A cause and effect essay is probably one of the most interesting and useful types of academic writing. It helps students establish logical connections between things and analyze the reasons leading to certain events.
However, it might be a tricky paper to write, especially if you haven’t written essays of this type before. Lucky for you, we want to offer you a 6-step guide that will help you write such essays easily and successfully.
Table of Contents
1. Make a list of causes and effects.
Probably you are given a certain topic to write a cause and effect essay on. If not, you have to come up with the topic yourself. Either way, once you know the topic you are able to start brainstorming.
Your goal here is to come up with all possible causes and effects related to a certain topic. It is important because of different reasons. First of all, it helps you see the whole picture and understand which causes and effects will work the best. Second, it helps you ensure that you’ll actually be able to write a proper essay using certain cause and effect.
2. Choose the right cause and effect.
Sometimes the students choose causes and effects that are really interesting – however, at the same time, there’s nothing much to write about them. You need to know that you’ll have enough information and evidence to come up with a decent essay before you start writing. This will help you save a lot of time and nerves.
However, this doesn’t mean that you have to settle for one that doesn’t really interest you. When you have a list and research every option available, you usually find out that there are a couple of potential causes and effects you can describe. Choose the one that can be researched well and is interesting and appealing to you at the same time.
3. Make a nice outline.
An outline is an important part of any essay writing. It helps you structure your writing, make sure you won’t forget anything, and also basically gives you a ready-made plan, making the whole writing process easier. A proper cause and effect essay outline is identical to any other essay outline: it consists of an introduction, the main body, and the conclusion.
4. Work on your introduction.
While the introduction itself isn’t enough to make a certain impression, it definitely helps to set the right tone from the start. Basically, an introduction is a preview of the whole essay – so you have to work hard to make it work well.
Make sure that the introduction briefly outlines the background of your essay as well as explains its cause and demonstrates its importance. Don’t forget about the thesis – it shouldn’t be longer than one or two sentences and it should be positioned at the end of an introduction. You can find many useful tips on thesis writing online.
5. Make your arguments strong.
One of the most important things about cause and effect essay writing is to support your point of view with strong arguments. While you usually aren’t limited by the number of arguments you can use, it’s still better to stick to two or three of them for both the cause and the effect. If you come up with too little, your essay might not look impressive enough, and if you come up with too many, the readers might become confused.
Try to keep some balance here and don’t forget to make connections with both the cause, the effect, and the supporting arguments.
6. Sum all this up nicely.
Sure, your whole essay is important. However, it’s the conclusion that usually leaves the most lasting impression and sums everything up for the readers. That’s why it’s so important to make your conclusion strong even if you think that you did enough for your essay to be good already.
Make it powerful. Sum up instead of repeating. And don’t forget that you are free to voice your own opinion and thoughts in this part.
Pay attention to the last sentence of your essay: it does have to differ from your essay’s main point yet it still should remind the readers about it.
Writing a cause and effect essay can be a challenging task for many. It takes a lot of time and practice to be able to draw strong and impressive cause and effect conclusions quickly. However, this skill indeed can be achieved with practice.
Moreover, it can affect not only your grades but your life too, making you stronger in drawing logical conclusions and defending your point of view. Hopefully, you’ll be able to develop it quickly using these tips.
