Cause and effect essays sometimes appear challenging; however, students who receive this as an assignment should count themselves lucky. Unlike some other essays and assignments cause and effect essays all follow a very similar plan, and once you’ve made that plan, you can fill in the content easily, producing an A+ essay with minimal time and effort required. There are two kinds of essays to consider – one where there is one cause and several effects, or one with several causes and one big effect.
1. Make a Detailed Outline
You need to take time when writing a cause and effect essay to make a detailed list of the causes and effect, or the cause and the effects. You’ll then divide your paper to discuss each cause or effect in turn. It’s important to make sure you know exactly what you’ll be covering in your paper at this stage, otherwise your paper can become cluttered and jumbled. This is the only way to achieve a grade A structure.
2. Write Your Introduction
An introduction is a fundamental part of any successful paper, however, it is unfortunately overlooked by many students who are too eager to dive into the topic. Your introduction should address the cause and effects, or causes and effects you have identified, and how you will describe them in the main body of the paper. An introduction doesn’t need to be too long or detailed, however neglecting to write one at all can cost you a lot of marks. This is true in all essays, not just cause and effect papers. You can then follow the structure you’ve set for yourself in your introduction, and make sure that your essay stays organised.
3. The Main Body
Your main body should include several paragraphs. If you’re writing about one cause with multiple effects then define the cause, and devote a paragraph to each effect. If you’re writing about one effect with multiple causes, then define the effect, and spend a paragraph analysing each cause. While it may sound pretty elementary to divide your points into paragraphs, you would be surprised how many students forget to do so, and as a result, their work looks messy and unorganised. Addressing each point in this way also gives you the space you need to say everything you want about each point, and you can avoid getting to the end of the essay and realizing you have neglected to include important points.
4. Conclusion
While you may have made a concrete assessment of the causes and effects of your issue and could have provided an awesome analysis of each factor involved, your essay is doomed to fail without a good conclusion. You need to succinctly inform your reader of everything you’ve told them. There should be no new information here, but you may include a personal opinion or a reason of why you chose to analyse one point instead of another.
Cause and effect essays are super simple to tackle so long as you stick to the tried and tested structure defined above.