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Exposition
Cause-and-Effect Essay
[adapted from Writing and Grammar:
Communication in Action, PrenticeHall, Publishers, 2001]
Cause-and-Effect Relationships in
Everyday Life
• Identifying causes and effects is a part of
daily life.
• Giving advice to a friend based on the
effects you predict, fireproofing a potential
fire hazard, and arguing about the best way
to solve a problem—all these activities
show an awareness of cause-and-effect
relationships.
Cause-and-Effect Relationships in
Everyday Life (2)
• Cause-and-effect relationships are also explored in
writing.
• Feature articles in your daily newspaper often
describe causes and effects related to politics,
crime, or the environment.
• History textbooks are primarily focused on causes
and effects, as well.
• Even something as common as a recipe may
describe a cause-and-effect process.
What is a Cause-and-Effect
Essay?
• Exposition is writing that informs or
explains.
• A cause-and-effect essay is a piece of
exposition that describes the relationship
between an event or circumstance and its
causes.
Ingredients in the Cause-andEffect Essay
• Good cause-and-effect essays contain:
– A clearly stated topic that explains what causeand-effect relationships will be explored.
– An effective and logical method of organization
– Details and examples that elaborate upon the
writer’s statements
– Transitions that smoothly and clearly connect
the writer’s ideas
Types of Cause-and-Effect Essays
• Cause-and-effect relationships are explored in
many types of writing, including the ones listed
below:
– Historical articles explain how events in history
contributed to or resulted in other events
– Process explanations take readers step by step through
a process, such as a math formula or a scientific
technique.
– Predictions make educated guesses about future events
based on knowledge of cause-and-effect relationships
Prewriting—
Choosing Your Topic
• Choose a topic for your cause-and-effect
essay that you find interesting and that
centers around a cause-and-effect
relationship.
• Use the following strategies for choosing a
topic:
Choosing Your Topic
• Sketch a Scene—Draw a scene from the
world of nature. Review your sketch to find
interesting details that make a good writing
topic.
– For example, you might draw a field of
dandelions and clover that has a pond in the
middle of it.
– You might then decide to write about the effects
of last year’s drought on local flowers and
crops.
Choosing Your Topic (2)
• Make a List—List interesting events or scientific
phenomena.
– After five minutes, circle the one you find most
interesting.
– Then, write for another five minutes, lisitng any causes
and effects that spring to mind when you think of that
topic.
– Review what you wrote, and develop your topic into a
cause-and-effect essay.
– If you find that your topic doesn’t have a strong enough
cause-and-effect relationship, continue the listing
process until you find one that does.
Choosing Your Topic (3)
• Scan a Newspaper—Scan a newspaper,
looking for topics that you can link to
causes or effects.
– Keep a list of the possible topics as you come
across them.
– Then, review your list, and choose a topic the
item you find most interesting.
Topic Bank
• If you are having difficulty finding a
specific topic for your cause-and-effect
essay, use the following ideas:
– Influences of the Blues on Popular Music—
Write an essay that reveals how blues
instruments, blues singers, and recurring
themes in blues songs affect music today.
Topic Bank (2)
• Causes of Changes in Rain Forests—In a
cause-and-effect essay, explore the various
factors that have led to the rain forest’s
acreage being decreased.
– You can find information about deforestation in
current periodicals available at the library.
Topic Bank (3)
• Responding to Fine Art—Find a picture such as
Rolling Power (see next slide) that depicts a closeup view of the workings of a locomotive (see
http://www.smith.edu/artmuseum/exhibitions/spec
trum/edsheelerfull.htm) explaining how steam
engines propel locomotives.
• As an alternative, explore the cause-and-effect
relationship between the development of the
railroad and patterns of settlement westward
across the United States.
Rolling Steel
Topics Bank (4)
• Responding to Literature—Read a story
such as “The Dog That Bit People” by
James Thurber.
– In an essay, explain how Thurber exaggerates
cause-and-effect relationships to create humor
– Your teacher can help you find this or similar
stories to write about.
Cooperative Writing
• History or Science Display—Work with a
group to plan a cause-and-effect display for
the classroom.
– Choose a significant moment in history or
science.
– Then, divide into two sub-groups, with one
group making a timeline that traces the causes
leading up to that significant moment and the
other group making a timeline showing effects.
– Share your work with the class.
Narrowing Your Topic
• Once you have a general idea for a topic,
work with the material until it is narrow
enough to cover effectively within the scope
of your essay.
• Cubing is one narrowing technique that you
can use.
Use the Cubing Technique
• Cubing lets you focus on details by helping
you identify six perspectives or aspects of
your topic.
• Answer the six questions, and decide to
focus your essay on one or two of the
perspectives or aspects your explored.
6 Questions
• Describe It—How would you describe your topic to
someone who is unfamiliar with it?
• Associate It—What other situations or events does your
topic bring to mind?
• Apply It—Why is your topic important? Why is it useful
to explore?
• Analyze It—Where is it? When did it happen? Why
might it happen again? Can anything stop it from
happening?
• Compare or Contrast It—How does your topic compare
and contrast with similar topics?
• Argue for or Against It—What are the positive and
negative effects of your topic?
The Cube
Compare or Contrast It
Analyze It
Analyze It
Apply It
Describe It
Considering Your Audience
and Purpose
• Before you gather details, identify your audience
and your purpose.
• Your audience and purpose will affect your word
choice, the details you include, and the way in
which you present those details.
• For help identifying the types of details and style
of language that will be most effective, devise a
plan like the one that appears on the next slide:
Audience and Purpose Planner
Audience:
Purpose:
Details:
Style of
Language
School Board
To explain effects of decreased music funding
Facts and statistics; cause-and-effect chart;
examples
Formal word choice; vivid persuasive
language; tone of respect
Gathering Details
• Before you draft, collect and organize
details for your cause-and-effect essay.
• Following are two methods for collecting
and organizing details:
Collect Note Cards
• When you research a topic, it’s important to keep note
cards for each cause-and-effect idea and its source.
• Before you begin to draft your essay, collect note cards
from a least three or four sources either at home or at the
library.
• On each note card, record the quotation or the idea you
want to include in your report.
• Mark the note card with a number that identifies its source
and the page number(s) on which the information can be
found.
• As an alternative, photocopy source pages and highlight
the information you use.
Chart Causes and Effects
• On a sheet of paper, write the effect, or
event, that is your subject.
• Then, use arrows and boxes to show events
or conditions that are caused by or result
from your topic.
• If one event has several different effects,
use a separate arrow to point to each.
Drafting—Shaping your Writing
• Now that you have gathered details on your
topic, shape the structure of your essay.
• Choose a logical method of organization for
your cause-and-effect essay.
• Following are two such methods:
Chronological Organization
• Chronological, or time, organization is a
logical choice for structuring a cause-andeffect essay.
• You can start either with the effect and go
back through its causes one at a time, in
chronological order, or you can start with
the cause and proceed to describe its effects
in time order.
Effects Organized Chronologically:
• After the Titanic sank, new marine
regulations were put into effect.
The tragedy of the Titanic caused
mariners to firm up regulations
about radio contact and lifeboats.
Marine regulations instituted after
the Titanic included these
mandates: constant radio contact
between vessels and sufficient
lifeboats to hold all passengers.
•
Photo: http://cacella.tachyonweb.net/Titanic_i.htm
Order-of-Importance
Organization
• Order-of-Importance organization allows
you to build an argument or to present
various causes or effects in the order of their
relative importance.
• You can either begin with the most
important detail and end with the least
important detail or reverse it, beginning
with the least important detail and ending
with the most important detail.
Effects Organized in
Order of Importance
• The Titanic’s voyage proved to be a disaster
because of many causes. Chief among them was
the failure of the crew to navigate around the
iceberg. The resulting damage to the ship’s hull
made its sinking inevitable. . . .
• Another contributing cause was the lack of
adequate lifeboats and safety instruction. Because
the Titanic was “unsinkable,” the company that
made the ship did not provide enough safety
equipment to ensure the safety of passengers and
crew.
• The weather conditions certainly did not help. . . .
Providing Elaboration
• Elaborate as you draft to add depth and
detail to your cause-and-effect essay.
• Types of elaboration include examples,
statistics, quotations, and other types of
details that support your ideas.
• Use the following strategy to help you
elaborate:
SEE Technique for Elaboration
• Use the SEE technique to layer, or give
depth, to your writing as you draft.
• First, write a basic statement about your
topic.
• Next, write a sentence that extends that
statement.
• Finally, write a sentence that elaborates on
the extension.
SEE Technique
• STATEMENT:
– State the main idea of the paragraph.
– Exercise is beneficial to your health.
• EXTENSION:
–
–
–
–
Restate the idea.
People who exercise regularly live longer, fuller lives.
ELABORATION:
Add information that further explains or defines the
main idea.
– For example, a person who works out for twenty
minutes three times a week is often in far better shape
than a person who has no regular routine.
Revising Your Overall Structure
• As you look at the structure of your essay, make
sure that the ideas you’ve presented appear in
logical order and are clearly connected to each
other.
• Strengthen Your Introduction and Conclusion
– In your introduction, clearly present the main idea of
your cause-and-effect essay.
– You may also mention reasons for your choice of topic
and give readers an idea about why it is interesting or
important.
Revision Strategy: Circling to
Identify Relationships
• To make sure that your introduction and
conclusion “match up,” circle the main idea you
present in your introduction.
• Then, find and circle in your conclusion a
restatement of that main idea.
• If your conclusion does not contain such a
restatement, either rewrite your introduction or
rewrite your conclusion so that they work together
effectively.
Revising Your Paragraphs
• Review your paragraphs to be sure that each
develops a single idea and that the
paragraphs themselves flow together
smoothly.
• Check to be sure that topical paragraphs—
those that contain a topic sentence—are
unified.
Strengthen the Unity of Paragraphs
• Revise your topical paragraphs to make
them unified—to make sure that each has a
topic sentence
• and that the other sentences within the
paragraph support or develop the main idea
expressed in the topic sentence.
Revision Strategy: color-Coding
to Identify Related Details
• Circle each topic sentence in every topical
paragraph.
• (Functional paragraphs—those that perform a
specific function—do not have topic sentences.)
• Then, using a pencil of a different color, circle the
details that support the topic sentence.
• Examine sentences you have not circled. If they
do not support the topic sentence, either rewrite or
delete them.
Revising Your Sentences
• Now that your paragraphs are unified, look even more
closely at your writing.
• Within each sentence, check to see that the relationships
are logical.
• Make sure that the connections among words, phrases, and
clauses are clear.
• Read each sentence carefully. If there is more than one
thought within a sentence, you may have to add a transition
to show how those thoughts are related.
• Some transitions indicate meaning or clarify the
significance of a detail.
• For example, the phrase not only indicates that a detail is
just one of many.
Grammar in Your Writing:
Transitional Phrases
• A phrase is a group of words without a
subject and verb.
• In your cause-and-effect essay, use
transitional phrases to show connections
between ideas.
• A phrase may appear at the beginning of the
sentence, between the subject and the verb,
or at the end of a sentence:
Transitional Phrases
• Beginning:
– After lunch, we worked enthusiastically.
• Between the Subject and Verb:
– We, after eating lunch, worked enthusiastically.
• End:
– We worked enthusiastically after eating lunch.
Types of Transitional Phrases
• There are many types of phrases that you
can use as transitions, connecting ideas in
your writing:
– A prepositional phrase is a group of words
made up of a preposition and a noun or
pronoun, called the object of the preposition.
– Inside the studio, the sound engineers began
mixing the demo
Types of Transitional Phrases
• A participial phrase is a participle
modified by an adverb or adverb phrase or
accompanied by a complement.
• The entire phrase acts as an adjective:
– Using a high-powered lens, Annette could just
make out the letters.
Types of Transitional Phrases
• An infinitive phrase is an infinitive with
modifiers, complements, or a subject, all acting
together as a single part of speech:
– To avoid the iceberg, the captain had to steer hard to
starboard.
• Review your draft to identify where you have used
phrases to show transitions.
• If you cannot identify six phrases, challenge
yourself to add at least one more to your writing.
• Notice the improvement.
Revising Your Word Choice
• If you use the same word or form of it
several times within a passage, your writing
can sound tedious and awkward.
• Learn to distinguish between useful
repetition and careless repetition.
• Useful repetition helps to emphasize a point
or to make a passage memorable.
• Careless repetition creates a dull impression
on the reader.
Review Your Word Choice
• USEFUL REPETITION:
– In the 1920;s, people flocked to theaters to see
plays; in the 1930’s, the flocked to theaters to
see movies.
• CARELESS REPETITION:
– Because I have always loved the theater, I’m
studying theater and theater arts in school.
Revision Strategy
• Underlining Repeated Words and Forms
of Words:
– Read through your draft, and underline repeated
words or forms of words.
– Then, review your draft.
– If passages containing repetition are not
intended, replace some of the repeated words
with synonyms, words with the same
meanings.
Repeated Words and Forms of Words
• OVERUSED WORD:
– They housed the furniture for the house in a shed out
back.
• VARIED WORDS:
– The stored the furniture for the house in a shed out
back.
• OVERUSED WORD:
– We tried to locate a better location for our party.
• VARIED WORDS:
– We tried to find a better location for our party.
Peer Review—”Say Back”
• Work with a small group of peers to get
feedback on your writing.
– Read your paper aloud to your peer editors twice.
– Have peers jot down two positive comments and
three constructive comments for improvement.
– One by one, have your peers read aloud their
comments to you.
– Take their comments into consideration as you
prepare your final draft.
Editing and Proofreading
• Reread your cause-and-effect essay carefully,
correcting any mistakes you find in spelling,
punctuation, and grammar.
• Double-check statistics or other details you
present as fact.
• Proofread your essay carefully.
• Make sure you’ve correctly used the following
commonly confused words: since, because, then,
and than.
Using Since, Because, Then, and Than
• As you proofread, make sure that you have used these words
appropriately.
• If you have not used any of those words, challenge yourself to
add them to make clear connections between your ideas.
Use since only to
refer to a previous
time. Do not
Use since to mean
“because.”
Use then to
refer to a
previous time.
Use because
to mean “for
the reason
that.”
Use than in
comparisons
between people,
places, ideas, and
events
Publishing and Presenting
• When you are finished writing your causeand-effect essay, share it with others.
• Following are some ideas for sharing your
writing:
Building Your Portfolio
• Presentation: Use your essay as the basis
of a cause-and-effect presentation.
– Use photographs, charts, and diagrams as you
explain the topic of your essay.
– Save the essay and visuals in your portfolio.
• E-mail: Share your essay electronically.
– Type the essay using word-processing software.
– Then, attach the file to an e-mail to a friend or
relative.
Reflect on Your Writing
• Think back on your experience of writing a
cause-and-effect essay.
• Then, respond to the following questions,
and save your responses in your portfolio.
– During the process of writing, what did you
learn about the subject you chose?
– Which strategy for writing a cause-and-effect
essay might you recommend to someone as
being most useful? Why?
Rubric for Self-Assessment
Score 4
Score 3
Score 2
Score 1
Audience &
Purpose
Consistently targets
an audience through
word choice and
details; clearly
identifies purpose in
thesis statement
Targets an audience
through most word
choice and details;
identifies purpose in
thesis statement
Misses target
audience by including
a wide range of word
choice and details;
presents no clear
purpose
Addresses no specific
audience or purpose
Organization
Presents a clear,
consistent
organizational
strategy to show
cause and effect
Presents a clear
organizational
strategy with
occasional
inconsistencies;
shows cause and
effect
Presents an
inconsistent
organizational
strategy; creates
illogical presentation
of causes and effects
Demonstrates a lack
of organizational
strategy; creates a
confusing
presentation
Elaboration
Successfully links
causes with effects;
fully elaborates
connections among
ideas
Links causes with
effects; elaborates
connections among
most ideas
Links some causes
with some effects;
elaborates
connections among
most ideas
Develops and
elaborates no links
between causes and
effects
Use of
Language
Chooses clear
transitions to convey
ideas; presents very
few mechanical errors
Chooses transitions to
convey ideas;
presents few
mechanical errors
Misses some
opportunities for
transitions to convey
ideas; presents many
mechanical errors
Demonstrates poor
use of language;
presents many
mechanical errors