DEVELOPING A COMPARISON AND CONTRAST ESSAY

Follow these steps when writing a cause and effect essay:

1. Distinguish between cause and effect. To determine causes, ask, "Why did this happen?" To identify effects, ask, "What happened because of this?" The following is an example of one cause producing one effect:

Sometimes, many causes contribute to a single effect or many effects may result from a single cause. The following are examples:

2. Develop your thesis statement. State clearly whether you are discussing causes, effects, or both. Introduce your main idea, using the terms "cause" and/or "effect."

3. Find and organize supporting details. Back up your thesis with relevant and sufficient details that are organized. You can organize details in the following ways:

o Chronological. Details are arranged in the order in which the events occurred.

o Order of importance. Details are arranged from least to most important or vice versa.

o Categorical. Details are arranged by dividing the topic into parts or categories.

When writing your essay, keep the following suggestions in mind:

o Remember your purpose. Decide if your are writing to inform or persuade.

o Focus on immediate and direct causes (or effects.) Limit yourself to causes that are close in time and related, as opposed to remote and indirect causes, which occur later and are related indirectly.

o Strengthen your essay by using supporting evidence. Define terms, offer facts and statistics, or provide examples, anecdotes, or personal observations that support your ideas.

o Qualify or limit your statements about cause and effect. Unless there is clear evidence that one event is related to another, qualify your statements with phrases such as "It appears that the cause was" or "It seems likely" or "The evidence may indicate" or "Available evidence suggests."

To evaluate the effectiveness of a cause and effect essay, ask the following questions:

· What are the causes?

· What are the effects?

· Which should be emphasized?

· Are there single or multiple causes?

· Single or multiple effects?

· Is a chain reaction involved?

CAUSE-AND-EFFECT ESSAY OUTLINE

Topic

I.Introduction (paragraph 1):

1.General statements.

2.Thesis statement (introduces the cause(s) and effect(s)).

II. Body:

1. Paragraph 2 (first cause or effect) topic sentence

· Support

· Support

· Transition sentence

2. Paragraph 3 (second cause or effect) topic sentence

· Support

· Support

· Transition sentence

4. Paragraph 4 (third cause or effect) topic sentence

· Support

· Support

· Transition sentence

III.Conclusion (paragraph 5):

· Conclusion (restated thesis)

· Final sentence (suggestion, opinion or prediction)

Peer editing. It is never enough writing your essay once. A good essay usually requires more than one draft. Think of the first draft of your essay as your first attempt. Before you rewrite, it is helpful to let someone read your paper and offer comments. In class, peer editing is the easiest way to get comments on your essay. Peer editing is used both for outlines and for essay drafts. Use Peer Editing Sheet #1 for outlines (Appendix 9) and Peer Editing Sheet #2 for essay drafts (Appendix 10).

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 1006