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How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay: Writing Guide

Are you struggling with how to write a cause and effect essay? Worry no more! This comprehensive guide will walk you through the process of creating a compelling and well-structured essay that demonstrates critical thinking and persuasive argumentation. Let’s dive into the world of cause and effect essays and transform your writing skills!

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

• Cause and effect essays are a type of expository writing which explore the relationship between a particular condition and its resulting effects.
• Crafting an effective cause and effect essay outline requires understanding logical organization, critical thinking skills, structure selection based on topic focus, evidence from reliable sources, strong thesis statements & clear transitions.
• Common mistakes to avoid include using weak evidence or inadequate organization that can lead to confusion for the reader.

Cause and Effect Essays and Their Peculiarities

Cause and effect essays are a unique form of academic writing that focuses on the reasons and consequences of a particular issue or event. These essays require a clear thesis statement, logical organization, and critical thinking skills to effectively present cause and effect arguments.

As opposed to other forms of essays, cause and effect essays aim to explain complex relationships in an orderly, rational format, utilizing an impartial, analytical tone.

Defining Cause and Effect Essays

A cause and effect essay, also known as an effect essay, is a type of expository writing that explores the relationships between particular conditions and their resultant effects. The effect essay definition helps readers understand the correlation between occurrences or situations and their results, as these essays delve into how one event (the cause) gives rise to another event (the effect).

Some common examples of cause and effect essays include topics such as the effects of climate change, the causes of poverty, and the effects of technology on society. These topics often lead to engaging cause and effect discussions, allowing readers to better understand the connections between various factors.

Objectives of Cause and Effect Essays

The main objectives of cause and effect essays are to:

• Examine the causes and consequences of a particular issue
• Instruct the reader regarding the relationship between two or more occurrences or circumstances
• Identify and discuss events that lead to certain outcomes

These essays not only elucidate the cause and effect relationships between events or circumstances, but also help cultivate critical thinking and persuasive writing aptitudes.

Examples of cause and effect essays include “The Causes of Global Warming” and “The Effects of Social Media on Teenagers”. By understanding the objectives and structure of cause and effect essays, you can effectively analyze complex relationships and present your arguments in a clear, logical manner.

Crafting a Cause and Effect Essay Outline

Creating an outline for your cause and effect essay is an essential step in the writing process. An effective outline will help you organize your ideas, choose the appropriate structure, and ensure that your essay follows a logical flow.

This section will guide you through the process of crafting a cause and effect essay outline that includes an introduction, body paragraphs for each point, and a conclusion summarizing the main points of your essay.

Choosing the Right Structure

Selecting the right structure for your essay is crucial. Depending on your topic and focus, you may choose to focus on causes, effects, or a combination of both. For instance, an effect essay structure that examines causes elucidates how one or typically more causes lead to a single effect, with each cause being scrutinized in a distinct paragraph.

On the other hand, an essay that focuses on multiple effects involves analyzing how one or more effects result from a particular cause, with each effect examined in a separate paragraph.

Another option for structuring your essay is to explain the “domino effect,” where each body paragraph is dedicated to an event caused by some other event and resulting in one more event. This structure necessitates that causes assemble a chain, uniting the initial and final event in a logical sequence, elucidating the cause and effect process.

Developing Your Outline

When developing your cause and effect essay outline, consider the essay’s structure, the major topics to be addressed, and the data to be employed to sustain the topics. Moreover, it is essential to ensure that your essay is arranged in a rational fashion, and that the topics are clearly interrelated.

A well-constructed outline will include:

• An engaging introduction that elucidates the issue
• Pertinent body paragraphs that examine ideas related to the topic
• An unambiguous conclusion that synthesizes everything without introducing fresh ideas.

By following these guidelines, you can create a detailed outline that will ensure your essay is well-organized, persuasive, and easy to follow.

Writing the Cause and Effect Essay

Now that you have a solid outline, you can begin writing your cause and effect essay. This section provides a step-by-step guide on how to write a cause and effect essay, including:

• Brainstorming ideas and topics
• Formulating a thesis statement
• Constructing body paragraphs
• Revising and editing your essay

By following these steps, you will be well on your way to crafting a compelling and well-structured cause and effect essay.

Brainstorming Ideas and Topics

The first step in writing a cause and effect essay is brainstorming potential topics and ideas. Consider your personal interests, the relevance of the topic to your audience, and the presence of clear causal relationships to guide your brainstorming process. Some possible areas to explore include:

• Natural phenomena
• Cultural movements
• The development of ideas
• The interconnectedness of characters, settings, and events in a work of literature

Remember that the goal of a cause and effect essay is to educate readers on the links between conditions and their repercussions, so it’s important to select a topic that allows for a clear understanding of these relationships.

Formulating a Thesis Statement

Once you have chosen your topic and brainstormed ideas, you need to create a strong thesis statement that identifies the cause-and-effect relationship you will explore in your essay. A good thesis statement should express an opinion about the topic, and the claims you make should uphold the opinion expressed in the thesis statement. For example, a thesis statement for an essay on social media addiction might be: “Social media addiction has a negative impact on mental health, as it leads to increased anxiety, depression, and isolation.”

With a strong thesis statement in place, you can proceed to construct well-organized body paragraphs that explore specific aspects of the causal relationship. Explaining complex relationships requires a clear and concise approach to ensure the reader’s understanding.

Constructing Body Paragraphs

When writing your body paragraphs, ensure that each paragraph focuses on one specific aspect of the cause-and-effect relationship, using clear topic sentences, transitions, and evidence from reputable sources to support your claims. For example, in an essay about social media addiction, one paragraph might explore the negative effects of virtual interactions on face-to-face communication, while another paragraph might discuss the link between social media use and increased anxiety levels.

Appropriate transitions and topic sentences are essential to maintain coherence and readability in your essay, so be sure to incorporate them throughout your body paragraphs.

Revising and Editing the Essay

After completing your first draft, take some time to revise and edit your essay to ensure clarity, logic, and persuasive argumentation. Begin by identifying major areas of concern, such as a lack of clear thesis statement or insufficient evidence to support your claims. Utilize peer reviews and editing checklists to receive feedback from others and identify any flaws in your essay.

Revise your essay for content, structure, and organization, ensuring that your essay is properly organized and that the content is clear and concise. Edit for sentence-level issues and typos, checking for grammar, spelling, or punctuation mistakes.

As a final step, proofread your essay by reading it aloud to detect any problems with continuity or coherence.

Examples of Cause and Effect Essays

Analyzing and learning from examples of cause and effect essays can greatly improve your own writing. By examining these examples, you can gain a better understanding of different organization patterns, structures, and writing styles commonly used in cause and effect essays.

In this section, we will explore how analyzing essay examples can help you refine your writing skills and apply the lessons learned to your own cause and effect essay.

Analyzing Essay Examples

When examining cause and effect essay examples, pay close attention to the organization, structure, and writing style employed by the author. This will help you understand how different organization patterns, such as the cause then effect structure or effect then cause structure, can be used in your own essay. By analyzing these examples, you can also learn how to effectively use evidence from reputable sources to support your claims and strengthen your argument.

Applying the lessons learned from analyzing essay examples can help ensure that your own cause and effect essay is well-structured, logical, and persuasive.

Applying Lessons from Examples

Now that you have analyzed examples of cause and effect essays, it’s time to apply the lessons learned to your own writing. Use the insights gained from examining these examples to create a strong thesis statement, organize your essay effectively, and present persuasive cause and effect arguments.

By incorporating the lessons learned from analyzing examples, your cause and effect essay will be well-structured, logically organized, and supported by strong, relevant evidence from reputable sources. This will ensure that your essay is not only compelling and engaging, but also informative and educational for your readers.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Even experienced writers can make mistakes when crafting cause and effect essays. By being aware of common pitfalls and knowing how to avoid them, you can ensure that your essay is strong, logical, and well-supported.

In this section, we will discuss some common mistakes and provide guidance on how to avoid them in your cause and effect essay.

Logical Fallacies

One common mistake in cause and effect essays is the use of logical fallacies, which are errors in reasoning that render an argument invalid. Examples of logical fallacies include false cause, hasty generalization, and straw man arguments. To avoid logical fallacies in your essay, ensure that your arguments are based on sound reasoning and supported by strong evidence from reputable sources.

By being aware of logical fallacies and ensuring that your arguments are based on sound reasoning, you can create a persuasive and logical cause and effect essay that effectively demonstrates the relationships between events or conditions and their outcomes.

Weak Evidence

Another common mistake in cause and effect essays is the use of weak or anecdotal evidence to support claims. This can undermine the credibility of your argument and make it less persuasive to your readers. To avoid using weak evidence, ensure that your claims are supported by:

• Strong, relevant evidence from reputable sources
• Statistical data
• Expert opinions
• Case studies

By using strong evidence, you can strengthen your argument and make it more convincing to your readers.

By using strong, relevant evidence to support your claims, you can create a compelling and well-supported cause and effect essay that effectively demonstrates the relationships between events or conditions and their outcomes.

Inadequate Organization

Inadequate organization is another common mistake in cause and effect essays. A poorly organized essay can be difficult to follow and may lead to confusion for your reader. To avoid this issue, organize your essay effectively using clear transitions, topic sentences, and a logical flow of ideas, especially when discussing multiple causes in cause and effect essays.

By organizing your essay effectively, you can maintain coherence and readability, ensuring that your cause and effect essay is both engaging and informative for your readers.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you start off a cause and effect essay.

To begin a cause and effect essay, start with an engaging introduction that introduces the topic and provides a clear thesis statement which states the main cause, main effect, or both.

Following this, organize the essay by presenting either the cause-then-effect structure or the effect-then-cause structure.

How do you write cause and effect examples?

Cause and Effect examples can be written in sentences by presenting either the cause first followed by the effect, or the effect first followed by the cause.

For example, “I ate tons of junk food, so now I feel sick” or “I feel sick because I ate tons of junk food.”

What is cause and effect essay?

A cause and effect essay is an expository essay that analyzes the relationships between specific conditions and their consequences, often within a larger issue.

It examines how one event (the cause) can lead to another event (the effect).

How do I choose the right structure for my cause and effect essay?

When deciding which structure to use for your cause and effect essay, consider the topic and focus of your writing. You could opt for focusing solely on causes or effects, or a mixture of both depending on the subject matter.

For example, if you are writing about the causes of global warming, you may want to focus on the effects of human activities on the environment. On the other hand, if you are writing about something, you are writing about something.

What are some common mistakes to avoid when writing a cause and effect essay?

Avoid logical fallacies, weak evidence, and inadequate organization when writing a cause and effect essay to ensure your argument is convincing and clear.

In conclusion, writing a cause and effect essay can be a rewarding and educational experience. By following the steps outlined in this comprehensive guide, you can create a well-structured, logically organized, and persuasive essay that effectively demonstrates the relationships between events or conditions and their outcomes. Apply the lessons learned from analyzing examples, avoid common mistakes, and use strong evidence to support your claims, and you will be well on your way to crafting a compelling and engaging cause and effect essay.

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10.8 Cause and Effect

Learning objectives.

• Determine the purpose and structure of cause and effect in writing.
• Understand how to write a cause-and-effect essay.

The Purpose of Cause and Effect in Writing

It is often considered human nature to ask, “why?” and “how?” We want to know how our child got sick so we can better prevent it from happening in the future, or why our colleague a pay raise because we want one as well. We want to know how much money we will save over the long term if we buy a hybrid car. These examples identify only a few of the relationships we think about in our lives, but each shows the importance of understanding cause and effect.

A cause is something that produces an event or condition; an effect is what results from an event or condition. The purpose of the cause-and-effect essay is to determine how various phenomena relate in terms of origins and results. Sometimes the connection between cause and effect is clear, but often determining the exact relationship between the two is very difficult. For example, the following effects of a cold may be easily identifiable: a sore throat, runny nose, and a cough. But determining the cause of the sickness can be far more difficult. A number of causes are possible, and to complicate matters, these possible causes could have combined to cause the sickness. That is, more than one cause may be responsible for any given effect. Therefore, cause-and-effect discussions are often complicated and frequently lead to debates and arguments.

Use the complex nature of cause and effect to your advantage. Often it is not necessary, or even possible, to find the exact cause of an event or to name the exact effect. So, when formulating a thesis, you can claim one of a number of causes or effects to be the primary, or main, cause or effect. As soon as you claim that one cause or one effect is more crucial than the others, you have developed a thesis.

Consider the causes and effects in the following thesis statements. List a cause and effect for each one on your own sheet of paper.

• The growing childhood obesity epidemic is a result of technology.
• Much of the wildlife is dying because of the oil spill.
• The town continued programs that it could no longer afford, so it went bankrupt.
• More young people became politically active as use of the Internet spread throughout society.
• While many experts believed the rise in violence was due to the poor economy, it was really due to the summer-long heat wave.

Write three cause-and-effect thesis statements of your own for each of the following five broad topics.

• Health and nutrition

The Structure of a Cause-and-Effect Essay

The cause-and-effect essay opens with a general introduction to the topic, which then leads to a thesis that states the main cause, main effect, or various causes and effects of a condition or event.

The cause-and-effect essay can be organized in one of the following two primary ways:

• Start with the cause and then talk about the effects.
• Start with the effect and then talk about the causes.

For example, if your essay were on childhood obesity, you could start by talking about the effect of childhood obesity and then discuss the cause or you could start the same essay by talking about the cause of childhood obesity and then move to the effect.

Regardless of which structure you choose, be sure to explain each element of the essay fully and completely. Explaining complex relationships requires the full use of evidence, such as scientific studies, expert testimony, statistics, and anecdotes.

Because cause-and-effect essays determine how phenomena are linked, they make frequent use of certain words and phrases that denote such linkage. See Table 10.4 “Phrases of Causation” for examples of such terms.

Table 10.4 Phrases of Causation

The conclusion should wrap up the discussion and reinforce the thesis, leaving the reader with a clear understanding of the relationship that was analyzed.

Be careful of resorting to empty speculation. In writing, speculation amounts to unsubstantiated guessing. Writers are particularly prone to such trappings in cause-and-effect arguments due to the complex nature of finding links between phenomena. Be sure to have clear evidence to support the claims that you make.

Look at some of the cause-and-effect relationships from Note 10.83 “Exercise 2” . Outline the links you listed. Outline one using a cause-then-effect structure. Outline the other using the effect-then-cause structure.

Writing a Cause-and-Effect Essay

Choose an event or condition that you think has an interesting cause-and-effect relationship. Introduce your topic in an engaging way. End your introduction with a thesis that states the main cause, the main effect, or both.

Organize your essay by starting with either the cause-then-effect structure or the effect-then-cause structure. Within each section, you should clearly explain and support the causes and effects using a full range of evidence. If you are writing about multiple causes or multiple effects, you may choose to sequence either in terms of order of importance. In other words, order the causes from least to most important (or vice versa), or order the effects from least important to most important (or vice versa).

Use the phrases of causation when trying to forge connections between various events or conditions. This will help organize your ideas and orient the reader. End your essay with a conclusion that summarizes your main points and reinforces your thesis. See Chapter 15 “Readings: Examples of Essays” to read a sample cause-and-effect essay.

Choose one of the ideas you outlined in Note 10.85 “Exercise 3” and write a full cause-and-effect essay. Be sure to include an engaging introduction, a clear thesis, strong evidence and examples, and a thoughtful conclusion.

Key Takeaways

• The purpose of the cause-and-effect essay is to determine how various phenomena are related.
• The thesis states what the writer sees as the main cause, main effect, or various causes and effects of a condition or event.

The cause-and-effect essay can be organized in one of these two primary ways:

• Start with the cause and then talk about the effect.
• Start with the effect and then talk about the cause.
• Strong evidence is particularly important in the cause-and-effect essay due to the complexity of determining connections between phenomena.
• Phrases of causation are helpful in signaling links between various elements in the essay.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

How To Write A Cause And Effect Essay: Topics, Structure, Examples

If you're a student, chances are you'll encounter a cause and effect essay during your studies. This type of essay is all about exploring the relationship between a specific event (the cause) and its outcomes (the effects). But don't worry, we've got you covered with this easy-to-follow guide that breaks down everything you need to know about what is cause and effect essay and the steps for writing it. So get set to dive into the fascinating world of cause and effect as we equip you with the skills to ace this writing task like a pro!

What is a Cause and Effect Essay: Unique Characteristics from Other Essays

A cause and effect essay is a unique type of essay that focuses on examining the reasons (causes) behind an event or phenomenon and the resulting consequences (effects) that occur as a result. What sets it apart from other essays is its emphasis on establishing a clear cause-and-effect relationship between two or more variables.

In a cause and effect essay, the writer analyzes and explains the connections between the causes and effects, providing evidence and supporting details to illustrate the relationship. This type of essay requires critical thinking, logical reasoning, and a structured approach to present the causal chain effectively.

Unlike descriptive or narrative essays that focus on storytelling or presenting facts, cause and effect essays delve into the underlying causes and explore the outcomes, aiming to inform and educate the reader about the relationships between different factors.

Different Types of Cause and Effect Essay Structure

A cause and effect essay is a type of academic writing that explores the reasons (causes) and outcomes (effects) of a particular event, situation, or phenomenon. It aims to analyze the relationship between these causes and effects, providing a comprehensive understanding of how one factor leads to another. When structuring a cause and effect essay, there are several approaches you can take. Here are three common types of cause and effect essay structure from our experts:

• Block Structure:
• Introduction: Introduce the topic and provide background information.
• Body Paragraph 1: Present the causes and their supporting details.
• Body Paragraph 2: Discuss the effects and provide evidence or examples.
• Conclusion: Summarize the main points and emphasize the overall significance.
• Chain Structure:
• Introduction: Introduce the topic and its importance.
• Body Paragraphs: Each paragraph focuses on a specific cause and its subsequent effects, forming a chain-like progression.
• Cause 1: Explain the first cause and its effects.
• Cause 2: Describe the second cause and its effects, which may also include the effects of Cause 1.
• Cause 3: Discuss the third cause and its effects, which may include the effects of Causes 1 and 2.

Continue this pattern for additional causes if necessary.

• Conclusion: Summarize the main causes and effects, highlighting their interconnections.
• Causal Chain Structure:
• Introduction: Introduce the topic and provide context.
• Body Paragraphs: Each paragraph focuses on a specific cause and effect, examining the relationships between them.
• Cause 1: Explain the first cause and its immediate effect(s).
• Cause 2: Discuss the second cause, which is triggered by the effect(s) of Cause 1 and its subsequent effect(s).
• Cause 3: Describe the third cause, influenced by the effect(s) of Cause 2 and its further effect(s).

Continue this pattern for additional causes and effects.

• Conclusion: Summarize the causal chain, emphasizing the overall significance and potential long-term effects.

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Cause and Effect Essay Outline

I. Introduction

A. Explanation of cause and effect essays

B. Hook: 'Have you ever wondered how excessive screen time affects academic performance?'

C. Thesis statement: Excessive screen time negatively impacts academic performance due to decreased focus, impaired cognitive abilities, and reduced study time.

II. Body Paragraph 1: Cause 1 - Decreased Focus

A. Topic sentence: Excessive screen time leads to decreased focus.

B. Explanation: Constant exposure to screens can overstimulate the brain and make it harder to concentrate on academic tasks.

C. Example: Studies have shown that students who spend excessive time on electronic devices during study sessions often struggle to maintain their focus, leading to reduced productivity and lower academic performance.

III. Body Paragraph 2: Cause 2 - Impaired Cognitive Abilities

A. Topic sentence: Excessive screen time impairs cognitive abilities.

B. Explanation: Prolonged screen usage can negatively impact cognitive functions such as memory, attention, and critical thinking skills.

C. Example: Research has indicated that excessive screen time, particularly in the form of video games or social media, can hinder the development of cognitive abilities, making it more difficult for students to comprehend complex concepts and retain information.

IV. Body Paragraph 3: Cause 3 - Reduced Study Time

A. Topic sentence: Excessive screen time reduces the amount of time dedicated to studying.

B. Explanation: The allure of screens can distract students and tempt them away from their academic responsibilities.

C. Example: A study conducted at XYZ University found that students who spent more time on social media or streaming platforms were more likely to allocate less time to study, resulting in poor performance on exams and assignments.

V. Conclusion

A. Restate the thesis statement: Excessive screen time has a detrimental effect on academic performance due to decreased focus, impaired cognitive abilities, and reduced study time.

B. Recap the main points discussed in each body paragraph.

C. Final thoughts: Encourage students to manage their screen time wisely to optimize their academic success.

10 Cause and Effect Essay Topics

If you are struggling to come up with a topic for your essay, consider one of these ten great cause and effect essay ideas below. Feel free to also hit us up with your ' write my essay ' request for a professionally crafted paper on your chosen topic.

Discuss the Effects of Social Media on Face-to-Face Communication

Social media has become a ubiquitous part of modern society, with platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram connecting people from all over the world. However, as social media usage has increased, so has concern over its impact on face-to-face communication. Some argue that social media has made it easier for people to stay in touch with friends and family, regardless of distance. Others worry that social media has led to a decline in the quality of face-to-face interactions, with people spending more time on their phones than engaging with those around them. This topic is ripe for exploration and analysis.

Analyze the Reasons Behind the Increased Use of Smartphones by Children

Smartphones have become a ubiquitous part of modern life, with people of all ages relying on them for communication, entertainment, and information. However, there has been a recent trend of children using smartphones at increasingly young ages. Some argue that smartphones can be a valuable tool for education and communication, while others worry that they can be addictive and harmful to children's development. This topic is worth exploring in depth, with a focus on the factors that have led to this trend and its potential long-term effects.

Explore the Impacts of Climate Change on the Natural Environment

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing the world today, with rising temperatures, sea levels, and extreme weather events all having profound impacts on the natural environment. This topic is complex and multifaceted, with a range of potential causes and effects to explore. Some of the key areas to consider might include the impact of climate change on ecosystems, wildlife, and natural resources, as well as the potential long-term consequences for human societies.

Investigate the Effects of Pollution on Human Health

Pollution is a major problem in many parts of the world, with air, water, and soil pollution all having serious consequences for human health. This topic is worth exploring in depth, with a focus on the specific ways in which pollution can impact different aspects of human health, including respiratory health, cardiovascular health, and mental health. Some of the key factors to consider might include the impact of pollution on vulnerable populations, such as children and the elderly, as well as potential strategies for prevention and mitigation.

Discuss How Social Isolation Can Lead to Mental Health Issues

Social isolation is a growing problem in many parts of the world, with people of all ages and backgrounds feeling increasingly disconnected from their communities and social networks. This topic is worth exploring in depth, with a focus on the specific ways in which social isolation can impact mental health. Some of the key areas to consider might include the impact of social isolation on depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders, as well as potential strategies for prevention and treatment.

Analyze the Reasons Behind the Rise of Populism in Politics

Populism has become an increasingly prominent force in politics in recent years, with populist politicians and movements gaining ground in many parts of the world. This topic is complex and multifaceted, with a range of potential causes and effects to explore. Some of the key areas to consider might include the impact of economic inequality, globalization, and cultural change on the rise of populism, as well as potential strategies for addressing this trend.

Explore the Impacts of the Internet on the Traditional Media Industry

The internet has had a profound impact on the media industry, with traditional forms of media such as newspapers, television, and radio facing increasing competition from online sources. This topic is worth exploring in depth, with a focus on the specific ways in which the internet has disrupted traditional media models. Some of the key areas to consider might include the impact of social media on news consumption, the rise of citizen journalism, and the challenges facing traditional media outlets in the digital age.

Examine the Factors that Lead to the Growth of Online Shopping

Online shopping has become an increasingly popular way for people to purchase goods and services, with e-commerce platforms like Amazon and eBay dominating the retail landscape. This topic is worth exploring in depth, with a focus on the specific factors that have contributed to the growth of online shopping. Some of the key areas to consider might include the impact of convenience and accessibility, the rise of mobile devices, and the changing demographics of consumers.

Investigate the Effects of Globalization on Local Industries

Globalization has had a profound impact on the world economy, with goods, services, and capital flowing more freely across borders than ever before. This topic is worth exploring in depth, with a focus on the specific ways in which globalization has affected local industries. Some of the key areas to consider might include the impact of outsourcing and offshoring on employment, the role of multinational corporations in shaping local economies, and the potential benefits and drawbacks of globalization for different regions of the world.

Analyze The Impact of Social Media on Sleep Quality

Analyzing the impact of social media on sleep quality requires examining various factors related to social media usage and its effects on sleep patterns. Investigate the correlation between the amount of time individuals spend on social media platforms and their sleep quality. Excessive use of social media may lead to delayed bedtime, shorter sleep duration, or disrupted sleep. You can also explore the impact of blue light emitted by electronic devices, including smartphones and tablets, which are commonly used for social media browsing.

How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay: Step-by-Step Guide

In this section, we will unravel the essential elements of how to write a cause and effect essay, equipping you with the tips to present a logical and well-supported argument.

Step 1: Choose a Topic

The first step in writing a great cause and effect examples essay is choosing the right topic. Consider something that interests you and is relevant to your academic field. The cause and effect essay topics should also be specific enough to allow for in-depth analysis in your assignment.

Step 2: Conduct Research

Once you have identified your topic, it is important to do extensive research to gather sufficient information to support your arguments. Use scholarly sources such as academic journals, books, or reputable websites to do your research.

Step 3: Develop a Thesis Statement

The thesis statement is the core idea of your essay and should be presented in the opening paragraph. It is a single sentence that clearly states the cause and effect relationship you will be discussing in the essay. A well-crafted thesis statement is critical to the success of your essay.

Step 4: Create an Outline

Creating a cause and effect essay outline is a crucial element of the writing process. It helps in organizing your thoughts and providing a clear structure for your essay. Divide your essay into an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

Step 5: Write the Introduction

The introduction is the first paragraph of your essay, and it should catch the reader's attention and provide background information on the topic at hand. The introduction should also include the thesis statement.

Step 6: Write the Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs should discuss the causes and effects of the event or topic at hand. Each paragraph should discuss one specific cause or effect followed by supporting evidence from your research.

Step 7: Write the Conclusion

The cause and effect essay conclusion should restate the thesis statement and provide a summary of your arguments. It should also demonstrate the relationship between the various causes and effects you have discussed.

Step 8: Proofread and Edit

The final step is to proofread and edit your essay. Ensure that your grammar, spelling, and punctuation are all correct and that your ideas are presented in a clear and concise manner.

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Cause and Effect Essay Examples

You can order an essay from professional writers have meticulously crafted a sample essay that delves into the cause and effect relationship between air pollution on human health.

Title: The Effects of Air Pollution on Human Health

Air pollution is a prevalent issue that has detrimental effects on human health. This essay will explore the multiple causes and consequences of air pollution, highlighting the interconnectedness between environmental factors and public well-being.

The primary cause of air pollution is industrial emissions. Factories and power plants release harmful pollutants, including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter, into the atmosphere. These pollutants contribute to the formation of smog, which can be inhaled by individuals, leading to respiratory problems such as asthma, bronchitis, and lung cancer. Furthermore, vehicular emissions also contribute significantly to air pollution, particularly in urban areas with heavy traffic congestion.

The effects of air pollution on human health are alarming. Prolonged exposure to polluted air can cause respiratory diseases, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Studies have also linked air pollution to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks and strokes. Additionally, children and the elderly are more susceptible to the harmful effects of air pollution, as their immune systems are less robust.

Moreover, air pollution has broader societal consequences. It contributes to the degradation of ecosystems, reduces crop yields, and harms biodiversity. It also poses economic burdens by increasing healthcare costs and decreasing productivity due to illnesses and absenteeism.

In conclusion, air pollution has far-reaching effects on human health and the environment. The causes, including industrial emissions and vehicular pollution, directly impact the quality of the air we breathe. The consequences, such as respiratory diseases and cardiovascular problems, highlight the urgent need for measures to mitigate and control air pollution. Efforts to reduce emissions, promote cleaner technologies, and raise public awareness are crucial steps toward safeguarding human health and preserving the environment for future generations.

A Final Perspective

In our exploration of cause and effect essays, we've covered all the essentials. We've defined what is a cause and effect essay, delved into good cause and effect essay topics, and taken a closer look at its structure.

Now, here's the deal: if you put in the time and effort to prepare, your professor will definitely notice and give you the grade you deserve. But hey, we get it! Sometimes these tasks can be confusing and eat up all your time. If that's the case, no worries! You can easily hire an essay writer to lend a hand and enjoy some well-deserved free time without the stress of assignments.

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How To Write Cause And Effect Essay: Writing Guide

Table of contents

• 1.1 Effects-Focused Method
• 1.2 Causes-Focused Method
• 1.3 Causal Chain Method
• 2.1.1 Fun Cause and Effect Essay Topics
• 2.1.2 Interesting Cause and Effect Essay Topics
• 2.1.3 List Of Great Cause and Effect Essay Topics For College
• 2.2 Do Proper Research
• 2.3 Determine Causes and Effects
• 2.4 Start With an Outline
• 2.5 Introductory Paragraph:
• 2.6.1 Cause 1: Bullies have problems at home
• 2.6.2 Cause 2: Bullies seek attention
• 2.6.3 Cause 3: Bullies aspire to their superiority.
• 2.6.4 Effect:
• 2.7 Conclusion:
• 2.8 Write a Draft
• 2.9 Proofread Your Work
• 3.2 Effect:
• 3.3 Examples:
• 3.4 Examples:
• 4 Example of Cause and Effect Essay
• 5 Conclusion

Understanding the mechanics of a cause-effect essay is essential for enhancing your academic writing skills. These essays require critical thinking and a solid understanding of structure and format to arrive at conclusions while discussing cause-and-effect relationships. Explore all there is to know about cause and effect writing with our guide. You’ll get an overview, from its definition to helpful tips for crafting compelling pieces.

• A cause-and-effect essay is a tool that dissects the relationship between reasons something happens and its subsequent results
• Three main methods to structure a cause-and-effect essay and practical tips for writing.
• List of essential transitions for this type of essay, outline templates, and cause-and-effect essay sample.

Furthermore, by analyzing how different factors interact and influence each other. You can write a deep comprehension of complex issues and cultivate critical thinking skills that will be valuable in various aspects of your life. So, let us dive in and discover the fascinating world of cause-and-effect essays together!

What Is a Cause and Effect Essay

The cause-and-effect essay examines how one idea, individual, or circumstance impacts another. It can uncover connections that may not be immediately apparent and provide insight into the broader implications of a situation. Formulating a compelling concluding sentence requires extensive research and a thorough understanding of how various factors interact.

It is important to note that these types of essays are complex pieces of writing that require significant effort to produce. For those needing assistance, using a professional  cause-and-effect essay writing service is more than just recommended. It can be essential for success. With their expertise in crafting high-quality academic papers, these services can ensure that your paper meets all requirements and help you earn the grade you desire.

In conclusion, it is critical to understand such essays and how to approach them skillfully. It allows you to explore  fascinating cause-and-effect essay topics in depth using this unique style of argumentation. Whether examining historical possibilities or current trends in society, such essays provide a powerful tool for gaining insight into complex issues.

Developing the Ideal Structure for a Cause and Effect Essay

In a cause-and-effect paper, you can organize the body in various ways depending on the purpose and relatedness of causes and effects. The effects-focused approach describes multiple outcomes of a specific reason. The causes-focused method explores different factors contributing to the consequence. The causal chain method analyzes how an initial motive creates a chain reaction leading to other reasons and effects.

Regardless of the chosen method, a well-structured introduction should state the thesis statement and provide an overview. The conclusion should summarize the main points and restate the thesis while emphasizing the findings’ significance. Ultimately, the goal is to explore how events or situations affect our lives by examining their underlying causes & effects.

Effects-Focused Method

The effects-focused approach examines how one effect leads to a specific cause. If you choose this method, you should describe multiple consequences of a particular occasion or situation (the selected reason) in separate body paragraphs.

This approach is suitable when a single rationale can produce several ramifications that you explore and analyze independently to provide a comprehensive insight into the overall impact. In short, an effects-focused approach allows you to showcase the full extent of how an occasion or occurrence affects its surroundings.

Causes-Focused Method

It is crucial to begin a causes-focused essay with a clear introduction that explicitly explains how one or more causes lead to a single consequence. This structure sets the tone for the writing and provides readers with a framework for understanding the evidence presented in subsequent paragraphs. Instead of secondary causes, focus on primary reasons in the introduction. So readers can better understand the significance of each piece of evidence and how they all work together to create the final result.

Causal Chain Method

We use the causal chain method when events lead to one another in a logical sequence. This cause-and-effect essay format requires you to devote each body paragraph to an event caused by the preceding event. Then, repeat, leading to the next event. The main causes should build a chain, uniting the first and the last occasion in a logical sequence that explains the cause-and-effect process.

To sum up, the most suitable format for your essay can significantly impact how effectively you convey your ideas. If you find it challenging to write a cause-and-effect essay or are facing time constraints, seek assistance from professional writers at  Papersowl.com . We offer tailored services that save time and provide customized support to meet your requirements. With our expert guidance and support, you can rest assured that your essay will succeed!

How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay

Using your outline as a guide, introduce the body of your first draft by ensuring each paragraph has a clear topic sentence that supports your thesis statement.

Choose the Topic You Like

The initial step in creating the effect essay examples is to choose a topic that captures your interest. By doing so, you can make the research process more enjoyable and stay engaged throughout the writing process. The cause-and-effect approach is the simplest and most logical type of essay. Essay ideas are brought into a structure that is easy to access by anyone.

If you’re stuck on finding a compelling cause-and-effect topic, we hope our suggestions guide you into getting an A.

Fun Cause and Effect Essay Topics

• Drinking water is important for your heart and brain health
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of applying intelligence tests to students?
• What communication skills should a good teacher have?
• Buying expensive clothes can make you unhappy
• The color blue has a powerful impact on flies
• Milk can make you sleepy
• Toys are making adults much happier than children
• Drinking beer can improve your health
• Why do people love to travel?
• Decorating can make people happy
• Writing your memories and what you want to become in life can make your wishes come true
• Watching cartoons makes you an optimistic person
• Learning a new language stimulates your communication skills
• Adopting a dog can make you a more organized person
• People with big ears eat more

Interesting Cause and Effect Essay Topics

• Your immunity can be affected if you move to a country different from the one you were born
• The number of bees is decreasing every year, affecting nature’s balance
• Doing sports can make you sleepless
• Staying in the sun makes you healthier
• Being optimistic can make your health stronger
• Playing with dogs is recommended for people who are stressed
• Laughing increases your chances of succeeding in life
• Video games can make you smarter
• Facebook helps shy people
• Helping others change their way of thinking
• The color of your hair is proof of your IQ
• Global temperatures increase every year, and it affects people’s behavior
• Socializing increases your chances of being selected for an interview
• How can we stimulate creativity among students and what are the benefits?
• What are the main causes of school failure and how can they be removed?

List Of Great Cause and Effect Essay Topics For College

• How can we keep in mind student temperament in studying?
• Feminism – a start for changing the world for good
• Studying constantly makes your life easier
• A smartphone is a lifesaver – how can you use it?
• How population increases every year?
• Teenagers are more stressed than 20 years ago
• The importance of being independent under 30 years
• Recycling at least 1 kilo of garbage every week can save the planet
• Excellent food can make any student study better
• Liberties and responsibilities in democratic countries
• Rediscover and accept yourself after experiencing traumatic events
• Technology has helped people express themselves better
• In today’s world – is space still a barrier?
• How to become a CEO in 3 years?
• Are others’ opinions important for personal development?

Do Proper Research

Thorough research is crucial for well-informed cause-and-effect essays. Use reputable sources like academic journals, books, and credible websites to support your arguments and shed light on the topic’s relationship. This way, you can present a compelling argument that effectively communicates the cause-and-effect relationship to your audience.

Determine Causes and Effects

Analyzing the causes & effects of a topic can help you unfold a clear thesis statement for your essay, develop the body of your work, and highlight significant results related to that one cause. It also enables a more nuanced perspective on complex issues and provides insightful analysis. Moreover, it helps identify potential solutions or areas for further research. Understanding what’s causing an issue and proposing specific actions makes it easier to address it or explore new avenues.

Start With an Outline

Before delving into any cause-and-effect essay topics, create an outline to ensure your work is coherent and logically organized. Include all main ideas, especially those related to cause or effect. Each body paragraph should focus on a specific point supported by evidence and examples. Discussing potential counterarguments in your outline can strengthen your argument and anticipate objections from readers.

A concise layout ensures that your essay is easy to follow and effectively conveys your ideas to your audience. To craft an engaging introduction for your cause-and-effect essay, start by grabbing the reader’s attention with a hook to set the tone for the rest of your work. It could be in the form of an interesting statistic, anecdote, or quote that relates to your topic. From there, provide some background information on the matter before presenting your thesis statement. This should clearly state the causes and effects you will discuss in your essay.

In the conclusion of your cause-effect essay, you have to summarize the main points of your essay and restate your thesis statement in a way that emphasizes its significance. You can also provide some final thoughts or insights on the topic, leaving the reader with something to ponder.

It is essential to ensure that your conclusion does not introduce new ideas or information but ties everything together and leaves a lasting impression on the reader. By following these tips for crafting an effective cause-and-effect essay outline, you will be well on your way to producing a compelling piece of writing. It will effectively convey your message to your audience. Let us delve into an example:

Introductory Paragraph:

• The prevalence of bullying in schools is staggering, with almost 80% of children affected by this harmful behavior. Addressing this pervasive issue requires our urgent attention and concerted efforts.
• The education system needs to understand the underlying causes of this problem and take proactive measures to address it.

Cause 1: Bullies have problems at home

• Children who experience abuse or neglect at home may act out their frustration on others.

Cause 2: Bullies seek attention

• A common trait among bullies is their tendency to exhibit aggressive behavior to gain attention and establish dominance.

Cause 3: Bullies aspire to their superiority.

• Bullies may resort to aggressive behavior to exert power and control over others. Bullying may originate from deep-seated personal insecurities, creating feelings of inadequacy and powerlessness. They may temporarily feel a sense of superiority and validation by inflicting pain on others. But this ultimately perpetuates a cycle of harm that can have lasting adverse effects on both the victim and the bully.
• Bullying undermines the educational experience for victims, leading to increased anxiety, depression, decreased academic performance, and, tragically, even suicide.

Conclusion:

To effectively tackle the widespread issue of bullying, it is crucial to gain a thorough insight into the underlying root causes. Only after that can we implement effective strategies and interventions to combat this harmful behavior and create safer environments for all. Creating safe learning environments that discourage such behavior requires joint efforts from parents, teachers, and society. By approaching the issue with compassion and insight into its underlying causes, we can significantly reduce the incidence of bullying in schools. And also prevent its negative impact on individuals’ physical and mental health.

To ensure consistency throughout the essay, please adhere to the following guidelines for all body paragraphs and the paper outline:

• Times New Roman font
• Double-spacing
• Justified alignment

When structuring your essay, begin with the most significant causes. We recommended that you explore various topic ideas to identify the most compelling ones. Additionally, incorporating multiple effects is permissible. A thorough understanding of cause-and-effect papers is essential for this assignment.

Write a Draft

Using your outline as a guide, introduce your first draft. Ensure each paragraph has a clear topic sentence that supports your cause-and-effect thesis statement .

Proofread Your Work

Finally, proofread every sentence and edit your writing for spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and overall essay coherence. This ensures that your essay is well-written and ready for submission.

Follow these steps to produce an excellent cause-effect essay with compelling arguments highlighting your critical thinking and communication skills.

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Cause and Effect Structure Words

Cause-and-effect essay structure words are terms that show cause-and-effect relationships. To ensure clarity, it is essential to precisely identify the distinct causality (or reason) and the result and use appropriate transitions. It is important to remember that the cause happens first, followed by the outcome.

To follow are some common cause-and-effect structure words. “X” stands for the reasons, while “Y” indicates the outcome.

Remember that using proper structure words can help you communicate your ideas with your readers. It makes it easier for them to understand how different pieces of evidence or actions lead to specific outcomes or consequences.

Example of Cause and Effect Essay

NFT, or non-fungible tokens, have become a hot topic in the world of art, and their impact on the art industry is a cause-and-effect relationship worth exploring.

One of the main effects of NFTs on the art world is the potential for increased revenue for artists. With NFTs, artists can sell their digital art as unique, one-of-a-kind pieces that cannot be replicated, and collectors can purchase them as a form of investment. This has the potential to create a new revenue stream for artists who may have previously struggled to monetize their digital creations.

Another effect of NFTs on art is the potential for greater transparency and authenticity. Because NFTs are created on a blockchain, they provide a secure and verifiable record of ownership and provenance. This can help to reduce the risk of fraud and ensure that artists are properly credited and compensated for their work.

Moreover, the rise of NFTs has also created a new market for digital art, which was previously undervalued or dismissed as less valuable than traditional physical artwork. As a result, digital artists have gained greater recognition and respect within the art world.

However, there are also concerns about the environmental impact of NFTs. The process of creating and selling NFTs requires a significant amount of energy and contributes to carbon emissions. This has led to criticism from some artists and activists who are concerned about the impact on the environment.

Additionally, there are also concerns about the accessibility of NFTs. While they have the potential to provide a new revenue stream for artists, the high cost of purchasing and creating NFTs may exclude many artists and collectors who cannot afford to participate in this market.

In conclusion, the rise of NFTs has had a significant impact on the art world, creating new opportunities for artists to monetize their digital creations and increasing the value and recognition of digital art. However, there are also concerns about the environmental impact of NFTs and the potential exclusivity of this market. As the use of NFTs continues to grow and evolve, it is important to consider these effects and address any negative consequences to ensure a sustainable and equitable future for the art industry.

Writing a cause-and-effect essay can be challenging. It demands critical thinking skills and a comprehensive understanding of its arrangement and format. However, mastering this type of essay is crucial. It helps improve academic writing skills and enables individuals to comprehend complex issues more deeply. Choosing the appropriate structure for the paper can make all the difference in how effectively you communicate your opinion in sentences.

It is key to identify the key reasons and effects of the matter based on thorough research findings to create a clear thesis statement. With the right approach, anyone can compose high-quality cause-and-effect essays. They’ll provide valuable insights into the causal relationship between various pieces of evidence, individuals, or events.

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Cause and Effect Essay Outline: Types, Examples and Writing Tips

20 June, 2020

9 minutes read

Author:  Tomas White

This is a complete guide on writing cause and effect essays. Find a link to our essay sample at the end. Let's get started!

What is a Cause and Effect Essay?

A cause and effect essay is the type of paper that the author is using to analyze the causes and effects of a particular action or event. A curriculum usually includes this type of exercise to test your ability to understand the logic of certain events or actions.

If you can see the logic behind cause and effect in the world around you, you will encounter fewer problems when writing. If not, writing this kind of paper will give you the chance to improve your skillset and your brain’s ability to reason.

“Shallow men believe in luck or in circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

In this article, the  Handmade Writing team will find out how to create an outline for your cause and effect essay – the key to successful essay writing.

Types of the Cause and Effect Essay

Before writing this kind of essay, you need to draft the structure. A good structure will result in a good paper, so it’s important to have a plan before you start. But remember , there’s no need to reinvent the wheel: just about every type of structure has already been formulated by someone.

If you are still unsure about the definition of an essay, you can take a look at our guide:  What is an Essay?

Generally speaking, there are three types of cause and effect essays. We usually differentiate them by the number of and relationships between the different causes and the effects. Let’s take a quick look at these three different cases:

1. Many causes, one effect

This kind of essay illustrates how different causes can lead to one effect. The idea here is to try and examine a variety of causes, preferably ones that come from different fields, and prove how they contributed to a particular effect. If you are writing about World War I, for example, mention the political, cultural, and historical factors that led to the great war.

By examining a range of fundamental causes, you will be able to demonstrate your knowledge about the topic.

Here is how to structure this type of essay:

• Introduction
• Cause #3 (and so on…)
• The effect of the causes

2. One cause, many effects

This type of cause and effect essay is constructed to show the various effects of a particular event, problem, or decision. Once again, you will have to demonstrate your comprehensive knowledge and analytical mastery of the field. There is no need to persuade the reader or present your argument . When writing this kind of essay, in-depth knowledge of the problem or event’s roots will be of great benefit. If you know why it happened, it will be much easier to write about its effects.

Here is the structure for this kind of essay:

• Effect #3 (and so on…)

3. Chain of causes and effects

This is the most challenging type. You need to maintain a chain of logic that demonstrates a sequence of actions and consequences, leading to the end of the chain. Although this is usually the most interesting kind of cause and effect essay, it can also be the most difficult to write.

Here is the outline structure:

• Effect #1 = Cause #2
• Effect #2 = Cause #3
• Effect #3 = Cause #4 (and so on…)

Cause and Effect Essay Outline Example

Let’s take a look at an example. Below, you will find an outline for the topic “The causes of obesity” (Type 1) :

As you can see, we used a blended strategy here. When writing about the ever-increasing consumption of unhealthy food, it is logical to talk about the marketing strategies that encourage people to buy fast food. If you are discussing fitness trainers, it is important to mention that people need to be checked by a doctor more often, etc.

In case you face some issues with writing your Cause and Effect essay, you can always count on our Essay Writers !

How do I start writing once I have drafted the structure?

If you start by structuring each paragraph and collecting suitable examples, the writing process will be much simpler. The final essay might not come up as a classic five paragraph essay – it all depends on the cause-effect chain and the number of statements of your essay.

In the Introduction, try to give the reader a general idea of what the cause and effect essay will contain. For an experienced reader, a thesis statement will be an indication that you know what you are writing about. It is also important to emphasize how and why this problem is relevant to modern life. If you ever need to write about the Caribbean crisis, for instance, state that the effects of the Cold War are still apparent in contemporary global politics. 

Related Post: How to write an Essay introduction | How to write a Thesis statement

In the Body, provide plenty of details about what causes led to the effects. Once again, if you have already assembled all the causes and effects with their relevant examples when writing your plan, you shouldn’t have any problems. But, there are some things to which you must pay particular attention. To begin with, try to make each paragraph the same length: it looks better visually. Then, try to avoid weak or unconvincing causes. This is a common mistake, and the reader will quickly realize that you are just trying to write enough characters to reach the required word count.

Moreover, you need to make sure that your causes are actually linked to their effects. This is particularly important when you write a “chained” cause and effect essay (type 3) . You need to be able to demonstrate that each cause was actually relevant to the final result. As I mentioned before, writing the Body without preparing a thorough and logical outline is often an omission.

The Conclusion must be a summary of the thesis statement that you proposed in the Introduction. An effective Conclusion means that you have a well-developed understanding of the subject. Notably, writing the Conclusion can be one of the most challenging parts of this kind of project. You typically write the Conclusion once you have finished the Body, but in practice, you will sometimes find that a well-written conclusion will reveal a few mistakes of logic in the body!

Cause and Effect Essay Sample

Be sure to check the sample essay, completed by our writers. Use it as an example to write your own cause and effect essay. Link: Cause and effect essay sample: Advertising ethic issues .

Tips and Common Mistakes from Our Expert Writers

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How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay

Last Updated: September 20, 2022 Approved

This article was co-authored by Tristen Bonacci . Tristen Bonacci is a Licensed English Teacher with more than 20 years of experience. Tristen has taught in both the United States and overseas. She specializes in teaching in a secondary education environment and sharing wisdom with others, no matter the environment. Tristen holds a BA in English Literature from The University of Colorado and an MEd from The University of Phoenix. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 100% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 133,132 times.

A cause and effect essay requires that you examine a particular situation or event and determine a causal relationship. Start by choosing a particular topic. Then, conduct your preliminary research and take notes to incorporate into your essay. When you are finished researching, create an outline based upon your thesis statement and write an initial draft. Edit your draft closely and ask another person to do so as well.

Getting Ready to Write

• If you write down the details yourself make sure to keep this piece of paper in a safe location as you will need to consult it throughout the writing process.

• For example, you may be asked to write about the causes of the American Revolution, which means that you will discuss taxation protests and other contributing factors. Or, you may be asked to write about the effects of the American Revolution, which means that you will discuss nation-building and other long and short-term effects. A combined cause and effect essay would combine both of these angles.

• Double check that your idea is within the given subject parameters outlined by the teacher for the assignment.
• Consider writing about moments that are close to your own experience, such as events that have impacted your life. For example, you could discuss a war period that you lived through. Or, you could take on a controversial topic, such as the proven effects of eating fast food on a regular basis. Taking a historical angle and looking into events like the American Revolution is another possible approach.
• Be flexible in adjusting your topic breadth or depth as you work on your paper. At any point in the process, you may need to add or delete particular discussions to fit the requirements. For example, if you are writing about the actions of George Washington during the American Revolution, you may need to narrow your focus and only discuss one particular choice that he made.

• These texts are usually great places to research your topic further.

• Check that your sources fall within the guidelines given by your teacher for the assignment.
• If you are covering a recent topic, such as the effects of fast food production, you may be able to use first-hand accounts, also known as primary sources, in your work.

• A good question might be, “Is there a minimum source number for this assignment?” Just make sure that the question that you ask is not already answered in the assignment sheet.

Constructing the Initial Essay

• A thesis statement can be a single sentence or multiple sentences, depending on what you need to cover. It cannot be a quote, a basic statement of fact, or a question.
• As you are trying to craft your thesis statement it is helpful to consider what your evidence indicates about your topic. What causes and/or effects are clearly illustrated by your sources? For example, if a number of your sources discuss stock market issues as a cause of the Great Depression, then you may argue that, “Stock market instabilities, in part, led to the Great Depression.”

• While 3 ideas are typical for a 5-paragraph essay, you may find you have more ideas you want to include. Depending upon your topic and the length of your paper, scale up the number of ideas as needed.
• Be pretty flexible with your initial outline as you will find areas that you will need to expand or cut when you actually start writing.
• It may seem easier at first but you never have to limit yourself to the five-paragraph essay format, unless your teacher expressly requests that you do so. Otherwise, feel free to add additional paragraphs, up until the page limit, to create a stronger argument.

• You can get a reader interested in your subject by opening with a vivid quote, exciting source, or quick anecdote. Just keep it brief. Your intro should only be a fairly short paragraph in comparison to the body ones.

• Don’t forget to add at least a paragraph explaining to the reader why these connections are important to them on an individual or group level. You could also mention this in the cause-and-effect paragraph. This is an opportunity to make an educated statement about what the long and short term implications of this cause/effect cycle will be. Basically, why should we care?

• For example, if you argue that the Great Depression caused a rise in unemployment you will need to have statistics to support this perspective. After all, unemployment existed before and after the event in question, so the causal relationship is what must be clarified.

• For instance, if you are writing about the causes of the Great Depression you will want to discuss the stock market but also the income gap. Or, if you choose to focus solely on the Great Depression/stock market relationship then somewhere in your paper you’ll want to acknowledge the other possible causes while stating that you’ve chosen this particular focus.
• Points you are proving may be major or minor. The goal is simply to explain how they affect the causal relationship.

Polishing Your Final Draft

• This is another reason why it is best to not procrastinate when writing an essay of this type. You will need ample time to complete the process in a patient way in order to create your best possible work.

• You might say, “Please focus on the word choice as that is a weakness of mine.”

• Some people find it helpful to print out your paper at this point and make your revisions on a hard copy. This can also protect you in the event that you experience any computer troubles.
• One strategy is to split your revisions into two parts: one revision for grammar and spelling and another to examine the organization and content of your paper.

Expert Q&A

• It is sometimes helpful to read your paper aloud while editing. This allows you to catch errors that might otherwise slip by you. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• You can also ask your teacher to look over your first draft as well if they are willing to do so. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Be very careful not to plagiarize or commit any type of academic honesty. Produce your own work and ask your teacher for help if you need it. [12] X Trustworthy Source University of North Carolina Writing Center UNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process Go to source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Make sure to save your paper as you continue to work. Computer problems do happen and you don’t want to lose your work as a result. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.butte.edu/departments/cas/tipsheets/style_purpose_strategy/cause_effort.html
• ↑ Tristen Bonacci. Licensed English Teacher. Expert Interview. 21 December 2021.
• ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/685/02/
• ↑ http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/causeeff.php
• ↑ http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/editing-and-proofreading/
• ↑ https://student.unsw.edu.au/editing-your-essay

About this article

To write a cause and effect essay, start by choosing a topic that interests you, such as the effects of eating fast food. Next, come up with a thesis statement, which is the argument you plan to make. Then, start with a paragraph that introduces the reader to the general topic and presents your thesis in the final sentence or two. After the introduction, write your body paragraphs, making sure to write 1 paragraph for each point of your argument. Finally, end with a conclusion that summarizes your thesis and main supporting points. For more tips from our Educational co-author, like how to conduct background research on your topic, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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A cause and effect essay explores why events happen (cause) and what occurs as an outcome (effect). It's a type of essay that explains connections between different things, events or phenomena. Cause and effect essays should clearly state causal relationships and help readers understand how things are interconnected.

Writing a cause and effect essay is quite a difficult task since not everything can be explained by lookingat the issue from the fist glance. You often should conduct additional research to make sure that your conclusion is right. By using our expert tricks and tips, you can ease your task and prepare an interesting project. This blog post will shed more light on such aspects:  

• Purpose of a cause and effect essay
• Essay outlines
• Methods of organizing information
• Step-by-step writing process.

Also, get ready to find some examples that will surely come in handy. So let’s get started!

What Is a Cause and Effect Essay: Definition and Purpose

A cause and effect essay is a type of academic writing that defines a causal relationship between two objects, events or phenomena. Its main purpose is to explain the impact of one thing on another one. Writing a paper on causal topics requires a clear definition of the cause-and-effect link. This means that students should identify such situation and share their opinion on the consequences. To prepare for the writing process, you should conduct preliminary research. Prewriting includes 3 preparatory stages:  

• Choosing an appropriate causal situation
• Defining roots and consequences of some phenomena
• Offering solutions for negative impact (if there is any).

This information will be enough to cover any issue. But it will take time to prepare necessary evidence. You should use all available sources and write a plan for your paper. Make sure that the accuracy of the received information is beyond doubt. To make your work simpler, you should determine the topic you are particularly interested in. Preparing a project that you aren’t passionate about is a huge mistake that any professional can easily see. Keep reading to find out what makes a cause and effect essay successful and how to write it with ease.   In case you are looking for other essays such as problem and solution essays , browse one more of our blogs.

How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay

Writing a cause and effect essay requires studying all important details thoroughly since there is no other way to get a comprehensive view of the situation. Students should make the list of reasons for a particular event, and then share observations in a logical order. Here’re several useful suggestions that will help you get started:  

• Have a brainstorming session. Consider social movements, historical events, or recent trends to come up with an excellent cause and effect essay topic.
• Do preliminary research. Research allows you to see what material is available on your topic and helps get the whole picture.
• Build an effective thesis statement. Identify a causal relationship and write your essay on the basis of your thesis.
• Jot down your main points. This basically means preparing an outline which will be discussed further in this blog post.
• Write your rough draft. Expand the critical points listed in your outline to write the draft of your essay.

Keep in mind that it’s you whose work’s result depends on, so make sure that you have prepared convincing arguments.

Create Cause and Effect Essay Outline

Writing an informative piece begins with searching for an unusual topic. But it doesn’t mean that you won’t have to do anything else. Your task is to attract the readers’ attention, and this is impossible to achieve without preparing a structured cause and effect essay outline. Start by developing an informative plan, including these sections:

• Introduction At the beginning, provide some memorable fact or news to attract attention. Provide some background and define your thesis statement.
• Main body The main task is to convince readers that a chosen causal relationship matters. Specify the reason and how it affects some object or event. Use convincing arguments and don’t forget about the reliability of your information.
• Conclusion Wrap up the main causes and effects and explain the significance of your topic. You may leave an open question for further consideration.

Forget about literally copying ideas from other sources. Your paper will be successful if you support each assumption with arguments. The focus on credibility is an important requirement that will enable you to make the right impression.

Cause and Effect Essay Structure

A cause and effect essay structure doesn’t differ from the rules of organizing your ideas in other text forms. Students are still required to come up with an introduction, the main points for body paragraphs, and summarize all presented information. Each block should resonate with your thesis. Generally, a cause and effect essay follows a 5 paragraph essay outline . However, the number of body paragraphs depends on the number of main points. Sometimes, one thing may have multiple effects. In this case, you should be prepared to create more paragraphs. Your finished text must be clear from speculation and guesses. Compiling a cause-and-effect chain is mandatory for the academic paper as well.  

Cause and Effect Essay Introduction

Typically, a cause and effect essay introduction includes such elements:

• Background information
• Thesis statement.

While working on your introduction, keep in mind that you will need to come up with the hook in an essay that will attract your audience’s attention. Then, you should provide some context to get readers familiar with your subject. Finally, you will develop your thesis statement listing causes and effects that will be discussed. If you still don’t have any ideas how to start a cause and effect essay, we recommend reading these tips:  

• Avoid using parenthetical words. The phrases that will be used in the introduction can be deadly boring, so exclude such expressions as “as everyone knows” or “nowadays”.
• Prepare several interesting facts or news. The best introduction you can come up with includes fascinating details. Thus, you will be able to get any attention you want.
• Remember your main idea. Don’t deviate from the chosen topic. Be concise and stay on point.

A successful introduction should follow these common recommendations. So make sure you don’t skip our suggestions. Can't work those entire cause-and-effect writing out yet? Don't worry, professional college essay writers are always there for you.

Cause and Effect Essay Body: Block Method

The most difficult thing about writing a cause and effect essay is that readers may not follow all arguments and proofs. To save your work from possible confusion, you can structure your essay using body paragraphs. There are 2 methods to arrange your ideas in your main body:

• Block method
• Chain method.

The idea behind the block method is to provide arguments that are related to causes of events, and, then, use some evidence to show the effects. With this method, you can divide causal information into several blocks. This can simplify perception of your paper. You will get something like this:

It’s somewhat difficult for beginners to write a cause and effect essay body using this method. There may be too much space between the reasons and effects. However, using this method helps you eliminate any possible confusion in readers. Make a short outline of your presentation and use it to think over some basic structure. This trick will help you focus on the main facts and unbiasedly assess any situation.  

Cause and Effect Essay Body: Chain Method

Chain method is another way to organize information in a cause and effect essay body. Unlike the block method, building a chain is much easier for beginners. Since great attention is paid to cause-and-effect links, you should use an appropriate practical chain method. By choosing this option, you can sort out all arguments without missing any important details. Here’s how it will look like:  

By following this step-by-step cause and effect description in your project, you’ll be able to select a course and follow it throughout your whole work. As a result, you will draw up the main body that is structured according to academic requirements. You will be able to focus on a certain thought thanks to a clear understanding of your motives. This approach has been developed for students to choose the main idea first and only then proceed to writing their essay. Still, reasons and consequences do not take a back seat since an essay’s structure is united by some common idea.  

Cause and Effect Essay Conclusion

Cause and effect essay conclusion is probably the easiest section. Here, students don't have to introduce any new ideas. You will deal with an entirely different task – summarizing your critical points. Make sure you include these details:

• Summary of main ideas
• Reworded thesis statement
• Food for thought.

Since your goal is to study cause-and-effect links, a conclusion is a great section to make some analysis. Students should organize their writing so that readers won’t have any questions after reading it. This being said, your final paragraph should confirm your thesis statement expressed in an introduction. In case you still have some questions, find an appropriate conclusion essay example .

Tips for Writing a Cause and Effect Essay

To make writing a cause and effect essay bring the result you need, use these simple tips:

• Look through different cause and effect essay topics . Choosing an unusual one is your lucky ticket, so you should use sensational details.
• Listed arguments should confirm your thesis and fit logically into the structure.
• Use striking examples to demonstrate cause-and-effect relationships.
• Study the existing opinions and make your choice. If you have a different point of view, find some evidence.
• Before submitting your paper, proofread it for grammar and stylistic mistakes.
• Make your essay title succinct and memorable. However, avoid long titles.

If you aren’t sure about the chosen topic, consult your professor. An expert opinion will help you choose a different direction and achieve the result you need. An irrelevant work is much worse than the one written with errors.

>> Read more: How to Write an Essay

Cause and Effect Essay Examples

Sometimes, all you need is good cause and effect essay examples. Luckily, we have lots of samples available on our website. Feel free to explore our collection of examples in the Sample section or check our ready-made essay below. Use this beautiful opportunity to save your time looking for essays. Alongside cause & effect, StudyCrumb proposes pretty great help with essay of any complexity.

Cause and Effect Essays: Final Thoughts

It takes some effort and practice to master your cause/effect essay writing skills. Choosing a topic, preparing an outline, and searching for reliable arguments takes much time. You can achieve your goal by composing an essay using our guide.

Our experts are ready to offer exceptional writing services and help with any academic paper. Professional approach and timely delivery are far from being the only advantages. Your work will be done by genuine experts who know how to convey any idea and develop a solid justification of cause and effect.  

FAQ About Writing a Cause and Effect Essay

1. which are the three types of cause and effect essays.

There are several types of cause and effect essays. To choose a preferable option, you should decide on the kind of work you are going to prepare. Each student can choose any of these 3 types:

• One cause and many effects
• One effect and many causes
• Cause-and-effect chain.

These options are popular, so you should look for a narrative structure that suits your chosen type.

2. Which topic is narrow enough to address in a cause-and-effect essay?

You are assigned an essay, but you don’t understand which topic is narrow enough to address in a cause-and-effect essay? To get an answer, you won’t need to conduct any research since such a direction as Renewable Energy Resources is quite common. The main difficulty is that it will be impossible to cover this topic in a short essay. As your statement, you can use a variety of opinions on the existence of renewable resources.

3. What is the format of a cause and effect Essay?

The format choice affects your paper’s style, so you should decide between two popular options: MLA and APA. The difference is that the chosen cause and effect essay format assumes compliance with specific requirements. Select an applicable style depending on your field of study.

4. How many paragraphs should a cause and effect essay have?

The number of paragraphs in a cause and effect essay depends on the complexity of your topic. For this reason, you should decide on the number of causes and effects that can be covered. Usually, a complete essay consists of:

• Introduction
• 3 Body paragraphs
• Conclusion.

Daniel Howard is an Essay Writing guru. He helps students create essays that will strike a chord with the readers.

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Writing - part 1

Writing Cause and Effect Essays

Intermediate

One of the most common tasks on important tests is writing cause and effect essays or paragraphs. Here are some tips to help you write a cause and effect essay.

• Remember that causes come first, effects follow.
• Learn multiple forms (also known as equivalencies) so that you can vary your writing style.
• Use an effective hook to catch the reader's attention.
• Always use examples to provide evidence.
• Use linking language such as conjunctive adverbs, or listing words to organize your paragraphs.
• Use a hamburger essay form (introduction, three body paragraphs, conclusion) for cause and effect essays.
• Begin by brainstorming (example below). Next, write a quick outline using ideas created by brainstorming.
• Use your outline as a map to writing your essay. It may take a few minutes to develop an outline, but having an outline results in a much clearer essay.

Step 1: Brainstorming

Brainstorm your essay. Brainstorming is used to create as many ideas as possible. Don't worry whether your ideas are good or bad, just come up with as many as possible. Here is some brainstorming for essays on four different topics:

Step 2: Write an Outline

It's important to create a map of your essay. There's no need to write out full sentences, just take ideas from your brainstorming and use them to fill out the outline. Next, come up with a hook and a topic sentence for your introductory paragraph. Here's an example:

Introduction:

Statistic about obesity

Topic sentence: 

Obesity has become the number one threat to good health in developed countries.

Body I - Causes

Cause 1: Price

Cause 2: Advertising

Cause 3: Time

Body II  - Effects

Effect 1: Poor health

Effect 2: Less time for family, more time for work

Effect 3: Stress

Body III - Possible Changes

Change 1: Education

Change 2: Don't eat at chains

Change 3: Choose fruit and vegetables

Step 3: Use Forms for Showing Cause and Effect

The final step is to write your essay or paragraph. Use the following language formulas for showing cause and effect in your essays and paragraphs. Make sure to use a variety of sentences including compound and complex sentences.

Course Curriculum

• Types of Writing 30 mins
• Writing Tips 30 mins
• Writing process 40 mins
• Writing an article 30 mins
• Writing a Summary 30 mins
• Writing Cause and Effect Essays 30 mins
• Formal letter 30 mins
• Informal letter 30 mins

How to Write a Cause & Effect Essay: Examples, Outline, & Tips

You don’t need to be a nerd to understand the general idea behind cause and effect essays. Let’s see! If you skip a meal, you get hungry. And if you write an essay about it, your goal is achieved!

Our specialists will write a custom essay specially for you!

However, following multiple rules of academic writing can be a tough task. But don’t worry; this guide can help you finish your cause and effect writing assignment on time and with little to no stress. By the end of this article by Custom-Writing.org experts, you will know the structure and variations of this essay type. Long story short, it’s a full guide on how to write a cause and effect essay (with examples!).

❓ What Is a Cause and Effect Essay?

✍️ how to write a cause and effect essay.

• 💡 Choose Your Topic
• 🎓 Create a Thesis Statement
• 📑 Outline Your Essay
• 📝 Develop the Paragraphs
• 👀 Essay Examples

🔗 References

A cause and effect essay’s main focus is to work through the relationship between two events . Specifically, it highlights how one event leads to the second one. The writing structure changes depending on the ratio of causes to effects that you choose. Read the examples below for more detail.

As mentioned, this article can be considered the ultimate guide to writing a perfect cause and effect essay. It consists of smooth and clear instructions with examples.

• First, it tells you how to choose a suitable topic. This is vital as it becomes the foundation for your essay.
• Then, there is some information on how to choose the outline that is appropriate for your essay’s primary focus.
• Finally, you will learn what language you should use to hit the best score! It concludes with a cause and effect essay sample, which you may use as an example.

💡 Choose Your Cause and Effect Essay Topic

In order to find a good topic for your cause and effect essay, you should choose what to focus on: the causes or the effects? Not only does the whole structure of your paper depend on it, but you also need to pick a suitable topic based on that decision. Let’s see how the topic would change depending on the focus.

Cause & Effect Essay Topics

• How does noise pollution affect your physical and mental health?
• What were the main reasons of the Great Depression ?
• What does a high sugar consumption do to our health?
• The impact of social media on children’s mantal health.
• Reasons and effect of gender segregation in the labor market.
• What induces people to take drugs ?
• The main reasons for parking shortage in big cities .
• How can regular exercises add to our physical and mental wellbeing?
• How did World War II affect social and political structure of the world?
• The main factors that caused the global poverty .

🎓 Create a Cause and Effect Thesis Statement

The best cause and effect essays also have a well-prepared thesis statement . Generally, the thesis statement would point out your point of view and your essay’s main ideas. Here, however, you should also not forget to highlight whether the focus is on causes or effects. You can use a thesis statement generator for essay to speed up the creation process. For instance, this statement highlights the effects of daily walks, states that the author supports this idea, and presents one thing that causes three effects:

Just in 1 hour! We will write you a plagiarism-free paper in hardly more than 1 hour

Walking for at least half an hour every day can bring numerous positive benefits for your health: it improves blood circulation, strengthens joints, and helps with weight loss.

📑 Outline Your Cause and Effect Essay

Like the topic, your cause and effect essay outline is affected by your writing focus. The structure depends on how many relations you choose to highlight. For instance, there may be only one leading cause or multiple. The same is with effects. Moreover, there is one additional type.

Many Causes, One Effect

In this kind of essay, you would focus on discussing as many related causes as you can think of. An additional advantage would be if you could select various causes from different areas. But remember to prove that they all lead to one effect.

This cause and effect essay structure reflects the general outline you are used to (remember that conclusion is usually a paraphrase of a thesis statement from the introduction).

Many Causes, One Effect Essay Outline Example

1. Introduction

1.1. Thesis statement: Bullying begins with personal desires or family issues and leads to increased numbers of suffering children.

2. Main body

2.1. Cause 1: Bullies want to be noticed.

2.2. Cause 2: They want to feel superior.

2.3. Cause 3: There are issues at home.

2.4. Effect: Many innocent kids become victims of bullying.

3. Conclusion

One Cause, Many Effects

The outline of this type of essay would look a lot like the previous one, except that the ratio of causes and effects is mirrored. You should be quite competent in the topic you’re working on to produce a quality essay.

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One Cause, Many Effects Essay Outline Example

1.1. Thesis Statement: Overusing social media can lead to adverse psychological and emotional effects.

2.1. Cause: Spending too much time on social media, watching other users’ lives.

2.2. Effect 1: Users become more self-conscious about their appearance or quality of life.

2.3. Effect 2: It takes up time that could have been used for more useful activities.

2.3. Effect 3: Real-life relationships and other commitments suffer.

Cause-Effect Chain

It may be more challenging than the other essays. The structure of this type of writing reflects a chain reaction. The effect of the initial cause leads to another cause and effect cycle. You will need to be careful and very attentive in order to maintain the logical order.

1.1. Thesis Statement: Through the chain of causes and effects, it can be observed that the use of hair spray may lead to a global catastrophe.

2.1. Cause and effect chain #1: Chlorofluorocarbons were used to make hairsprays 50 years ago, but they are harmful to the ozone layer – some of them are still in the atmosphere ruining ozone molecules.

2.2. Cause and effect chain #2: Less ozone layer causes icebergs to melt faster.

2.3. Cause and effect chain #3. Melting ice causes the sea level to rise and flood the land.

📝 Develop Your Cause and Effect Paragraphs

Since we are talking about academic writing here, it’s essential to keep your language appropriate. The most commonly used word, in this case, is “because .” However, you shouldn’t overuse it.

There are quite a few ready-to-use phrases that are most suitable for this type of essay. Include these in your cause and effect paragraphs to make the transition between ideas smoother and your writing more coherent:

• As a consequence, …
• It leads to…
• (The cause) results in / causes / influences (the effect)
• The key factors are…
• One of the results is…
• The primary effect of (the cause) is…

Don’t forget to use sentence connectors, such as:

• In addition
• Furthermore
• Consequently

After completing the first draft, you should proofread your writing and carefully check that there are no sentence fragments, like this:

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Because I haven’t slept in two days before the exam.

Sometimes, rushing through the writing process may lead your thoughts astray, and you leave the ending of the sentence unfinished. However, it’s a severe mistake, so try to avoid it.

In addition, you should not mix the verb tenses. If you are describing a past event, stick to the past tense. Of course, it may depend on the situation. For instance, the present tense is used to talk about universal truth, while different tenses can be used for writing a report.

👀 Cause and Effect Essay Examples

We have gone step by step through the process of writing a good cause and effect essay. Now, finally, you can check out how it should look altogether. The following writing follows the template of the outline about bullying that we introduced earlier. It has all the necessary elements, such as the structure, vocabulary, and the thesis statement highlighted. It is a great example of a cause and effect essay, so go ahead and read it through!

Bullying in Schools (Cause & Effect Essay Sample)

Want more samples? We’ve got you covered! Here’s a bonus list of cause and effect essay examples.

• Causes and Effects of Divorce
• Causes and Effects of Drug Addiction
• Sophocles’ Antigone: Cause & Effect Essay
• Child Abuse and Health of Nation: Cause & Effect
• Cause and Effect: Living with Pets Improves Their Owners’ Health
• American Society Police Brutality Causes and Effects
• Civil War in the US: Causes and Effects
• Causes and Effects of Fast-Food Addiction
• Diabetes: Causes and Effects of Disease
• Tsunamis in Australia: Causes and Adverse Effects
• Cause-and-effect | Definition of Cause-and-effect at Dictionary.com
• Causes and Effects – Harvard Business Review
• Cause and effect | Nature Methods
• Cause and Effect – SAGE Research Methods
• Cause and Effect in Epidemiology | SpringerLink
• Patterns in the Landscape – Analyses of Cause and Effect
• Cause and Effect Diagram – Clinical Excellence Commission
• Explaining Causality – Academic Phrasebank
• Cause and Effect Essay Examples (Your Dictionary)
• Cause and Effect – Writing for Success
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Writing a cause and effect essay.

Steps for Writing a Cause and Effect Essay

• Choose an event or a phenomenon to analyze. Ask yourself, “What happened,” and then try to answer the question, “Why did it happen?”
• Sketch out the main points of your essay in the introduction . Let readers understand what your paper is going to be about in general .
• List the causes and give their description, so your reader can grasp the whole situation.
• Follow up with the effects, showing the connection between reasons and consequences. Your reader must understand how you have arrived at one from another.
• Explain why your analysis is important and what its practical meaning is.
• Make a conclusion .

Cause and Effect Essay Topics

Since almost any event has both its causes and consequences, there are a vast variety of possible topics for a cause and effect essay. Still, it would be reasonable to choose a topic you are familiar with. These may be:

• Video games can boost IQ.
• Optimism improves immunity.
• Using social media improves communication skills.
• The promotion of bicycle use helps reduce traffic jams.
• Cellphone use can improve family relations.
• Social media can help teens with their socialization.
• Living together before getting married makes marriage better.
• A happy marriage makes a person’s life longer.
• Going to college helps people make better choices and have happier marriages.
• Developed communication skills help families have close relationships.
• Immigration and the growth of xenophobic prejudices.
• Negative effects of smoking.
• Factors that lead to depression.
• A correlation between economic crisis and unemployment.
• Economic consequences of the war in the Middle East.
• Effects of global warming.

Key Points to Consider

• Mind that the same event may be a cause and an effect simultaneously. For example, the collapse of the Soviet Union may be studied as a result of many domestic and foreign factors, but at the same time, it can be considered a cause of the restructuring of the Eurasian geopolitical space, the uprising of China and so on. Decide in which direction you are going to move.
• Concentrate on those effects that relate to the causes directly, and are close in time to them. This will prevent you from having to go into unneeded analysis of far-reaching consequences.
• You might find it useful to sort effects by categories, so that you do not confuse anything. For instance, if you describe the consequences of the Second World War, you can divide them into social, economic, and political sections.
• State clearly what exactly you are going to examine: causes, effects, or both.

Do and Don’t

Common mistakes when writing a cause and effect essay.

– Forgetting to show connections between causes and effects.

– Covering a broad topic and digging into a large number of causes, consequences, and arguments.

– Losing links in a causal chain. If you have a sequence of causes that flow logically one from another, then missing one or several of them will make your paper harder to understand.

– Forgetting to use supporting details.

– Forgetting the purpose of your paper. For instance, starting to write a persuasive paper may end up with an informative one.

Now that you have acquainted yourself with the basic cause and effect essay writing tips and rules, you can check out our cause and effect essay samples  to link theory with practice.

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Writing > How to write a cause-and-effect essay

How to write a cause-and-effect essay

If you’re writing a cause-and-effect essay, you are making an argument between a particular issue and its consequences. One of the most common types of academic writing, this essay format explores the “why” and “how” of two distinct events or situations. It can encompass people, things, events, or established ideas, and their evolution or dichotomy.

While at first the inciting incident (cause) doesn’t seem related to the ensuing condition (effect), it is your role to find the link between the two and make a convincing argument to your readers. Here’s how to connect the dots and write an effective essay .

What do you need to establish?

The beginning of a cause-and-effect essay explores an issue. This beginning contrasts with the effect of another subject, while the argument related to their differences comprise the thesis statement of the essay. What is the inciting incident of this essay? It can be as simple as a statistic:

• Over 4 billion people use social media platforms.
• Cats kill 2.4 billion birds per year.

Or an event:

• In 1915, German submarines sunk the RMS Lusitania.
• At a young age, Bruce Wayne saw his parents die in front of him.

From here, you create an argument that leads to an effect. This is a link that acts as a hook to entice your reader to see what your evidence is, and how you form this argument:

• The proliferation of social media platforms has led to a distrust of democracy.
• Outdoor cats can be considered an invasive species.
• The sinking of the Lusitania can be directly linked to the dissatisfaction with the German people during the Weimar Republic.
• The trauma of this tragedy is what led Bruce Wayne to become Batman.

These example effects are tangentially related to the cause. It is the job of the cause-and-effect essay writer to link the two.

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How does a cause-and-effect essay help with thinking?

An impactful cause-and-effect essay is argumentative. It trains the writer to exercise skills related to persuasive writing and logical thinking, while helping them to focus on the main causes of an issue and eliminate irrelevant details.

Make the argument between the cause and effect

You will need two major parts to link the cause and the effect:

• Evidence: these are statistics, quotations from experts, and facts and figures that reinforce your cause and lead into your effect.
• Support: you can claim the thesis statement you are making with support from the evidence you’ve found, especially if you can make the logical leap.

Separate the different pieces of evidence and support into distinct and specific paragraphs, so you can come at your thesis statement from multiple angles and thereby strengthen it. Remember your core.

Sum everything up in a compelling conclusion

Your last paragraph will sum up your previous paragraphs of individual arguments that you have made, and this is an opportunity to reinforce your critical thinking skills. Sum up your main points concisely when you restate your thesis by linking the cause to the effect here.

It may take a few drafts for you to hone your thesis. When you revise and reread your essay, you need to satisfy the following conditions:

• Is your point of view clearly understandable?
• Do your logical connect-the-dots make sense to the layman?
• Do your evidence and support paragraphs enhance your thesis?

No matter what your essay’s purpose is—an opinion piece for a publication, a thesis for an academic class, or a pop culture-oriented take—your writing can always benefit from additional tips and advice. Check out Microsoft 365 for more ways to add nuance to your work, such as understanding parallelism , or how to brainstorm ideas for your next writing assignment.

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How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay

Writing essays is inevitable for all students. And while many of them consider this kind of academic assignment difficult and boring, others truly enjoy writing their essays on the widest array of topics. Do you want to know their secret? It’s simple: they just know how to write essays well! And those who don't also have a solution – they are ready to pay for essay best services to get completed paper without a hassle. Finding the essay writing service out there to fall back on is great but honing your own writing skills will never go amiss.

If you are reading this article, then you’re already on your way to start loving essay writing. By the time you finish reading it, you will have all the necessary instruments at hand to craft an impressive essay of one particular type – that is, a cause and effect essay (sometimes also called cause-effect or reason and result essay).

What Is a Cause and Effect Essay?

It is impossible to do something well without knowing what exactly it is that you have to do. So, let’s start with the basics – the cause and effect essay definition.

A cause and effect essay (also called cause-effect or reason and result essay) is a type of an analytical academic paper in which the relationship between causes and effects of a particular event or phenomenon is being analyzed. It usually answers the questions, “why?” (cause) and “what is the result?” (effect), and utilizes subjunctive mood extensively. If already at this moment you feel you're unlikely to be able to cope with writing an essay yourself – relax and get help from professional dissertation writing services .

How to Make a Correct Cause and Effect Essay Structure

Now that we know what a cause and effect essay is, we can start working on its structure. Having a clear structure is essential for the successful completion of your assignment. So, it’s highly important to devote enough time to this part of the task. If you think it's pretty challenging for you or you simply don't want to spend time on it, you can always look for coursework writing help , custom essay writing and get help from experts in the field.

There are two main ways to structure a cause and effect essay – using a block or a chain pattern. Your essay outline will differ depending on what option you choose.

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Cause and Effect Essay Outline

A cause and effect essay outline consists of a minimum of four sections – an introduction, at least two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Each section, in turn, consists of several parts, and their contents vary depending on what pattern – block or chain – you choose.

Let’s start with a block structure.  This is how it will look like:

• Introduction;
• Body paragraph I: cause;
• Body paragraph II: effect;
• Conclusion.

Depending on your topic and approach, you can focus more on the effects or the causes and have various numbers of both. For example, if you put the main focus on the effects, your outline may look like this:

• Body paragraph I: effect #1;
• Body paragraph II: effect #2;
• Body paragraph III: cause;

If you choose the chain pattern, it will mean that in your body paragraphs, every cause will be immediately followed by its effect. The outline will then be as follows:

• Body paragraph I: cause #1 -> effect #1;
• Body paragraph II: cause #2 -> effect #2;   

In this case, too, the numbers of causes and effects may vary – it is their sequence that matters.

Now, let’s look closer at every section of the structure.

Introduction

Every essay starts with an introduction. In this section, you must introduce your topic to the reader, give some background information, and explain how you’re going to approach the discussion.

This is what an introduction section of a cause and effect essay must include:

• Background information;
• Thesis statement.

If you’re wondering how to start a cause and effect essay, you can use some of the proven techniques like using a quote, a rhetorical question, or a statement that is surprising or paradoxical. Then, after giving some background information, move on to a thesis statement.

A thesis is the part of your essay in which the main point of discussion is stated. It should be clear and concise and allow no ambiguity.

Example: “The gender gap is still very far from being closed. Globally, gender parity stands at 68.6%, according to the Global Gender Gap Report (2020). In this essay, we’ll look closely at some of the causes and effects of this phenomenon”.

Body Paragraphs (Causes)

Depending on what type of structure you choose, your body paragraphs may be slightly different. But, in any case, they should contain the following elements:

• thesis (main cause or effect);
• arguments (evidence);
• conclusion, and transition to the next section.

These may be arranged in a different way, but their presence is essential. Let’s again turn to our gender inequality topic and see how it works. In the causes section, we will list the various causes of the discussed phenomena:

• Cause #1 – societal mindset;
• Cause #2 – lack of sufficient childcare;
• Cause #3 – lack of political representation.

Each of these causes should be supported by evidence to be persuasive to the reader. This is how it may be put in a paragraph:

“One of the main causes of such inequality is the societal mindset that still regards women as primarily being responsible for providing home comfort and childcare. Most men still expect their wives to stay at home and sacrifice their careers in order to take the majority of household responsibilities (support with evidence – statistical figures, etc.).

Treat the next causes in the same manner.

Body Paragraphs (Effects)

This paragraph is basically the same as the previous one, with the only difference that here, we will discuss the effects of the phenomenon. Let’s continue with our topic:

• Effect #1 – higher levels of frustration;
• Effect #2 – lower income;
• Effect #3 – feelings of insecurity and vulnerability.

Keep in mind that the effects must be direct consequences of your causes – you can’t just pick random facts. You should also make that connection clear in your text.

Example: “Such prejudiced societal mindset regarding women and their role in the society results in higher levels of frustration among women. They feel that they have reached their glass ceiling just because of the fact that they have been born female – i.e., something they just couldn’t affect in any way (support with evidence)”.

Then, go on in the same manner in the next body-effects paragraphs.

After you’ve discussed all the causes and effects that you planned, continue with making a short conclusion. It must contain the following points:

• Reiteration of your thesis;
• Short summary of the essay’s key points;
• Concluding afterthoughts.

This is what it will look like in our case:

“As we see, gender inequality is still a pressing issue in the modern world, and it’s far from being solved. This phenomenon has multiple causes, the most obvious of which are society’s prejudiced attitude, lack of childcare, and lack of political representation for women. The effects of these problems are plausible: women end up feeling frustrated, having lower income, and being generally vulnerable. In order to change the situation, we mustn’t avoid discussions of this issue and should try to find solutions to the problems that cause it”.

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Interesting Cause and Effect Essay Topics

If you’re looking for an interesting topic for cause and effect essay, this section is for you. Listed below are some good cause and effect essay topics on various popular themes – history, politics, society, and more. Use them as examples to brainstorm ideas of your own.

History and politics:

• The economic consequences of the Civil War in the U.S.
• The collapse of the Soviet Union and its effect on the world’s power balance.
• World War II and its effect on the world economy.
• Brexit: was it necessary and how it will affect the U.K.
• Gender inequality as a major source of stress for modern women.
• How having children changes the life of a family.
• Social media as the major source of procrastination for students.
• Why do people commit crimes?
• How outstanding writing skills can help your future career.
• Burnout at work as a major career threat.
• Why it is important to go to college.
• Starting a business as a student. How it can affect your studies and future career.  

Environment:

• Air pollution as one of the main threats to public health.
• The effects of COVID-19 pandemic on the environment.
• How melting glaciers in the Arctic affect climate change on our planet.
• Multiple effects of global warming on the Earth’s population.
• Why we all need to go green right now.

Cause and Effect Essay Examples

Now that you have all the tools necessary to create a good cause and effect essay of your own let’s look at an example to see how all the components work together. Let’s assume that our topic is “Procrastination among college students.” Here, we will use a block structure, and this is how our example cause and effect essay will look like.

Procrastination Among College Students.

Our first paragraph is an introduction. Here we introduce our topic with a hook statement, give some background information, and make a thesis statement. 

Procrastination is dangerous for college students. At the same time, it’s extremely common among them: various studies show that up to 95% of college students engage in it from time to time, and almost 50% do this systematically. The causes of this phenomenon are multi-faceted and profound, and it’s vital to discover them in every particular case to be able to fight procrastination effectively. But to start treating procrastination as a problem, students must be aware of its harmful consequences. There are many of them, but one of the most acute ones for college students is its negative effect on their academic performance.

Here, the topic suggests that we have to focus more on the effects than on the causes, so the first body paragraph will be about an effect mentioned in the title. First, we will name the effect and then bring arguments and evidence to support our claim.

Procrastination is putting off things one has to do till the last minute and spending one’s time on some other, less important occupations. When students procrastinate instead of doing their academic assignments, they usually end up not having enough time to complete their tasks properly by the deadline. As a result, they only do what they can in the amount of time left, and the quality of their work may suffer. For most students, it means receiving lower grades than they could have achieved had they spent their time more wisely. And this is not a mere assumption: a study conducted by Warwick Business School has proven that procrastination leads students to lower grades (2019). One may argue that it depends largely on how gifted a student is, but even the talented ones may get to the point when the assignment is so difficult that they cannot do it well quickly.

Our second body paragraph will be about another effect. We will write it using the same scheme as in the previous paragraph.

What’s worse, procrastination can also cause mental health problems among students (Source, year). When a person finds out that they only have several hours to complete an assignment that requires several days to be done well, they are most likely to succumb to anxiety. Science proves this, too: for example, a 2010 study titled “I’ll Go to Therapy, Eventually” found a clear connection between procrastination and poorer mental health. Then, worries about failing to do a task properly resulted in even more anxiety and stress, and if a student eventually gets a lower grade than expected, it may lead to a feeling of guilt, regret, and even to depression, especially if the situation is repeated often.

In the third body paragraph, we will talk about the causes. 

It may be tempting to just label students who keep putting off their assignments as sluggards, but there are more complex and profound reasons for procrastination than mere laziness. As A. Chris Heath, MD, a psychiatrist from Dallas, says, procrastination usually happens because the task seems too difficult. It can also be an issue of self-esteem, he adds, – when a person thinks he or she is not good enough to cope with a demanding task. There are many other causes for procrastination among students, like having trouble concentrating or not possessing enough organizational skills. But whatever the reasons are, the results procrastination leads to are always devastating.

Conclusion. Here, we reiterate our thesis, site the significance of the topic, and add some afterthoughts.

As we see now, procrastination is a huge problem for college students. Being considered a result of pure laziness by many, it is often overlooked as a common problem. But this approach can be very dangerous.

In reality, procrastination has deeper roots, and the effects it causes are quite harmful. If treated lightly, systematic procrastination eventually leads college students to lower grades, mental health problems, and poorer overall academic performance.

So, it’s essential for every college student not to ignore the problem and find the causes of procrastination in their particular case as early as possible to be able to avoid its dreadful consequences.

That’s it! Feel free to use this essay as a model to generate your unique cause and effect essay ideas. If you need another example, download cause and effect essay sample here.   

Wrapping Up

In this article, we’ve covered all the important issues on how to write a cause and effect essay. After reading it thoroughly, you should know what a cause and effect essay is, how to structure it well, and make an outline that will work. We’ve also explained how to work on every paragraph of your text and provided some good essay topics as well as examples of a cause and effect essay with commentary. 

Still puzzled about how to write your cause and effect essay properly? Get instant write a paper for me help from professional editors and writers.  With such detailed instruction, you cannot fail, if you are diligent enough to practice writing essays on your own using the information given. Don’t get downhearted if you won’t be able to write a flawless paper from the first try; remember: practice makes perfect. So, put effort into your essay writing, and this will pay you back in the future – not only with excellent marks but with better critical thinking and logical skills, too.

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How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay Effectively: Outline, Examples and Topics

Mar 11, 2024 | 0 comments

Mar 11, 2024 | Blog | 0 comments

A cause-and-effect essay is an academic writing task that requires students to explore the reasons behind a particular event or phenomenon and its outcomes. This type of essay aims to delve into the relationship between different variables, highlighting the cause(s) that lead to a specific effect or consequence. To write a cause-and-effect essay effectively, students need to carefully analyze the factors that contribute to a particular outcome and present their findings logically and coherently. This involves conducting thorough research, organizing ideas effectively, and providing clear and concise explanations of the causal relationships being examined.  In this article, we will explore some tips and strategies on how to write a cause and effect essay, including how to structure your essay, develop a thesis statement, and incorporate evidence to support your arguments. With the right guidance and insight, students can learn how to write a cause-and-effect essay that is informative, engaging, and well-supported. 

What is a Cause and Effect Essay and How It Differs from Other Essays Types

A Cause and Effect Essay is a type of academic writing that explores why things happen (causes) and the outcomes of those events (effects). This type of essay analyzes the relationship between the events and their consequences. Unlike other essay types, such as descriptive or narrative essays , cause-and-effect essays focus on presenting a logical argument by examining the causes and effects of a specific topic. This type of essay requires critical thinking and analysis to establish a clear connection between the cause and the effect. The structure of a cause-and-effect essay typically follows a chronological order to present the causes leading to the effects.

Purpose of a Cause and Effect Essay

The purpose of a Cause and cause-and-effect essay is to analyze the relationship between different variables and showcase how one factor leads to another, ultimately creating a chain reaction. By exploring these cause-and-effect relationships, writers can provide insight into the underlying reasons for certain occurrences and determine the impact they have on society, individuals, or the environment.

How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay

Step 1: choosing of topic.

Choosing a topic is a crucial step in the writing a cause and effect essay process. It sets the stage for your exploration of cause-and-effect relationships, allowing you to delve into the complexities of various phenomena. Here’s how to navigate this essential aspect:

• Brainstorming ideas: When considering a cause-and-effect essay topic, brainstorm a list of potential subjects that interest you or relate to issues you’re passionate about. Reflect on everyday experiences, societal trends, or global events that spark your curiosity regarding their underlying causes and effects.
• Selecting a specific cause-and-effect relationship: Narrow down your list to identify a specific cause-and-effect relationship that intrigues you. Whether you’re examining the impact of social media addiction on mental health, the correlation between childhood obesity and lack of physical activity, or the consequences of playing video games excessively, choose a topic that allows for in-depth exploration and analysis.
• Ensuring the topic is relevant and interesting: Consider the relevance and significance of your chosen topic. Opt for subjects that resonate with your audience and offer insights into pressing issues or contemporary concerns. A good cause-and-effect essay topic should prompt thought-provoking discussions and shed light on underlying dynamics that shape our world.

Step 2: Creating an outline

Before you begin writing, outline the key points you want to address in your cause-and-effect essay. Consider the causes and effects you’ll explore and the supporting evidence and examples you’ll use to substantiate your claims. An outline provides a roadmap for your essay, guiding you through the writing process and helping maintain focus and clarity.

5 Paragraph Cause and Effect Essay Outline

I. Introduction

A. Hook: Start with an engaging statement or statistic about the topic to grab the reader’s attention.

B. Background Information: Provide some context about the issue or phenomenon you’ll be discussing.

C. Thesis Statement: Clearly state the main cause-and-effect relationship you’ll be exploring in your essay.

II. First Cause

A. Topic Sentence: Introduce the first cause that contributes to the overall effect.

B. Explanation: Describe the cause in detail and explain its significance in the effect.

C. Example: Provide a concrete example or anecdote to illustrate the impact of the cause.

III. Second Cause

A. Topic Sentence: Introduce the second cause that contributes to the overall effect.

B. Explanation: Describe the cause in detail and explain its connection to the effect.

C. Example: Provide a relevant example or case study to support your argument.

IV. Third Cause (if applicable)

A. Topic Sentence: Introduce any additional causes contributing to the effect.

B. Explanation: Describe the cause and its role in the cause-and-effect relationship.

C. Example: Offer further evidence or examples to strengthen your argument.

V. Conclusion

A. Restate Thesis: Recap the main cause-and-effect relationship discussed in your essay.

B. Summarize Causes: Briefly summarize the primary causes and their impact on the effect.

C. Concluding Thoughts: Reflect on the broader implications of the cause-and-effect relationship and leave the reader with a final thought or call to action.

Step 3: Writing the essay

Writing the cause-and-effect essay is where you bring your ideas and analysis together to create a cohesive and compelling piece of writing. Here’s how to tackle this stage effectively:

1. Introduction:

The introduction of your cause-and-effect essay serves as the bridge between your reader and the topic you’re exploring. It’s your opportunity to set the stage, create intrigue, and guide your audience toward understanding the cause-and-effect relationship you’ll be dissecting.

To begin, establish the cause-and-effect relationship you’ll be exploring in your essay. This can be done by providing a brief overview of the topic and explaining why it’s relevant and worth examining. Consider starting with a contextual background that highlights the significance of the cause-and-effect dynamic within the larger framework of the issue.

Next, seize your reader’s attention with a compelling hook or statistic. This could be a thought-provoking question that prompts reflection, a startling fact or statistic that underscores the urgency of the issue, or an anecdote that illustrates the real-life impact of the cause-and-effect relationship you’re discussing. The goal is to captivate your reader’s interest and motivate them to continue reading.

As you conclude your introduction, craft a clear and focused thesis statement that encapsulates the main argument of your essay. Your thesis should succinctly outline the cause-and-effect relationship you’ll be exploring and the significance of understanding this relationship. It serves as the roadmap for your essay, guiding both you and your reader through the exploration of your chosen topic.

2. Body paragraphs

In crafting the body paragraphs of your cause and effect essay, each section should intricately explore the cause or effect as delineated in your thesis statement. Beginning with a topic sentence that succinctly encapsulates the essence of the cause or effect being discussed, the body paragraphs should adeptly unfold to provide a comprehensive understanding of the relationship at hand. It’s imperative to substantiate your assertions with cogent supporting evidence and illustrative examples, thereby fortifying the causal connection you’re elucidating. The coherence and fluidity of your essay hinge on the seamless transition between paragraphs, where each one logically progresses from its predecessor, guiding the reader through the intricacies of the cause-and-effect relationship. By adhering to this structured approach, your body paragraphs serve as the backbone of your essay, expounding upon the nuanced interplay between causes and effects with precision and clarity.

Cause and multiple effects body paragraphs: When addressing causes and their multiple effects within the body paragraphs of your essay, it’s pivotal to maintain a clear and organized structure. Begin each paragraph by delineating a specific cause, followed by an exploration of its various effects. Utilize concrete examples and evidence to underscore the multifaceted impact of the cause on different aspects or domains. Given the complexity inherent in examining multiple effects stemming from a single cause, ensure that each effect is thoroughly analyzed and its significance elucidated. This approach not only enhances the depth of your analysis but also provides a holistic understanding of the interconnectedness between causes and their diverse repercussions. By meticulously delineating causes and their multiple effects, your essay elucidates the intricate web of relationships underlying the phenomenon at hand, fostering a nuanced comprehension of the subject matter.

3. Conclusion:

In crafting your conclusion, it’s paramount to revisit the core tenets of your cause-and-effect essay with precision and clarity. Commence by reiterating your thesis statement, reaffirming the central argument that underpins your analysis. Synthesize the main points delineated throughout your essay, offering a succinct overview of the cause-and-effect relationship you’ve meticulously examined. Reflect on the broader implications of your findings, elucidating the significance of understanding the interplay between causes and effects within the context of your chosen topic. By refraining from introducing new information or arguments, you maintain the focus on reinforcing the key insights gleaned from your analysis. Finally, endeavor to leave the reader with a resonant final thought or call to action, prompting further contemplation or engagement with the subject matter. In doing so, your conclusion serves as the culminating point of your essay, encapsulating the essence of your exploration and leaving a lasting impact on the reader’s understanding of the topic at hand.

Step 4: Editing and revising

Editing and revising are essential steps in the writing process that allow you to polish your essay and ensure it meets the highest standards of clarity and coherence. Here’s how to approach this stage effectively:

1. Checking for coherence and logical flow: Review your essay to ensure that the ideas and arguments presented flow logically from one paragraph to the next. Check for transitions between sentences and paragraphs to ensure smooth transitions and coherence throughout your essay. Make any necessary revisions to improve the overall flow and organization of your writing.

2. Revising for clarity and conciseness: Read through your essay carefully to identify any unclear or convoluted passages. Clarify any ambiguous language or complex sentences to ensure your writing is clear and easy to understand. Remove any unnecessary words or phrases that may clutter your writing and detract from the overall impact of your argument.

3. Proofreading for grammatical and spelling errors: Finally, proofread your essay to eliminate any grammatical or spelling errors that may undermine the credibility of your writing. Pay close attention to punctuation, spelling, and grammar, and use tools like spell checkers and grammar checkers to catch any overlooked mistakes. Take the time to carefully review your essay multiple times to ensure it is error-free and polished to perfection.

The Structure of a Cause-and-Effect Essay

To excel in writing the structure of a cause-and-effect essay, it’s crucial to grasp the essay’s structural elements. The essay structure plays a vital role in effectively conveying the intricate relationships between causes and their effects. Mastering how to organize your essay can notably improve its coherence and readability, ensuring that your analysis is clear and compelling.

Multiple causes and effect body paragraphs structure:

• When structuring body paragraphs to address multiple causes and their effects, it’s essential to maintain clarity and organization throughout your essay. Begin each paragraph by introducing a specific cause, and delineating its significance within the context of your thesis statement.
• Subsequently, delve into the effects stemming from each cause, providing detailed analysis and supporting evidence to elucidate the causal relationship. Each effect should be explored in a separate paragraph to ensure clarity and coherence.
• Utilize concrete examples and illustrative evidence to underscore the multifaceted impact of each cause on various aspects or domains. By meticulously delineating multiple causes and their corresponding effects, you offer a comprehensive understanding of the interconnectedness inherent in the phenomenon under examination.

Causal chain effect essay writing structure:

• In a causal chain effect essay, the focus is on elucidating the sequence of events that lead from one cause to subsequent effects, akin to a domino effect. Begin by introducing the initial cause, highlighting its role as the catalyst for the chain reaction of effects to follow.
• Subsequent body paragraphs should delineate the causal chain, with each paragraph addressing a specific link in the sequence. Clearly articulate the cause-effect relationships, demonstrating how each event precipitates the next in a logical progression.
• Employ transitional phrases to establish seamless transitions between paragraphs, facilitating the reader’s comprehension of the causal chain. Emphasize the cumulative impact of the interconnected events, underscoring the significance of understanding the causal sequence in its entirety.

Useful transition words and phrases

Transition words and phrases are crucial elements in cause-and-effect essay writing as they facilitate the smooth flow of ideas and enhance coherence. Here’s a breakdown of some useful transition words and phrases:

• Introduction of cause or effect: When introducing a cause or effect in your essay, use phrases like “due to,” “because of,” “as a result of,” or “resulting in” to establish the causal relationship between events.
• Transitioning between causes and effects: Transition words like “consequently,” “therefore,” “thus,” and “as a result” effectively link causes to their corresponding effects, providing clarity and coherence to your analysis.
• Enumerating multiple causes or effects: In cases where you’re discussing multiple causes or effects, phrases such as “firstly,” “secondly,” “finally,” “in addition,” “moreover,” and “furthermore” help organize your ideas and guide the reader through the complexities of the relationship.
• Contrasting causes and effects: Use transition words like “however,” “on the other hand,” “in contrast,” and “nevertheless” to highlight contrasting viewpoints or effects, thereby adding depth and nuance to your analysis.
• Summarizing and concluding: In the concluding paragraph, employ phrases such as “in conclusion,” “to sum up,” “overall,” or “in summary” to signal the end of your essay and provide a succinct summary of the main points discussed.
• Reiterating the thesis statement: Transition phrases like “as stated previously,” “to reiterate,” or “to emphasize” can be used to reintroduce your thesis statement in the concluding paragraph, reinforcing the central argument of your essay.
• Encouraging further reflection: Finally, use phrases like “for further consideration,” “to encourage reflection,” or “to prompt discussion” to leave the reader with a thought-provoking insight or call to action, inspiring deeper contemplation on the topic.

Science/Environment Cause and Effect Essay Topics

1. Climate Change and Its Impact on Coral Reefs 2. Deforestation: Causes and Consequences for Biodiversity 3. Air Pollution’s Effect on Human Health 4. Plastic Pollution in Oceans: Causes and Environmental Impacts 5. The Relationship Between Industrial Agriculture and Soil Degradation 6. Urbanization and its Effects on Wildlife Habitats 7. Eutrophication in Freshwater Ecosystems: Causes and Solutions 8. The Impact of Oil Spills on Marine Ecosystems 9. Overfishing: Causes and Consequences for Oceanic Food Chains 10. The Role of Pesticides in Declining Bee Populations

Be sure to check out our article on Cause and Effect Essay Topics for more inspiration!

Technology and Social Media Cause and Effect Essay Topics

1. Social Media Addiction: Causes and Impact on Mental Health 2. The Influence of Technology on Interpersonal Relationships 3. Cyberbullying: Causes, Effects, and Preventative Measures 4. The Effect of Smartphone Dependency on Productivity 5. Online Privacy Concerns: Impact on Individual Liberties 6. The Rise of Fake News and its Influence on Public Perception 7. Digital Divide: Causes and Consequences for Socioeconomic Inequality 8. Social Media’s Role in Shaping Body Image and Self-Esteem 9. The Impact of Screen Time on Childhood Development 10. Technology’s Effect on Traditional Forms of Communication

Don’t forget to check out our article on Classification Essay Topics for more insightful ideas!

Culture and Social Issues Cause and Effect Essay Topics

1. Cultural Appropriation: Causes and Effects on Indigenous Communities 2. Gender Inequality in the Workplace: Root Causes and Consequences 3. The Effect of Immigration Policies on Social Cohesion 4. The Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Access to Education 5. Religious Intolerance: Causes and Effects on Society 6. The Influence of Mass Media on Cultural Perceptions 7. Substance Abuse: Root Causes and Societal Ramifications 8. The Effect of Racial Discrimination on Mental Health 9. Generational Gap: Causes and Effects on Family Dynamics 10. The Influence of Pop Culture on Youth Behavior and Attitudes

Sports Cause and Effect Essay Topics

1. Sports Injuries: Causes and Long-Term Effects on Athletes 2. The Impact of Sports Participation on Academic Performance 3. Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports: Causes and Consequences 4. Gender Disparities in Sports: Causes and Societal Implications 5. The Effect of Sports on Mental Health and Well-Being 6. Sports Sponsorship: Effects on Athletes and Brand Representation 7. Youth Sports Specialization: Causes and Effects on Physical Development 8. The Influence of Sports Broadcasting on Fan Engagement 9. Sportsmanship: Impact on Team Dynamics and Sports Culture 10. The Relationship Between Sports and Social Identity

History Cause and Effect Essay Topics

1. The Fall of the Roman Empire: Causes and Consequences 2. The Industrial Revolution’s Impact on Urbanization 3. The Causes and Effects of World War I 4. The Great Depression: Economic Causes and Social Effects 5. The Effects of Colonialism on Indigenous Cultures 6. The Civil Rights Movement: Causes and Lasting Effects 7. The Impact of the Renaissance on European Society and Culture 8. The French Revolution: Root Causes and Revolutionary Outcomes 9. The Cold War: Origins, Escalation, and Global Implications 10. The Rise of Fascism in Europe: Causes and Effects on International Relations

Mental Health Cause and Effect Essay Topics

1. The Impact of Childhood Trauma on Adult Mental Health 2. Social Media Usage and its Effect on Adolescent Mental Health 3. The Relationship Between Sleep Deprivation and Mental Health Disorders 4. The Effects of Stress on Mental and Physical Well-being 5. Bullying in Schools: Causes and Long-Term Effects on Mental Health 6. The Influence of Genetics on Mental Health Disorders 7. The Effect of Exercise and Physical Activity on Mental Health 8. The Role of Nutrition in Maintaining Mental Health 9. The Stigma Surrounding Mental Health: Causes and Societal Consequences 10. The Impact of Substance Abuse on Mental Health and Addiction Recovery

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Cause and Effect Essay FAQs

What is an example of a cause-and-effect essay.

An example of a cause-and-effect essay could be exploring the reasons for rising obesity rates and the effects of obesity on public health.

How do you write an effective cause-and-effect essay?

To write an effective cause-and-effect essay , you need to identify the causes and effects, use transition words to connect ideas, and provide evidence to support your claims.

How do you format a cause-and-effect essay?

Formatting a cause-and-effect essay typically involves introducing the topic, presenting causes and effects in a logical order, and ending with a strong conclusion that ties everything together.

What is the rule of cause and effect essay?

The rule of a cause-and-effect essay is to establish a clear relationship between a particular cause or causes and the effect or effects, demonstrating a causal chain.

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How to Write ‘Causes (Reasons) and Effects’ Type of Essay in IELTS Writing Task 2

In “causes and effects” type of essay, IELTS examiners want you to discuss the causes or reasons of the problem in one paragraph.The likely effects of that problem in the second paragraph separately. Therefore, it is important that you find out relevant points of causes (reasons) and effects for IELTS Writing . Please note that in this question, you should not make any paragraph about solutions.

Let’s look at an example:

Obesity in children is a serious problem in a number of countries..

What are the causes of obesity in children?

Discuss the possible alarming effects of this problem in the future.

With this type of essay, you have two points to be discussed: 1. Causes of obesity in children in developed countries.

2. Effects of obesity in the future in developed countries.

You must discuss both of them by giving reasons and support them with examples.

If you do not discuss any of the above two points in the essay, you will lose marks.

So, in this type of essay, you must explain both the points.

How to structure it?

The essay can be structured mainly in 4 paragraphs as follows:

Introduction

Causes & Reasons

Further structuring of the paragraphs can be done as follows:

a. Introduction

Paraphrase the Question

Outline the sentence

b. -Body Paragraph 1 (Causes (reasons))

State the cause (reason)

Explain how it is the cause (reason)

Write an example

c. (Effects)

State the likely effect

Explain how this can be the possible effect

d. Conclusion

Sentence 1- Write summary of the main points Here, Four paragraphs are sufficient to explain your point of view. So,You may use any other structure you are comfortable with.This structure is approved by the IELTS examiners to help the students write in an effective and cohesive manner.

Sample Question:

Also, You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Write about the following topic:

Here, Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Sample Answer:

Here, Over the past few years, developed countries have encountered various cases of children suffering from the problem of obesity. This essay will discuss the possible causes for this increasing problem among children and also suggests the possible consequences that may result in case of negligence.

Furthermore, To embark upon, one of the main causes of obesity among children is poor diet as they are often seen eating junk food. At almost every corner of the street, one can found restaurants offering mouth tempting fast foods. Kids at home also are found to eat processed food because their parents do not find sufficient time for preparing the food. For example, packaged foods are purchased and kept in fridge for days. This food is not fresh and healthy. Hence affects their health, leading to build up of fat and compromising their fitness.

As a result, there are many possible consequences faced by the children. One such ill-effect is the risk of developing health related severe diseases like diabetes. So,This kind of debilitating illness implies that the child would need to be injected with insulin for the whole life. Moreover, overweight children are often found to be bullied . For example, many overweight kids are found disturbed facing the negative stigma of being obese

Here,On the whole, it is evident that there are various causes responsible for obesity among children and can lead to serious consequences in the future. Also, It is the duty of their parents and relatives to ensure that appropriate steps are taken to prevent this problem from getting worst in the future.

(279 words)

Vocabulary and Phrases:

Useful vocabulary for causes (reasons).

• One of the causes/The reason is that
• Because/Since
• Due to this/Because of/Owing to/Lead to
• As a result/Lead to the problem/Can attribute to

Useful vocabulary for Effects

• Consequence of/As a result of/Because of/Due to
• Make/Create/Change/Effect/Affect/Result
• Risk of/Leading to

Write an essay of about 250 words on the following topics. Use the vocabulary mentioned above. 1. Also,There are a number of skin-whitening products available in the market. State the reasons why people are using these products? Discuss the possible negative outcomes of using these products.

2. Here,With the advancement of technology, social interaction among people has affected to a greater extent. What are the reasons of reduced social interaction? Suggest whether this would lead to a positive or negative effect in the future.

3. So,Almost everybody nowadays is found using personal vehicle for travelling purpose. What are the reasons of this increasing trend? Explain what negative outcomes may be faced in the society due to this.

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• Solar Eclipse 2024

What the World Has Learned From Past Eclipses

C louds scudded over the small volcanic island of Principe, off the western coast of Africa, on the afternoon of May 29, 1919. Arthur Eddington, director of the Cambridge Observatory in the U.K., waited for the Sun to emerge. The remains of a morning thunderstorm could ruin everything.

The island was about to experience the rare and overwhelming sight of a total solar eclipse. For six minutes, the longest eclipse since 1416, the Moon would completely block the face of the Sun, pulling a curtain of darkness over a thin stripe of Earth. Eddington traveled into the eclipse path to try and prove one of the most consequential ideas of his age: Albert Einstein’s new theory of general relativity.

Eddington, a physicist, was one of the few people at the time who understood the theory, which Einstein proposed in 1915. But many other scientists were stymied by the bizarre idea that gravity is not a mutual attraction, but a warping of spacetime. Light itself would be subject to this warping, too. So an eclipse would be the best way to prove whether the theory was true, because with the Sun’s light blocked by the Moon, astronomers would be able to see whether the Sun’s gravity bent the light of distant stars behind it.

Two teams of astronomers boarded ships steaming from Liverpool, England, in March 1919 to watch the eclipse and take the measure of the stars. Eddington and his team went to Principe, and another team led by Frank Dyson of the Greenwich Observatory went to Sobral, Brazil.

Totality, the complete obscuration of the Sun, would be at 2:13 local time in Principe. Moments before the Moon slid in front of the Sun, the clouds finally began breaking up. For a moment, it was totally clear. Eddington and his group hastily captured images of a star cluster found near the Sun that day, called the Hyades, found in the constellation of Taurus. The astronomers were using the best astronomical technology of the time, photographic plates, which are large exposures taken on glass instead of film. Stars appeared on seven of the plates, and solar “prominences,” filaments of gas streaming from the Sun, appeared on others.

Eddington wanted to stay in Principe to measure the Hyades when there was no eclipse, but a ship workers’ strike made him leave early. Later, Eddington and Dyson both compared the glass plates taken during the eclipse to other glass plates captured of the Hyades in a different part of the sky, when there was no eclipse. On the images from Eddington’s and Dyson’s expeditions, the stars were not aligned. The 40-year-old Einstein was right.

“Lights All Askew In the Heavens,” the New York Times proclaimed when the scientific papers were published. The eclipse was the key to the discovery—as so many solar eclipses before and since have illuminated new findings about our universe.

To understand why Eddington and Dyson traveled such distances to watch the eclipse, we need to talk about gravity.

Since at least the days of Isaac Newton, who wrote in 1687, scientists thought gravity was a simple force of mutual attraction. Newton proposed that every object in the universe attracts every other object in the universe, and that the strength of this attraction is related to the size of the objects and the distances among them. This is mostly true, actually, but it’s a little more nuanced than that.

On much larger scales, like among black holes or galaxy clusters, Newtonian gravity falls short. It also can’t accurately account for the movement of large objects that are close together, such as how the orbit of Mercury is affected by its proximity the Sun.

Albert Einstein’s most consequential breakthrough solved these problems. General relativity holds that gravity is not really an invisible force of mutual attraction, but a distortion. Rather than some kind of mutual tug-of-war, large objects like the Sun and other stars respond relative to each other because the space they are in has been altered. Their mass is so great that they bend the fabric of space and time around themselves.

Read More: 10 Surprising Facts About the 2024 Solar Eclipse

This was a weird concept, and many scientists thought Einstein’s ideas and equations were ridiculous. But others thought it sounded reasonable. Einstein and others knew that if the theory was correct, and the fabric of reality is bending around large objects, then light itself would have to follow that bend. The light of a star in the great distance, for instance, would seem to curve around a large object in front of it, nearer to us—like our Sun. But normally, it’s impossible to study stars behind the Sun to measure this effect. Enter an eclipse.

Einstein’s theory gives an equation for how much the Sun’s gravity would displace the images of background stars. Newton’s theory predicts only half that amount of displacement.

Eddington and Dyson measured the Hyades cluster because it contains many stars; the more stars to distort, the better the comparison. Both teams of scientists encountered strange political and natural obstacles in making the discovery, which are chronicled beautifully in the book No Shadow of a Doubt: The 1919 Eclipse That Confirmed Einstein's Theory of Relativity , by the physicist Daniel Kennefick. But the confirmation of Einstein’s ideas was worth it. Eddington said as much in a letter to his mother: “The one good plate that I measured gave a result agreeing with Einstein,” he wrote , “and I think I have got a little confirmation from a second plate.”

The Eddington-Dyson experiments were hardly the first time scientists used eclipses to make profound new discoveries. The idea dates to the beginnings of human civilization.

Careful records of lunar and solar eclipses are one of the greatest legacies of ancient Babylon. Astronomers—or astrologers, really, but the goal was the same—were able to predict both lunar and solar eclipses with impressive accuracy. They worked out what we now call the Saros Cycle, a repeating period of 18 years, 11 days, and 8 hours in which eclipses appear to repeat. One Saros cycle is equal to 223 synodic months, which is the time it takes the Moon to return to the same phase as seen from Earth. They also figured out, though may not have understood it completely, the geometry that enables eclipses to happen.

The path we trace around the Sun is called the ecliptic. Our planet’s axis is tilted with respect to the ecliptic plane, which is why we have seasons, and why the other celestial bodies seem to cross the same general path in our sky.

As the Moon goes around Earth, it, too, crosses the plane of the ecliptic twice in a year. The ascending node is where the Moon moves into the northern ecliptic. The descending node is where the Moon enters the southern ecliptic. When the Moon crosses a node, a total solar eclipse can happen. Ancient astronomers were aware of these points in the sky, and by the apex of Babylonian civilization, they were very good at predicting when eclipses would occur.

Two and a half millennia later, in 2016, astronomers used these same ancient records to measure the change in the rate at which Earth’s rotation is slowing—which is to say, the amount by which are days are lengthening, over thousands of years.

By the middle of the 19 th century, scientific discoveries came at a frenetic pace, and eclipses powered many of them. In October 1868, two astronomers, Pierre Jules César Janssen and Joseph Norman Lockyer, separately measured the colors of sunlight during a total eclipse. Each found evidence of an unknown element, indicating a new discovery: Helium, named for the Greek god of the Sun. In another eclipse in 1869, astronomers found convincing evidence of another new element, which they nicknamed coronium—before learning a few decades later that it was not a new element, but highly ionized iron, indicating that the Sun’s atmosphere is exceptionally, bizarrely hot. This oddity led to the prediction, in the 1950s, of a continual outflow that we now call the solar wind.

And during solar eclipses between 1878 and 1908, astronomers searched in vain for a proposed extra planet within the orbit of Mercury. Provisionally named Vulcan, this planet was thought to exist because Newtonian gravity could not fully describe Mercury’s strange orbit. The matter of the innermost planet’s path was settled, finally, in 1915, when Einstein used general relativity equations to explain it.

Many eclipse expeditions were intended to learn something new, or to prove an idea right—or wrong. But many of these discoveries have major practical effects on us. Understanding the Sun, and why its atmosphere gets so hot, can help us predict solar outbursts that could disrupt the power grid and communications satellites. Understanding gravity, at all scales, allows us to know and to navigate the cosmos.

GPS satellites, for instance, provide accurate measurements down to inches on Earth. Relativity equations account for the effects of the Earth’s gravity and the distances between the satellites and their receivers on the ground. Special relativity holds that the clocks on satellites, which experience weaker gravity, seem to run slower than clocks under the stronger force of gravity on Earth. From the point of view of the satellite, Earth clocks seem to run faster. We can use different satellites in different positions, and different ground stations, to accurately triangulate our positions on Earth down to inches. Without those calculations, GPS satellites would be far less precise.

This year, scientists fanned out across North America and in the skies above it will continue the legacy of eclipse science. Scientists from NASA and several universities and other research institutions will study Earth’s atmosphere; the Sun’s atmosphere; the Sun’s magnetic fields; and the Sun’s atmospheric outbursts, called coronal mass ejections.

When you look up at the Sun and Moon on the eclipse , the Moon’s day — or just observe its shadow darkening the ground beneath the clouds, which seems more likely — think about all the discoveries still yet waiting to happen, just behind the shadow of the Moon.

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Guest Essay

You Don’t Just See a Total Solar Eclipse. You Feel It Completely.

By Ryan Milligan

Dr. Milligan is a senior lecturer in astrophysics at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Almost one year ago, in the middle of the night, I drove from my hometown, Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Dublin to catch an early morning flight to Munich. From there I caught another plane to Bangkok, another to Singapore and yet another to Perth in Western Australia. There, I rented a camper van and began a drive of more than 750 miles north to the town of Exmouth on a remote peninsula on the northwest coast of the continent.

This was the only reasonably accessible location on the planet with decent weather prospects from which to view the total solar eclipse on April 20, 2023. The entire event lasted 62 seconds. It was the 10th total solar eclipse I’d traveled to witness.

Even as a professional solar physicist, I find it difficult to convey why eclipse chasers like me go to such extraordinary lengths to witness such a fleeting phenomenon, again and again. I was extra determined to make the pilgrimage last year after I was thwarted by clouds in Chile in December 2020, and I couldn’t afford the eye-watering cost of traveling to Antarctica in 2021. I needed to whet my appetite before embarking on another expedition to see the totality of the April 8 eclipse in Mazatlán, Mexico.

It may sound absurd, but there is no other celestial event that anyone I know would devote so much time and effort to seeing. If you wish to see the northern lights, you can hop on a plane to Iceland or Norway and have a fairly decent chance of seeing them in the winter months. If you are on the nightside of the planet during a lunar eclipse and the skies are clear, you just need to go outside and look up to see it happening. But unless you are fortunate enough to live within or close to the path of totality, witnessing a total solar eclipse will probably require meticulous planning and marshaling time and money to get you to an optimal location and a bit of luck to make sure the weather forecasts you’ve pored over hold true.

Believe me, it is worth the effort.

A total solar eclipse is not something that you see — it’s something that you experience. You can feel the temperature around you begin to drop by as much as 15 degrees over the five to 10 minutes that lead up to the eclipse. The birds and other animals go silent. The light becomes eerie and morphs into a dusky, muted twilight, and you begin to see stark, misplaced shadows abound. A column of darkness in the sky hurtles toward you at over 1,000 miles per hour as the moon’s shadow falls neatly over the sun, turning day into temporary night — nothing like the calming sunset we take for granted every day. Sometimes, a few stars or planets begin to appear faintly in the sky as your eyes get used to the new darkness.

The hairs stand up on the back of your neck and the adrenaline kicks in as your brain tries to make sense of what is going on. But it cannot. It has no other point of reference to compare these sensations to. A total eclipse elicits a unique, visceral, primeval feeling that cannot be evoked by a photograph or a video or a newspaper article, and that can be experienced only within the path of totality when the moon completely obscures the disk of the sun.

And then of course there is the crowning glory: the sun’s corona, the pearly white outer atmosphere of our nearest star that we can otherwise see only using a fleet of dedicated solar-observing spacecraft. It has an ethereal beauty that is challenging to articulate.

For those brief few moments when the corona appears bright in the sky, all the effort made to experience the totality becomes worth it. You want to soak up every second of it and process every feeling, because it is over all too soon. Once the moon’s shadow has passed you feel both exhilarated and deflated because the next opportunity to experience this sensation again could be years away and on the other side of the world. And it is something that you will crave.

There is also, of course, the professional motivation for me to gaze upon the subject of my research with my own eyes. Most other astrophysicists only get to look at exploding stars or distant comets through gargantuan telescopes, where they appear as mere pixels on a computer screen or a squiggle on a graph. It’s easy to get detached from the beauty of astronomy when your job becomes more focused on securing grant funding, teaching, administrative duties and bureaucracy. Eclipse chasing reminds me why I chose this field of work in the first place and reignites my passion — and I want to inspire my students with that same passion.

Each eclipse is different. The shape and structure of the solar corona varies over the course of each solar cycle. The longer the duration of the eclipse, the darker one’s surroundings are likely to seem. And sandwiched between the sun’s “surface” and the corona is the crimson red chromosphere, the layer of the sun’s atmosphere that I have been researching for almost 20 years to understand its relationship to solar flares. In Australia the briefness of totality meant that this region was exceptionally bright and distinguished, and one could even spot some solar prominences (clouds of hydrogen gas suspended above the chromosphere) with the naked eye. That may also be the case on Monday.

People mistakenly think that a partial eclipse is good enough. It is not. When outside the path of totality, the visibility of even 1 percent of the sun’s disk is enough to outshine the entire corona. The buzz around this year’s eclipse through North America has reached a fever pitch not seen since the “Great American Eclipse” of 2017. The duration of totality will be almost twice as long — almost four and a half minutes. (Whether the weather will cooperate is still an open question .)

This is far from the first time I’ve tried to cajole people into experiencing the totality in full. In 2017, I persuaded several of my friends in the United States to join me in Nebraska to enjoy the spectacle without forcing them to traipse halfway across the globe. They later told me that they at first thought I may have been somewhat exaggerating the experience because of my professional bias, but when the eclipse was over, I knew that they finally got it. Their faces were overcome with emotion and they struggled to articulate how they were feeling. Because it wasn’t just about what they had seen — it was about what they had experienced.

Ryan Milligan is a solar physicist at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has held research fellowships at NASA and the Science and Technology Facilities Council in Britain and was affiliated with NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center for over a decade.

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