Cause-and-Effect Essay: Everything You Need to Know
Cause-and-Effect Essay: Everything You Need to Know
During your academic career as a student, you will write dozens of papers. These will include argumentative essays, narrative essays, persuasive essays, and the list goes on. One such example is a cause-and-effect essay. If you are enthusiastic about applying your critical and analytical skills then you are sure to enjoy these types of essays. Cause-and-effect papers require fact-checking and extensive research as you use credible evidence to support your claims.
If you do not already possess these qualities then a cause-and-effect paper is the perfect essay to get you started. The basic format of this type of essay is similar to any formal academic paper with a few exceptions. In this article, we will show how to write a cause-and-effect essay, the basic structure, and an outline to help you. But first, what is a cause-and-effect essay
What is a Cause and Effect Essay?
A cause-and-effect essay is one of many academic styles of writings that you are bound to come across. In this type of writing, you are called upon to examine the causes of a particular subject matter and its effects or consequences. Seems pretty straightforward. However, it is important to note that you have to include reliable evidence and come up with sensible claims on the topic for your cause-and-effect paper to be credible.
Writing a cause-and-effect essay requires the use of critical thinking skills and the ability to demonstrate sound reasoning. The paper should be built on research and clear facts. In a cause-and-effect paper, you show the reader how an event, a person, or an idea directly impacts another event, person, or idea using credible information.
If you are assigned to write a cause-and-effect paper there are a few things that you need to understand first. One of the most important aspects is the cause-and-effect essay structure. The structure of an essay is what distinguishes your paper from a narrative essay or an argumentative essay. How you structure a cause-and-effect essay will make or break your paper.
Here is an outline to help you.
Cause-and-Effect Essay Outline
Just like any other academic paper, a cause-and-effect essay has the basic building block. Firstly, an introduction paragraph to give a quick overview of your points, hook your reader and end with a thesis statement that ties in the entire paper. A cause-and-effect essay introduction is the foundation of your paper. Make it precise to grab the reader’s attention
After the introductory paragraph, you move to the body. Here is where the difference comes in depending on how many causes and how many effects you are including in the essay and the length of your essay. for instance, if your cause-and-effect essay is centered on a single effect with several causes, it makes more sense to discuss all the causes separately and have one paragraph for the effect. If the number of causes and equal to the effects, it makes more sense to have isolated paragraphs discussing each cause and effect on their own.
Each section of your cause-and-effect body paragraph should have a single point. Depending on the word count limit, you can discuss a single point in two paragraphs. However, do not discuss two points in one paragraph because that is structurally incorrect.
When organizing the paragraphs in your cause-and-effect paper, you can do so in different ways. You can discuss all the causes first, one after the other. Then, do the same when discussing the effects. Alternatively, you can choose to discuss each cause-and-effect pair first and then move on to another pair. There is no wrong format here, you can play around with any cause-and-effect essay format that best suits your paper. Then after the body paragraphs, tie everything together with a conclusion.
The cause-and-effect essay conclusion is a culmination of all the points made and restates the thesis statement. The main aim is not to copy the thesis statement word for word but remind your audience of the argument. Here, you are summarizing the points giving a concise recount of the main claims in a short paragraph
Outline of a cause-and-effect essay examples
As aforementioned, there are different ways to structure your cause-and-effect essay depending on your preferences. Here is the first example.
· Introduction
· First cause
· Second cause
· First effect
· Second effect
· Conclusion
Here is a second example:
· Introduction
· First cause
· First effect
· Second cause
· Second effect
· Conclusion
When you are brainstorming ideas for your cause-and-effect essay, consider both formats and figure out which structure makes more sense with the content of your paper. Both formats will suffice depending on the specific essay.
As you can see, a cause-and-effect essay all depends on your organizational abilities. If you invest your time wisely and follow these steps, you are sure to get a good grade on your paper. If by chance you encounter a challenging task, you can easily source the help of Homework Owls' team of writers.
Good luck!
