower income, and being generally vulnerable. In order to change the situation, we mustn’t avoid discussions of this issue and should try to find solutions to the problems that cause it”.
Hire professional admission essay writer and get quality essay!
If you’re looking for an interesting topic for cause and effect essay, this section is for you. Listed below are some good cause and effect essay topics on various popular themes – history, politics, society, and more. Use them as examples to brainstorm ideas of your own.
History and politics:
Environment:
Now that you have all the tools necessary to create a good cause and effect essay of your own let’s look at an example to see how all the components work together. Let’s assume that our topic is “Procrastination among college students.” Here, we will use a block structure, and this is how our example cause and effect essay will look like.
Procrastination Among College Students.
Our first paragraph is an introduction. Here we introduce our topic with a hook statement, give some background information, and make a thesis statement.
Procrastination is dangerous for college students. At the same time, it’s extremely common among them: various studies show that up to 95% of college students engage in it from time to time, and almost 50% do this systematically. The causes of this phenomenon are multi-faceted and profound, and it’s vital to discover them in every particular case to be able to fight procrastination effectively. But to start treating procrastination as a problem, students must be aware of its harmful consequences. There are many of them, but one of the most acute ones for college students is its negative effect on their academic performance.
Here, the topic suggests that we have to focus more on the effects than on the causes, so the first body paragraph will be about an effect mentioned in the title. First, we will name the effect and then bring arguments and evidence to support our claim.
Procrastination is putting off things one has to do till the last minute and spending one’s time on some other, less important occupations. When students procrastinate instead of doing their academic assignments, they usually end up not having enough time to complete their tasks properly by the deadline. As a result, they only do what they can in the amount of time left, and the quality of their work may suffer. For most students, it means receiving lower grades than they could have achieved had they spent their time more wisely. And this is not a mere assumption: a study conducted by Warwick Business School has proven that procrastination leads students to lower grades (2019). One may argue that it depends largely on how gifted a student is, but even the talented ones may get to the point when the assignment is so difficult that they cannot do it well quickly.
Our second body paragraph will be about another effect. We will write it using the same scheme as in the previous paragraph.
What’s worse, procrastination can also cause mental health problems among students (Source, year). When a person finds out that they only have several hours to complete an assignment that requires several days to be done well, they are most likely to succumb to anxiety. Science proves this, too: for example, a 2010 study titled “I’ll Go to Therapy, Eventually” found a clear connection between procrastination and poorer mental health. Then, worries about failing to do a task properly resulted in even more anxiety and stress, and if a student eventually gets a lower grade than expected, it may lead to a feeling of guilt, regret, and even to depression, especially if the situation is repeated often.
In the third body paragraph, we will talk about the causes.
It may be tempting to just label students who keep putting off their assignments as sluggards, but there are more complex and profound reasons for procrastination than mere laziness. As A. Chris Heath, MD, a psychiatrist from Dallas, says, procrastination usually happens because the task seems too difficult. It can also be an issue of self-esteem, he adds, – when a person thinks he or she is not good enough to cope with a demanding task. There are many other causes for procrastination among students, like having trouble concentrating or not possessing enough organizational skills. But whatever the reasons are, the results procrastination leads to are always devastating.
Conclusion. Here, we reiterate our thesis, site the significance of the topic, and add some afterthoughts.
As we see now, procrastination is a huge problem for college students. Being considered a result of pure laziness by many, it is often overlooked as a common problem. But this approach can be very dangerous.
In reality, procrastination has deeper roots, and the effects it causes are quite harmful. If treated lightly, systematic procrastination eventually leads college students to lower grades, mental health problems, and poorer overall academic performance.
So, it’s essential for every college student not to ignore the problem and find the causes of procrastination in their particular case as early as possible to be able to avoid its dreadful consequences.
That’s it! Feel free to use this essay as a model to generate your unique cause and effect essay ideas. If you need another example, download cause and effect essay sample here.
In this article, we’ve covered all the important issues on how to write a cause and effect essay. After reading it thoroughly, you should know what a cause and effect essay is, how to structure it well, and make an outline that will work. We’ve also explained how to work on every paragraph of your text and provided some good essay topics as well as examples of a cause and effect essay with commentary.
Still puzzled about how to write your cause and effect essay properly? Get instant write a paper for me help from professional editors and writers. With such detailed instruction, you cannot fail, if you are diligent enough to practice writing essays on your own using the information given. Don’t get downhearted if you won’t be able to write a flawless paper from the first try; remember: practice makes perfect. So, put effort into your essay writing, and this will pay you back in the future – not only with excellent marks but with better critical thinking and logical skills, too.
How to write a scholarship essay.
Writing with artificial intelligence, causes & effects.
Learn to explore your causal relationships. Improve your critical thinking skills.
Table of Contents
These questions guide authors as they analyze or argue about causal relationships, such as “What is the effect of a college education on income?”
Unlike explanations of processes, which follow a chronological order of events, cause and effect texts are deeply speculative and tentative, relying on causal reasoning and argument. Your purpose is to answer
Analyzing cause-and-effect relationships requires you to question how different parts and sequences interact with each other over time, which is often more difficult than reporting a chronological order of events, as you do when describing a process.
Human beings ask why perhaps more than any other question. When we listen to the nightly news and hear about the atrocities of war, we wonder, “What causes the hatred?” When we read about the violence plaguing our country, we ask, “Why does the United States lead the world in violent crimes?” When we read studies that indicate that 28 percent of women in America have been raped and that the occurrence of date rape is rising on college campuses, we ask, “Why is this happening?” When we read about environmental problems such as the depletion of the ozone layer, we wonder, “Why don’t we do something about it?” Whenever we make decisions in our daily lives, we ask ourselves, “Why should I do this?”
On a daily basis, we seek to understand why events occurred by identifying the factors that led up to them. For example, if you were not doing well in school and on homework assignments, you might ask, “Did my high school class(es) sufficiently prepare me for this class? Am I studying long enough? Am I taking effective lecture notes? Am I paying too much attention to the course texts and too little to the instructor’s lectures? How is my attendance? Is my part-time job interfering too much with my school work? Am I using my time to study effectively? Are some of my friends having a negative influence on my study habits? Am I taking too many courses or putting too much time into another course? What can I do to improve my memory or study skills?” After asking these and other questions, you would eventually be able to identify a variety of causes for your poor performance, and once you recognize the causal relationship, you can set about realistically to improve your grade.
Cause-and-effect assignments are among the most interesting writing projects that you will tackle in school and in professional life. In school, teachers frequently assign process assignments. For example, humanities professors may ask for an analysis of what causes particular music genres or artistic genres to capture the imagination of popular culture; history professors, the impact of cultures on world history; social science professors, the effects of inventions on culture or the effect of gun control laws on violent homicide rates; business professors, the effects of changes in the interest rates on the economy.
Cause-and-effect texts are extremely common in professions–particularly the sciences, where researchers employ the scientific method to seek out cause-and-effect relationships. Writers commonly focus on analyzing causes or effects. A medical writer, for example, might explore the effects of a poor diet or the causes of a disease. A lawyer might argue the effect of an accident on his client. A sports writer might analyze why a team continues its losing or winning streak.
The purpose of many cause-and-effect texts is to explain the effects or causes of something. And the tone of these texts tends to be dispassionate and objective. In complex situations, however, the writer’s purpose may shift from explaining to speculating or even arguing about an interpretation. Sometimes writers argue about a particular cause or effect because they want to sell you something or because they want to change your mind on a policy or interpretation.
People write about causes and effects for a variety of communication situations, and they employ a variety of media. The shape and content of cause-and-effect reports tend to be more diverse than the shape and content of texts that explain subjects, concepts, or processes, as suggested in the table below.
Purposes | Audiences | Voices | Genre & Media |
Consider the context, audience, purpose, and media invoked by the following readings. Also examine how ideas are developed in these texts. Are assertions grounded in personal experience, interviews with authorities, questionnaires, Internet and library research, or empirical research?
When dealing with causes and effects, it is important to keep to a narrow topic. Time constraints and resources should always be kept in mind when pursuing a topic. Example: To find the reasons for world hunger would take years of research and/or tons of hours, so focus on a specific entity of a broad topic. Perhaps you could identify one country’s efforts over the past few years.
Writers often bring focus to their work by claiming cause-and-effect relationships upfront, in their introductions. These “thesis statements” guide the writer and reader throughout the document. And they also offer clues as to the writer’s voice, tone, and persona. Consider, for example, this tongue-in-cheek analysis of the The Dead Grandmother/Exam Syndrome and the Potential Downfall Of American Society.
The basic problem can be stated very simply: A student’s grandmother is far more likely to die suddenly just before the student takes an exam, than at any other time of year.
While this idea has long been a matter of conjecture or merely a part of the folklore of college teaching, I can now confirm that the phenomenon is real. For over twenty years I have collected data on this supposed relationship, and have not only confirmed what most faculty had suspected, but also found some additional aspects of this process that are of potential importance to the future of the country. The results presented in this report provide a chilling picture and should waken the profession and the general public to a serious health and sociological problem before it is too late.
Critical readers such as your instructors are quick to recognize shallow reasoning. College instructors expect you to cite multiple causes or effects when you are addressing a complex phenomenon. For example, if you were exploring the effects of TV on children, your readers would most likely expect you to do more than attack the violence as being unethical or immoral. Likewise, if you were analyzing the causes of our nation’s high divorce rates, your instructors would expect you to do more than cite troubles with finances as the cause of divorces.
To help you develop a stronger sense of the level of detail your readers need to understand a particular cause-and-effect relationship, consider conducting research. What have others reported about the particular cause-and-effect relationship you are exploring? Read about what others have speculated or reported about your topic.
Below are some additional suggestions for developing your cause-and-effect report.
Critical readers will expect you to develop the reasoning that demonstrates the cause and effect relationship isn’t due to chance. Academic readers are reluctant to assume causality between two actions because they are trained to identify post hoc (“after this”) fallacies. Essentially a post hoc fallacy occurs when an author assumes Event B was caused by Event A simply because it followed Event A; the connection is false because it is equally possible that Event B was caused by some other factor. For example, let us suppose that Bill has been jilted by his girlfriend Laura. Because Laura argued with Bill last Friday night that he never spent any money on her and that she always has to pay for their dates, Bill might assume that she left him because he was cheap. However, this might not be the true reason for Laura’s dumping Bill. In fact, it could be that Laura was tired of Bill’s negative view of life. Perhaps she truly left Bill because she found him to be insensitive, boring, and uncommunicative.
In some instances you may be able to explain an effect by identifying sufficient causes and necessary causes.
A sufficient cause is one that can cause the effect to take place. By itself, a sufficient cause can explain a phenomenon or trend. For instance, according to the Mayo Clinic resource above, in order for someone to contract the HIV virus, any of the following forms of contact is a sufficient cause:
However, frequently more than one sufficient cause is necessary to explain a phenomenon or trend. Three or four causes, for example, may be necessary to explain an effect. You cannot say, for example, that all one needs is a match to start a fire. You also need oxygen and something to burn. When describing physical phenomena such as how acid rain is produced, you may have little difficulty identifying sufficient causes. Explaining human behavior is rarely so simple, of course.
When we face complicated questions and problems, we often are unable to identify sufficient causes so we must speculate about necessary causes—those causes that can result in the effect. For instance, no single cause precipitated the collapse of the Soviet Union, yet we could speculate that hunger, poor economic conditions, alienation from communism, and political corruption were all remote causes.
Because academic readers are sensitive to the complexity of most issues, they generally do not expect you to offer sufficient causes for complex problems. Instead, they expect you to speculate about possible causes and effects, while limiting the scope of your claims with qualifiers such as “usually,” “may,” “possible,” “sometimes” or “most.” No simple answer, no sufficient cause, can explain, for example, why some people become violent criminals or serial killers while others devote themselves to feeding the hungry or serving the helpless.
You can choose from a range of tones, personas and voices. Some writers choose a contentious, argumentative tone. Alternatively, sometimes writers will soften their tone, perhaps assuming a milder persona than they actually feel, because they fear providing the information in a more straightforward, argumentative way would cause readers to look elsewhere. For example, in Tropical Forests and Climate Change, the Canadian Development Agency offers a terrifying, well-researched analysis of global warming, yet softens its message with this caveat in the introduction:
Climate change predictions are difficult because of the complexity of the atmosphere and the interaction of the many variables involved.
No matter how technical your subject is, you should keep in mind that you are writing to other people. When you sense that the human story is being lost in abstract figures or academic jargon, consider adding an anecdote of how the problem you are discussing affects particular people. For example, Melissa Henderson, a student writer, began her report on the effect of crack on babies with the following portrayal of a newborn, which she composed after reading numerous essays about the effect of crack cocaine on human fetuses:
Lying restlessly under the warm lights like a McDonald’s Big Mac, Baby Doe fights with all of his three pounds of strength to stay alive. Because he was born prematurely, Baby Doe has an array of tubes and wires extending from his frail body which constantly monitor his heartbeat, drain excess fluid from his lungs and alert hospital personnel in the event he stops breathing. As he lies in the aseptic incubator his rigid little arms and legs twitch and jerk as though a steady current of electricity coursed through his veins. Suddenly, without warning or provocation, he begins to cry a mournful, inconsolable wail that continues steadily without an end in sight. As the nurses try to comfort the tiny infant with loving touches and soothing whispers, Baby Doe’s over-wrought nervous system can no longer cope. Suffering from sensory overload, he withdraws into the security offered in a long, deep slumber. Welcome to the world, Baby Doe, your mother is a crack cocaine addict.
As you write drafts of your causal report, consider incorporating an anecdote—that is, a brief story about how people are influenced by your subject. For example, if you are researching the effects of a sluggish economy on our nation’s poor, you might want to flesh out your statistics by depicting the story of how one homeless family lost their jobs, income, medical benefits, house, community, and hope.
Although visuals are not required–in fact, many cause-and-effect texts do not use visuals–readers appreciate visuals, particularly ones that explain the cause-and-effect relationship being addressed. Consider, for example, this visual from the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Web site on Global Warming:
Readers particularly appreciate tables and graphs. Critical readers will often skim through a document’s tables before reading the text:
Visuals can be used to influence readers at an emotional level. For example, at Project GHB’s Tragedy Page, each picture links to an obituary, which tells the personal story of how these young people overdosed on GHB
When analyzing causal relationships, you must reveal to readers how different parts and sequences interact with each other over time. Rather than merely reporting the order of events in chronological fashion as we do when describing a process, you need to identify the specific reasons behind the effects or causes. Your organization needs to reflect the logic of your analysis. This is often difficult because a single cause can result in many different effects. Likewise, an effect can have multiple causes.
For example, even a simple effect such as a minor car accident can have multiple causes. Yes, we could say that John D. caused the accident because he was driving while intoxicated. Yet if we knew more about John D.’s state of mind—if we knew, for instance, that he wasn’t watching where he was going because he was thinking about his wife’s threat to leave him—then we could identify additional causes for the accident. It could very well be that he was exhausted after a sleepless night. Or perhaps his personal predicament had nothing to do with the accident: Maybe the loss of his job that morning or his failure to have faulty brakes replaced is a more significant cause for the accident. If we get really carried away with our reasoning, we could say that his former employers were responsible. After all, John D. would not have lost his job if the automobile manufacturer he worked for had not closed three of its American plants and moved manufacturing of some parts to plants in Mexico, Hong Kong, and Japan. In addition, we could also find potential causes for the accident by considering the other driver, Susan K. Maybe she rushed into the busy intersection expecting everyone else to make room for her because she was already late for an in-class exam. Perhaps if Susan K. had not consumed four pots of coffee, she would have been more mellow, more cautious, and less willing to risk her life to get to school on time.
You can emphasize the most emphatic elements of your analysis by using headings and subheadings. A quick scan of any of the cause-and-effect readings highlights the popularity of headings. For example, below are the headings used by the Canadian International Development Agency for their essay on Tropical Forests and Climate Change
You may also want to play with the formatting of your text to highlight the reasoning behind your causal analysis. Consider, for example, the Canadian International Development Agency’s Tropical Forests and Climate Change. These authors used callouts to define climate change terms that readers may not understand and they used call out boxes to emphasize important points in their essay:
The Sustainable Forest Management Project in Cameroon, Trees for Tomorrow in Jamaica, and the Arenal Conservation and Development Project are CIDA-supported projects that work towards enhancing forest management in developing countries.
Expanding the area of forest cover by establishing tree plantations, agroforestry plantings, or analog forests enlarges the capacity of the terrestrial carbon sink. Trees are composed of approximately 50 percent carbon which they extract from the atmosphere during photosynthesis. The rate of carbon sequestration depends on the growth characteristics of the species, the conditions for growth where the tree is planted, and the density of the tree’s wood. It is greatest in the younger stages of tree growth, between 20 to 50 years. Growth rates on commercial plantations in the tropics have been improving steadily as the results of tree improvement research have been applied. The technology to establish fast-growing plantations exists, as does the global expertise for establishing them. Growth rates of more than 30 cubic metres/hectare/year are now commonplace for intensive industrial pulp plantations in the tropics and FAO estimates that there are between 1.5 million and 2.0 million hectares of tree plantations established every year.
You may find it helpful to visually represent the structure of your argument, perhaps even including your organizational map as a visual for readers. For example, consider the following screenshot from the EPA’s site on global warming. From this image, you understand four topics are being addressed and you understand the questions that guide the EPA’s causal analysis:
Introduce the Topic : Typically, texts that explore cause-and-effect relationships summarize the author’s position upfront, in the introduction (see General to the Specific Strategies). For example, back in 1985, Joseph K. Skinner began his influential essay “Big Mac and the Tropical Forests” with this dramatic opening–two sentences that immediately focus your attention on the causal connection he explicates throughout his essay: Hello, fast-food chains. Goodbye, tropical forests. However, you may want to avoid explicit thesis sentences and forecasting statements if your subject is likely to threaten the beliefs of your audience or if it is an inherently emotional subject. You may occasionally find it important to establish a credible persona first by reviewing what your readers are likely to believe about a causal relationship and then by stating your own opinion.
For example, assume you are writing an essay against spanking children. Now if your audience believes that spanking children is the proper way to discipline them, and if you claim in the introduction of the essay that spanking children may result in their becoming criminals, then your readers might assume you are an oddball and dismiss your essay. Yet if you intelligently discuss some of the reasons why parents and psychologists recommend spanking and then introduce extensive research from prominent journals and reports that all violent criminals were spanked as children, your readers might be more willing to listen to your reasoning
Style : When grappling with difficult issues and concepts, your prose can understandably become unclear, dull, or cluttered. Eventually, though, as you continue to revise your drafts and further refine your message, you need to cut away the superfluous words, redundancies, and needless abstractions. You can make your language more interesting and more understandable by eliminating needless jargon; passive voice; lengthy, redundant sentences; or pompous and archaic language.
Provide Descriptive, Sensory Language : You can help your readers imagine your subject better by appealing to their senses. Whenever possible, describe how an object looks, sounds, tastes, feels, or smells. For example, in this excerpt from Carl Sagan’s powerful essay on the effects of a nuclear war, “The Nuclear Winter,” notice how Sagan appeals to our visual sense in his description of the effect of a single nuclear bomb on a city: In a 2 megaton explosion over a fairly large city, buildings would be vaporized, people reduced to atoms and shadows, outlying structures blown down like matchsticks and raging fires ignited. And if the bomb exploded on the ground, an enormous crater, like those that can be seen through a telescope on the surface of the Moon, would be all that remained where midtown once had been.
The lifeblood of effective writing is concrete and sensory language. A word, properly placed, can create a tone that angers or inspires a reader. Knowing the power of language to promote change, effective writers are selective in their use of concrete words—words that represent actual physical things like “chair” and “house”—and sensory words—words that appeal to our five senses. Selecting the right word or group of words is a crucial step in drawing your readers into your work so that they can fully understand your vision and ideas. Note the masterful use of concrete and sensory words in this passage from a Newsweek essay, “Don’t Go in the Water”:
“Black mayonnaise”: The problem for most landlubbers, of course, is that most of the effects of coastal pollution are hard to see. Bays and estuaries that are now in jeopardy—Boston Harbor, for example, or even San Francisco Bay—are still delightful to look at from shore. What is happening underwater is quite another matter, and it is not for the squeamish. Scuba divers talk of swimming through clouds of toilet paper and half-dissolved feces, of bay bottoms covered by a foul and toxic combination of sediment, sewage and petrochemical waste appropriately known as “black mayonnaise.” Fishermen haul in lobsters and crab [sic] covered with mysterious “burn holes” and fish whose fins are rotting off. Offshore, marine biologists track massive tides of algae blooms fed by nitrate and phosphate pollution—colonies of floating microorganisms that, once dead, strangle fish by stripping the water of its life giving oxygen.
In addition to selecting an abundance of distinctive concrete words (such as sediment, sewage, and nitrate) and sensory words (foul, burn holes, feces), the authors have used powerful images and metaphors. Note, for example, the clouds of toilet paper. Even more potent is the image of “black mayonnaise.” Can you imagine biting into a sandwich spread with such poison?
When Speculating, Use Qualifying Language : When addressing complex issues and processes, you adopt an appropriate speculative voice by using words like “may cause” or “could also.
Useful Qualifying Words and Phrases : may, might, usually typically, perhaps, can, I believe it seems likely. As an example of carefully chosen qualifying words, consider the following passage from the US EPA’s Web site on global warming impacts:
Suggested edits.
Explore the different ways to cite sources in academic and professional writing, including in-text (Parenthetical), numerical, and note citations.
Collaboration refers to the act of working with others or AI to solve problems, coauthor texts, and develop products and services. Collaboration is a highly prized workplace competency in academic...
Genre may reference a type of writing, art, or musical composition; socially-agreed upon expectations about how writers and speakers should respond to particular rhetorical situations; the cultural values; the epistemological assumptions...
Grammar refers to the rules that inform how people and discourse communities use language (e.g., written or spoken English, body language, or visual language) to communicate. Learn about the rhetorical...
Information Literacy refers to the competencies associated with locating, evaluating, using, and archiving information. In order to thrive, much less survive in a global information economy — an economy where information functions as a...
Mindset refers to a person or community’s way of feeling, thinking, and acting about a topic. The mindsets you hold, consciously or subconsciously, shape how you feel, think, and act–and...
Learn about rhetoric and rhetorical practices (e.g., rhetorical analysis, rhetorical reasoning, rhetorical situation, and rhetorical stance) so that you can strategically manage how you compose and subsequently produce a text...
Style, most simply, refers to how you say something as opposed to what you say. The style of your writing matters because audiences are unlikely to read your work or...
The writing process refers to everything you do in order to complete a writing project. Over the last six decades, researchers have studied and theorized about how writers go about...
Writing studies refers to an interdisciplinary community of scholars and researchers who study writing. Writing studies also refers to an academic, interdisciplinary discipline – a subject of study. Students in...
We should probably start by asking ourselves what are transition words and what value do they add to an essay. You need to connect ideas in your essay to improve readability. If your points are isolated and unrelated, then reading becomes difficult and boring.
As a matter of fact, most software that checks for the readability of texts looks for the correct usage of transition words. Some people recommend that you can add transition words when you are revising the paper. However, you have to get a good flow from the beginning. This means that you should be adding these words as you write. Transition words are very many. Using them might be confusing and that is why this article breaks them down into 4 major types depending on how and where you can use them.
Transition words for essays help to ensure a smooth flow of ideas throughout the paper. They help readers understand the relationships between different parts of the text and navigate through the essay easily. However, sometimes it can be hard to find the right transition words for essays. Fortunately, there are services that provide cheap custom essays that use the right transition words and provide excellent structure to help you get the highest grade. Also, if you can’t do it yourself, we can help with college essays .
These are the kind of words that you will want to use when writing about a list of points in prose.
The words in this category are:
The list is by no means endless. However, what you should know about words in this category is that they help you in introducing sentences of paragraphs that follow a sequence in prose. Using lists or numbers in an essay might be inappropriate and appear untidy. However, you might need to introduce related points and demonstrate that they are related. For instance, you want to write down three factors that lead to global warming. You might use “to begin with” for the first point, “secondly” for the second point, and “finally” for the third point. This will not only make it easy to read but show the reader that the points are related. Using transition words for essays is important to make your written work more professional, and to make your points clear and easy to follow. In addition, do your essays in a relevant way by adding new information that connects the text and the phrase. This will ensure that the essay flows effectively while making make the writing process smoother.
Finished papers
Customer reviews
Casual transition words show the relationship between sentences and paragraphs, where the proceeding point emerges as a cause or effect of the previous.
Some words in this category are:
You can easily identify casual transition words by looking at the relationship they create between two sentences or paragraphs. For instance, you can have two independent sentences like: I was late for school. I was punished by the head teacher. You can improve readability by showing that the second action was as a result of the first. Your sentence can look something like this: “Due to the fact that I was late for school, I was punished by the head teacher. When using casual transitions, you should always be keen on establishing the nature of the relationship between sentences and paragraphs.
If you are stuck with writing your essay, you can even opt to hire an online academic writing service to write academic assignments for you . These services can provide you with a professional writer that can help you to create an essay that is well-written, concise, and equipped with the perfect transition words.
These are the kind of transitions you use when you want to show that the current point is an addition to the previous. You should not confuse additive with sequential. In the case of additive, the current point is only directly related to the previous. However, in the case of sequential, there is a relationship between all the points mentioned in the sequence.
Examples of additive transitions are:
You can use these words to explain in detail the previous point. They can be used to avoid run-on sentences where the reader is forced to read a long sentence without a pause.
For instance, let us consider the following sentences:
These transitions accomplish the task opposite to additive transitions. Instead of adding, they show conflict between ideas.
Examples in this category are:
The words in this category are mostly used when writing an analysis or argumentative essay. This is because you will mostly find that explaining opposing views will provide a better analysis or argument. You can also use these transitions to provide alternative, not necessarily opposing, views. The list of transition words is long because there are many examples. You will hear most students asking for examples of transition words. However, it is important to understand the different types and how they are used first. Once you are conversant with the types, you will only need to look at an example within a sentence to be able to use the same in an essay. When it comes to transition words, you will definitely need to improve your reading habits. With time they will sink in and you will find using them easy.
When you are writing an essay, it is important to use transition words to help the flow of your paper. Transition words help to make the essay more structured and offer a smoother reading experience. Transition words can be used in the introduction paragraph, in the body paragraphs, and in the conclusion paragraph. For example, you can use the words ‘first of all’ or ‘in order to’ at the beginning of your essay. In the body paragraphs, you can use transition words such as ‘moreover’, ‘furthermore’, or ‘in addition’. Finally, in the conclusion paragraph, you can use words such as ‘to conclude’ or ‘in conclusion’. In addition, you can order essay writing to get a professionally written paper.
Get 15% off your first order with edusson.
Connect with a professional writer within minutes by placing your first order. No matter the subject, difficulty, academic level or document type, our writers have the skills to complete it.
100% privacy. No spam ever.
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
Each paragraph should focus on a single cause or effect, providing clear explanations and supporting evidence. It is important to use transitional words and phrases to guide the reader through the essay, making connections between causes and effects. Additionally, proper organization is key in a cause and effect essay.
A Guide to Writing a Cause and Effect Essay
How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay: Full Guide
Cause And Effect Essay Structure. Introduction: Hook: Start with an attention-grabbing statement or question to engage the reader. Background Information: Provide context and background information on the topic. Thesis Statement: Clearly state the main causes and effects you will discuss in your essay. Body Paragraphs: Paragraph 1: Introduction to Causes Topic Sentence: Introduce the first ...
A cause is something that produces an event or condition; an effect is what results from an event or condition. The purpose of the cause-and-effect essay is to determine how various phenomena relate in terms of origins and results. Sometimes the connection between cause and effect is clear, but often determining the exact relationship between ...
In composition, cause and effect is a method of paragraph or essay development in which a writer analyzes the reasons for—and/or the consequences of—an action, event, or decision. A cause-and-effect paragraph or essay can be organized in various ways. For instance, causes and/or effects can be arranged in either chronological order or ...
Cause 1: Elaborate on the initial reasoning and its immediate aftermath (s). Cause 2: Delve into the second point, instigated by the result (s) of Cause 1, and its ensuing impact (s). Cause 3: Outline the third basis, influenced by the effect (s) of Cause 2, and its subsequent effect (s). Maintain this pattern for any additional reasons and ...
10.8 Cause and Effect - Writing for Success
The Block Method of Structuring Cause and Effect Essays. Essays using the block method tend to be shorter as the format is used when the cause-effect relationship is more or less straightforward. There is a direct and very evident correlation between the two. The block method is also employed when there is a single cause that has resulted in ...
Writing a Cause-and-Effect Essay. Choose an event or condition that you think has an interesting cause-and-effect relationship. Introduce your topic in an engaging way. End your introduction with a thesis that states the main cause, the main effect, or both. Organize your essay by starting with either the cause-then-effect structure or the ...
Cause: A mosquito bit me. Effect: My arm itches. An essay can have multiple causes and effects. Additionally, causes and effects can be sequential in nature, where one leads to another. A good example of this is dominos, where a person knocks over the first, causing all the following dominos to fall over.
Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like What is the purpose of a cause and effect essay?, Cause and effect essays can emphasize which of the following? (Select all that apply.), An effect is generated by anything that happens prior. and more.
Reciprocal cause/effect relationships: effects may be part of a chain. In this kind of structure, one effect goes on to cause a second effect, which may then cause a third effect, etc. Approaching the Assignment. Step 1: Look for unstated cause-and-effect relationships. In some paragraphs, the cause-and-effect relationship is not directly stated.
Cause-and-effect essays examine causes, describe effects, or do both. Causes precede effects, but causality involves more than sequence: cause-and-effect analysis explains why something happened - or is happening - and predicts what probably will happen. Do not assume that because event A precedes event B, event A has caused event B. Many ...
Cause #1. Cause #2. Cause #3 (and so on…) The effect of the causes. Conclusion. 2. One cause, many effects. This type of cause and effect essay is constructed to show the various effects of a particular event, problem, or decision. Once again, you will have to demonstrate your comprehensive knowledge and analytical mastery of the field.
Cause and Effect Language. Step 3: Choose the right language. Now you can write a great cause and effect essay using your outline. There are several language formulas that can effectively show cause and effect relationships, so take the time to choose the best ones for your piece.
Cause and Effect Essay: Step By Step Writing Guide
A sufficient cause is one that can cause the effect to take place. By itself, a sufficient cause can explain a phenomenon or trend. For instance, according to the Mayo Clinic resource above, in order for someone to contract the HIV virus, any of the following forms of contact is a sufficient cause: Having sex; Blood transfusions; Sharing needles
the basics 2 Cause and effect essay (shorter version) 3 ...
Exercise 7. Highlight the effect signal words. Underline the effects. 1. Every year in the U.S. there are about a thousand tornadoes, thereby causing millions of dollars of damage and the death of over 70 people. 2. Tornadoes are extremely destructive and result in damaged houses, cars and businesses. 3.
Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Jun 7, 2021 • 2 min read. Cause-and-effect essay structure is a way of exploring relationships between ideas and events.
For example, you can use the words 'first of all' or 'in order to' at the beginning of your essay. In the body paragraphs, you can use transition words such as 'moreover', 'furthermore', or 'in addition'. Finally, in the conclusion paragraph, you can use words such as 'to conclude' or 'in conclusion'.