ExpositionExpositionCause-and-Effect EssayCause-and-Effect Essay

[adapted from Writing and Grammar: Communication in Action, Prentice-

Hall, Publishers, 2001]

Cause-and-Effect Relationships in Cause-and-Effect Relationships in Everyday LifeEveryday Life

• Identifying causes and effects is a part of daily life.

• Giving advice to a friend based on the effects you predict, fireproofing a potential fire hazard, and arguing about the best way to solve a problem—all these activities show an awareness of cause-and-effect relationships.

Cause-and-Effect Relationships in Cause-and-Effect Relationships in Everyday Life (2)Everyday Life (2)

• Cause-and-effect relationships are also explored in writing.

• Feature articles in your daily newspaper often describe causes and effects related to politics, crime, or the environment.

• History textbooks are primarily focused on causes and effects, as well.

• Even something as common as a recipe may describe a cause-and-effect process.

What is a Cause-and-Effect What is a Cause-and-Effect Essay?Essay?

• Exposition is writing that informs or explains.

• A cause-and-effect essay is a piece of exposition that describes the relationship between an event or circumstance and its causes.

Ingredients in the Cause-and-Ingredients in the Cause-and-Effect EssayEffect Essay

• Good cause-and-effect essays contain:– A clearly stated topic that explains what cause-

and-effect relationships will be explored.– An effective and logical method of organization– Details and examples that elaborate upon the

writer’s statements– Transitions that smoothly and clearly connect

the writer’s ideas

Types of Cause-and-Effect EssaysTypes of Cause-and-Effect Essays

• Cause-and-effect relationships are explored in many types of writing, including the ones listed below:– Historical articles explain how events in history

contributed to or resulted in other events– Process explanations take readers step by step through

a process, such as a math formula or a scientific technique.

– Predictions make educated guesses about future events based on knowledge of cause-and-effect relationships

Prewriting—Prewriting—Choosing Your TopicChoosing Your Topic

• Choose a topic for your cause-and-effect essay that you find interesting and that centers around a cause-and-effect relationship.

• Use the following strategies for choosing a topic:

Choosing Your TopicChoosing Your Topic

• Sketch a Scene—Draw a scene from the world of nature. Review your sketch to find interesting details that make a good writing topic.– For example, you might draw a field of

dandelions and clover that has a pond in the middle of it.

– You might then decide to write about the effects of last year’s drought on local flowers and crops.

Choosing Your Topic (2)Choosing Your Topic (2)

• Make a List—List interesting events or scientific phenomena.– After five minutes, circle the one you find most

interesting.– Then, write for another five minutes, lisitng any causes

and effects that spring to mind when you think of that topic.

– Review what you wrote, and develop your topic into a cause-and-effect essay.

– If you find that your topic doesn’t have a strong enough cause-and-effect relationship, continue the listing process until you find one that does.

Choosing Your Topic (3)Choosing Your Topic (3)

• Scan a Newspaper—Scan a newspaper, looking for topics that you can link to causes or effects.– Keep a list of the possible topics as you come

across them.– Then, review your list, and choose a topic the

item you find most interesting.

Topic BankTopic Bank

• If you are having difficulty finding a specific topic for your cause-and-effect essay, use the following ideas:– Influences of the Blues on Popular Music—

Write an essay that reveals how blues instruments, blues singers, and recurring themes in blues songs affect music today.

Topic Bank (2)Topic Bank (2)

• Causes of Changes in Rain Forests—In a cause-and-effect essay, explore the various factors that have led to the rain forest’s acreage being decreased. – You can find information about deforestation in

current periodicals available at the library.

Topic Bank (3)Topic Bank (3)

• Responding to Fine Art—Find a picture such as Rolling Power (see next slide) that depicts a close-up view of the workings of a locomotive (see http://www.smith.edu/artmuseum/exhibitions/spectrum/edsheelerfull.htm) explaining how steam engines propel locomotives.

• As an alternative, explore the cause-and-effect relationship between the development of the railroad and patterns of settlement westward across the United States.

Rolling SteelRolling Steel

Topics Bank (4)Topics Bank (4)

• Responding to Literature—Read a story such as “The Dog That Bit People” by James Thurber.– In an essay, explain how Thurber exaggerates

cause-and-effect relationships to create humor– Your teacher can help you find this or similar

stories to write about.

Cooperative WritingCooperative Writing

• History or Science Display—Work with a group to plan a cause-and-effect display for the classroom.– Choose a significant moment in history or

science.– Then, divide into two sub-groups, with one

group making a timeline that traces the causes leading up to that significant moment and the other group making a timeline showing effects.

– Share your work with the class.

Narrowing Your TopicNarrowing Your Topic

• Once you have a general idea for a topic, work with the material until it is narrow enough to cover effectively within the scope of your essay.

• Cubing is one narrowing technique that you can use.

Use the Cubing TechniqueUse the Cubing Technique

• Cubing lets you focus on details by helping you identify six perspectives or aspects of your topic.

• Answer the six questions, and decide to focus your essay on one or two of the perspectives or aspects your explored.

6 Questions6 Questions• Describe It—How would you describe your topic to

someone who is unfamiliar with it?• Associate It—What other situations or events does your

topic bring to mind?• Apply It—Why is your topic important? Why is it useful

to explore?• Analyze It—Where is it? When did it happen? Why

might it happen again? Can anything stop it from happening?

• Compare or Contrast It—How does your topic compare and contrast with similar topics?

• Argue for or Against It—What are the positive and negative effects of your topic?

The CubeThe Cube

Analyze It

Describe It

Analyze It

Com

pare or C

ontrast It

Ap

ply

It

Considering Your Audience Considering Your Audience and Purposeand Purpose

• Before you gather details, identify your audience and your purpose.

• Your audience and purpose will affect your word choice, the details you include, and the way in which you present those details.

• For help identifying the types of details and style of language that will be most effective, devise a plan like the one that appears on the next slide:

Audience and Purpose PlannerAudience and Purpose Planner

Audience:

Purpose:

Details:

Style of Language

School Board

To explain effects of decreased music funding

Facts and statistics; cause-and-effect chart; examples

Formal word choice; vivid persuasive language; tone of respect

Gathering DetailsGathering Details

• Before you draft, collect and organize details for your cause-and-effect essay.

• Following are two methods for collecting and organizing details:

Collect Note CardsCollect Note Cards

• When you research a topic, it’s important to keep note cards for each cause-and-effect idea and its source.

• Before you begin to draft your essay, collect note cards from a least three or four sources either at home or at the library.

• On each note card, record the quotation or the idea you want to include in your report.

• Mark the note card with a number that identifies its source and the page number(s) on which the information can be found.

• As an alternative, photocopy source pages and highlight the information you use.

Chart Causes and EffectsChart Causes and Effects

• On a sheet of paper, write the effect, or event, that is your subject.

• Then, use arrows and boxes to show events or conditions that are caused by or result from your topic.

• If one event has several different effects, use a separate arrow to point to each.

Drafting—Shaping your WritingDrafting—Shaping your Writing

• Now that you have gathered details on your topic, shape the structure of your essay.

• Choose a logical method of organization for your cause-and-effect essay.

• Following are two such methods:

Chronological OrganizationChronological Organization

• Chronological, or time, organization is a logical choice for structuring a cause-and-effect essay.

• You can start either with the effect and go back through its causes one at a time, in chronological order, or you can start with the cause and proceed to describe its effects in time order.

Effects Organized Chronologically:Effects Organized Chronologically:

• After the Titanic sank, new marine regulations were put into effect. The tragedy of the Titanic caused mariners to firm up regulations about radio contact and lifeboats. Marine regulations instituted after the Titanic included these mandates: constant radio contact between vessels and sufficient lifeboats to hold all passengers.

• Photo: http://cacella.tachyonweb.net/Titanic_i.htm

Order-of-Importance Order-of-Importance OrganizationOrganization

• Order-of-Importance organization allows you to build an argument or to present various causes or effects in the order of their relative importance.

• You can either begin with the most important detail and end with the least important detail or reverse it, beginning with the least important detail and ending with the most important detail.

Effects Organized in Effects Organized in Order of ImportanceOrder of Importance

• The Titanic’s voyage proved to be a disaster because of many causes. Chief among them was the failure of the crew to navigate around the iceberg. The resulting damage to the ship’s hull made its sinking inevitable. . . .

• Another contributing cause was the lack of adequate lifeboats and safety instruction. Because the Titanic was “unsinkable,” the company that made the ship did not provide enough safety equipment to ensure the safety of passengers and crew.

• The weather conditions certainly did not help. . . .

Providing ElaborationProviding Elaboration

• Elaborate as you draft to add depth and detail to your cause-and-effect essay.

• Types of elaboration include examples, statistics, quotations, and other types of details that support your ideas.

• Use the following strategy to help you elaborate:

SEE Technique for ElaborationSEE Technique for Elaboration

• Use the SEE technique to layer, or give depth, to your writing as you draft.

• First, write a basic statement about your topic.

• Next, write a sentence that extends that statement.

• Finally, write a sentence that elaborates on the extension.

SEE TechniqueSEE Technique• STATEMENT:

– State the main idea of the paragraph. – Exercise is beneficial to your health.

• EXTENSION: – Restate the idea. – People who exercise regularly live longer, fuller lives.– ELABORATION:– Add information that further explains or defines the

main idea.– For example, a person who works out for twenty

minutes three times a week is often in far better shape than a person who has no regular routine.

Revising Your Overall StructureRevising Your Overall Structure

• As you look at the structure of your essay, make sure that the ideas you’ve presented appear in logical order and are clearly connected to each other.

• Strengthen Your Introduction and Conclusion– In your introduction, clearly present the main idea of

your cause-and-effect essay. – You may also mention reasons for your choice of topic

and give readers an idea about why it is interesting or important.

Revision Strategy: Circling to Revision Strategy: Circling to Identify RelationshipsIdentify Relationships

• To make sure that your introduction and conclusion “match up,” circle the main idea you present in your introduction.

• Then, find and circle in your conclusion a restatement of that main idea.

• If your conclusion does not contain such a restatement, either rewrite your introduction or rewrite your conclusion so that they work together effectively.

Revising Your ParagraphsRevising Your Paragraphs

• Review your paragraphs to be sure that each develops a single idea and that the paragraphs themselves flow together smoothly.

• Check to be sure that topical paragraphs—those that contain a topic sentence—are unified.

Strengthen the Unity of ParagraphsStrengthen the Unity of Paragraphs

• Revise your topical paragraphs to make them unified—to make sure that each has a topic sentence

• and that the other sentences within the paragraph support or develop the main idea expressed in the topic sentence.

Revision Strategy: color-Coding Revision Strategy: color-Coding to Identify Related Detailsto Identify Related Details

• Circle each topic sentence in every topical paragraph.

• (Functional paragraphs—those that perform a specific function—do not have topic sentences.)

• Then, using a pencil of a different color, circle the details that support the topic sentence.

• Examine sentences you have not circled. If they do not support the topic sentence, either rewrite or delete them.

Revising Your SentencesRevising Your Sentences• Now that your paragraphs are unified, look even more

closely at your writing.• Within each sentence, check to see that the relationships

are logical.• Make sure that the connections among words, phrases, and

clauses are clear.• Read each sentence carefully. If there is more than one

thought within a sentence, you may have to add a transition to show how those thoughts are related.

• Some transitions indicate meaning or clarify the significance of a detail.

• For example, the phrase not only indicates that a detail is just one of many.

Grammar in Your Writing:Grammar in Your Writing:Transitional PhrasesTransitional Phrases

• A phrase is a group of words without a subject and verb.

• In your cause-and-effect essay, use transitional phrases to show connections between ideas.

• A phrase may appear at the beginning of the sentence, between the subject and the verb, or at the end of a sentence:

Transitional PhrasesTransitional Phrases

• Beginning:– After lunch, we worked enthusiastically.

• Between the Subject and Verb:– We, after eating lunch, worked enthusiastically.

• End:– We worked enthusiastically after eating lunch.

Types of Transitional PhrasesTypes of Transitional Phrases

• There are many types of phrases that you can use as transitions, connecting ideas in your writing:– A prepositional phrase is a group of words

made up of a preposition and a noun or pronoun, called the object of the preposition.

– Inside the studio, the sound engineers began mixing the demo

Types of Transitional PhrasesTypes of Transitional Phrases

• A participial phrase is a participle modified by an adverb or adverb phrase or accompanied by a complement.

• The entire phrase acts as an adjective:– Using a high-powered lens, Annette could just

make out the letters.

Types of Transitional PhrasesTypes of Transitional Phrases

• An infinitive phrase is an infinitive with modifiers, complements, or a subject, all acting together as a single part of speech:– To avoid the iceberg, the captain had to steer hard to

starboard.• Review your draft to identify where you have used

phrases to show transitions.• If you cannot identify six phrases, challenge

yourself to add at least one more to your writing. • Notice the improvement.

Revising Your Word ChoiceRevising Your Word Choice

• If you use the same word or form of it several times within a passage, your writing can sound tedious and awkward.

• Learn to distinguish between useful repetition and careless repetition.

• Useful repetition helps to emphasize a point or to make a passage memorable.

• Careless repetition creates a dull impression on the reader.

Review Your Word ChoiceReview Your Word Choice

• USEFUL REPETITION:– In the 1920;s, people flocked to theaters to see

plays; in the 1930’s, the flocked to theaters to see movies.

• CARELESS REPETITION:– Because I have always loved the theater, I’m

studying theater and theater arts in school.

Revision StrategyRevision Strategy

• Underlining Repeated Words and Forms of Words:– Read through your draft, and underline repeated

words or forms of words.– Then, review your draft.– If passages containing repetition are not

intended, replace some of the repeated words with synonyms, words with the same meanings.

Repeated Words and Forms of WordsRepeated Words and Forms of Words

• OVERUSED WORD:– They housed the furniture for the house in a shed out

back.

• VARIED WORDS:– The stored the furniture for the house in a shed out

back.

• OVERUSED WORD:– We tried to locate a better location for our party.

• VARIED WORDS:– We tried to find a better location for our party.

Peer Review—”Say Back”Peer Review—”Say Back”• Work with a small group of peers to get

feedback on your writing.– Read your paper aloud to your peer editors twice.– Have peers jot down two positive comments and

three constructive comments for improvement.– One by one, have your peers read aloud their

comments to you.– Take their comments into consideration as you

prepare your final draft.

Editing and ProofreadingEditing and Proofreading

• Reread your cause-and-effect essay carefully, correcting any mistakes you find in spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

• Double-check statistics or other details you present as fact.

• Proofread your essay carefully.• Make sure you’ve correctly used the following

commonly confused words: since, because, then, and than.

Using Using Since, Because, Then, Since, Because, Then, andand Than Than• As you proofread, make sure that you have used these words

appropriately.

• If you have not used any of those words, challenge yourself to add them to make clear connections between your ideas.

Use since only to refer to a previous time. Do notUse since to mean “because.”

Use because to mean “for the reason that.”

Use then to refer to a previous time.

Use than in comparisons between people, places, ideas, and events

Publishing and PresentingPublishing and Presenting

• When you are finished writing your cause-and-effect essay, share it with others.

• Following are some ideas for sharing your writing:

Building Your PortfolioBuilding Your Portfolio• Presentation: Use your essay as the basis

of a cause-and-effect presentation. – Use photographs, charts, and diagrams as you

explain the topic of your essay.– Save the essay and visuals in your portfolio.

• E-mail: Share your essay electronically.– Type the essay using word-processing software.– Then, attach the file to an e-mail to a friend or

relative.

Reflect on Your WritingReflect on Your Writing

• Think back on your experience of writing a cause-and-effect essay.

• Then, respond to the following questions, and save your responses in your portfolio.– During the process of writing, what did you

learn about the subject you chose?– Which strategy for writing a cause-and-effect

essay might you recommend to someone as being most useful? Why?

Rubric for Self-AssessmentRubric for Self-AssessmentScore 4 Score 3 Score 2 Score 1

Audience & Purpose

Consistently targets an audience through word choice and details; clearly identifies purpose in thesis statement

Targets an audience through most word choice and details; identifies purpose in thesis statement

Misses target audience by including a wide range of word choice and details; presents no clear purpose

Addresses no specific audience or purpose

Organiza-tion

Presents a clear, consistent organizational strategy to show cause and effect

Presents a clear organizational strategy with occasional inconsistencies; shows cause and effect

Presents an inconsistent organizational strategy; creates illogical presentation of causes and effects

Demonstrates a lack of organizational strategy; creates a confusing presentation

Elaboration Successfully links causes with effects; fully elaborates connections among ideas

Links causes with effects; elaborates connections among most ideas

Links some causes with some effects; elaborates connections among most ideas

Develops and elaborates no links between causes and effects

Use of Language

Chooses clear transitions to convey ideas; presents very few mechanical errors

Chooses transitions to convey ideas; presents few mechanical errors

Misses some opportunities for transitions to convey ideas; presents many mechanical errors

Demonstrates poor use of language; presents many mechanical errors