Using Reasons and Results to Explain

Writing Quick Start: Using Reasons and Results to Explain

19

Cause and Effect

IN THIS CHAPTER YOU WILL LEARN TO

understand the purpose and function of cause-and-effect essays,
use graphic organizers to visualize cause-and-effect essays,
integrate cause and effect into an essay,
read and think critically about cause and effect, and
plan, organize, draft, revise, and edit essays using cause and effect.

WRITING QUICK START

ssume you are a journalist for your local newspaper reporting on a natural disaster that has occurred in a nearby town. Your task is to write a plausible account of the event to accompany the photograph shown here. In your paragraph, be sure to tell readers why the disaster occurred and what happened as a result of it.

The paragraph you wrote in the Writing Quick Start is an example of cause-and-effect (or causal) analysis because it considered causes (why the disaster occurred), effects (what happened because of the disaster), or both. You probably use causal analysis every day. If you decide to get a good night’s sleep rather than pull an all-nighter because you know you do better on exams when you’re well rested, that’s cause-effect analysis. Causal analysis is frequently required in college classes too, where you might be asked to analyze and write about the causes of the Civil War or the effects of oxygen deprivation on the central nervous system.

USING CAUSE AND EFFECT IN COLLEGE AND THE WORKPLACE
For an essay exam in your twentieth-century history course, you are required to discuss the causes of U.S. involvement in the Korean War. For a health and nutrition course, you decide to write a paper on the relationship between diet and heart disease. For your job as an investment analyst, you need to explain why a certain company is likely to be profitable in the next year.