Cause and Effect Essays

The cause and effect essay will help you develop logical arguments that establish causal chains.  For example, if you’re arguing about why cigarettes are detrimental to health, you can’t just say cigarettes cause lung cancer and move on to the next subject.  You must respond to that statement and tell the reader why cigarettes cause lung cancer 

That said, the most questions to answer for this type of essay are what and why.  The central theme of your essay will be a clearly articulated “why” (cause) followed by an effectively argued “what” (effect).  When writing this essay, your are establishing relationships - how one thing affects another thing.   

Let’s look at a simple example:          

By drinking enough martinis, I will soon destroy my liver.

Cause (why): By drinking enough martinis

Effect (what): I will soon destroy my liver

See?  Drinking martinis answers “why,” and “what “is answered by my soon-to-be destroyed liver.  So the actual topic of your essay is the martini. 

Your opinion or slant on the topic: drink enough of them and you will destroy your liver.  So your plan of development or three points of argument will be based on reasons “why” drinking martinis destroys the liver. You must prove that the cause leads to the effect.                                                                         

Now don’t be fooled by a post hoc fallacy.  The American Heritage Dictionary defines post hoc as “in or of the form of an argument in which one event is asserted to be the cause of a later event simply by the virtue of having happened earlier.” The cause must yield the effect.  Because you threw salt over your shoulder before an airplane flight and then had a safe flight, there is no evidence that the salt over the shoulder is the reason your flight was safe.  Capish?  You MUST back up your claim with a good argument and references that back up your argument.

Here are some essential rules for this essay:

You must offer at least two works cited

You must have at least one quotation from our readings, properly cited.

Your essay must be typed in proper MLA format

The checklists and outline in this packet must be filled out and handed in

You will hand in early rough drafts with your essay

You will read, or have another student read, your opening paragraph to the class.