Writing a Draft: Invention, Research, Planning, and Composing

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The activities in this section will help you choose and research a subject as well as develop and organize your causal analysis. Your writing in response to many of these activities can be used in a rough draft that you will be able to improve after receiving feedback from your classmates and instructor. Do the activities in any order that makes sense to you (and your instructor), and return to them as needed as you revise.

Choose a subject to analyze.

When choosing a subject for a causal analysis, keep in mind that it must be

You may already have a subject in mind and a clear idea of the causes or effects you want to discuss. If so, go to Test Your Choice. If you do not, the subjects that follow, in addition to those following “Why We Crave Horror Movies” (King), “The Multitasking Generation” (Wallis), and “The Telescope Effect” (Vedantam), may suggest a cause you can analyze effectively:

Subjects Related to School

Subjects Related to Your Community

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Subjects Related to Work

Writers often find it helpful to consider several possibilities before choosing a subject. Making a chart listing subjects that interest you and their possible causes or effects can help you decide which subject is most promising.

Subject Possible Causes
Example: What causes bullies? Putting down others makes them feel powerful.
They are mean.
They are performing for their friends.
They are sociopaths without empathy for others.
Example: Why do students often procrastinate in writing papers or studying for exams? They have better things to do
They are lazy.
They are actually using time efficiently.

TEST YOUR CHOICE

Choosing a Topic

After you have made a provisional choice, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Do I know enough about the subject, or can I learn enough in the time I have?

  • Do I know what causes or effects readers would be likely to think of, and do I have any ideas about what causes or effects might surprise and interest them?

To try out your subject and learn what other people think caused it, get together with two or three other students:

Presenters. Take turns describing your subject.

Listeners. Briefly tell each presenter what you think is a likely cause and why you think so.

Research Note

As you begin exploring the subject and its possible causes or effects, you may discover that you need to conduct research before you can go further. If so, skip ahead to the Conduct Research section, and return to the activities here later on in the writing process. Alternatively, you may be able simply to make a Research To Do list for later.

Present the subject to your readers.

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Once you have made a preliminary choice of a subject and have some idea about its possible causes or effects, consider how you can present the subject in a way that will interest your readers. To do this, consider what you think about the subject and what your readers are likely to think. Use the questions and sentence strategies that follow to help you put your ideas in writing.

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WHAT DO I THINK?

Why do I find this subject intriguing?

  • I think X is important because .................... .

  • X is changing the way we think/do .................... .

  • X has widespread effects, such as .................... .

  • I know what the obvious causes/effects of X are, but I’m curious about the underlying cultural/psychological/ideological causes/effects because .................... .

Which possible causes/effects will surprise readers or help them think about the subject in a constructive new way?

  • I think X will enable readers to understand that .................... .

  • Thinking about X will challenge readers to .................... .

How do your subject and its causes/effects compare or contrast with other, more familiar subjects?

  • X is like Y in that they are both caused by .................... .

  • Whereas Y is .................... , X is .................... .

WHAT DO MY READERS THINK?

What will readers know about the subject?

  • My readers will probably be familiar with X because .................... .

  • X is likely to be new to my readers, so I will need to show that it is widespread and serious by providing evidence such as .................... .

  • My readers are likely to be curious about X because .................... .

How might readers’ age, gender, work, or cultural background affect their thinking?

  • Readers who are/have trait A may assume that X is caused by individuals who should have .................... .

  • Readers who are/have trait B are likely to think the causes/effects are part of a larger system that involves .................... .

  • Readers who have experienced C may think of X in terms of .................... .

What causes or effects are readers likely to know about?

  • My readers will have heard of X from .................... [name source].

  • Readers’ experience of D will lead them to assume that X was caused by .................... .

Analyze possible causes or effects.

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The following activity will help you analyze an array of possible causes or effects and decide which ones you could use in your essay. Remember that causal analysis essays often speculate about several possible causes or effects but usually also argue for an especially interesting or plausible cause or effect.

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HOW CAN I ANALYZE POSSIBLE CAUSES OR EFFECTS?

  1. List the possible causes or effects you’ve identified so far — ones that your readers are likely to think of, that your classmates suggested, that you found doing research, and that you thought of yourself.

  2. Write a few sentences about each cause or effect, answering questions like these:

    • Why do my readers think .................... could have caused X?

    • Why do I think .................... could have caused X ?

    • Is .................... necessary to bring about X; that is, could X not happen without X? Is X sufficient — enough in itself — to cause .................... ?

    • If X is one of several contributing factors, what role does it play? For example, is it a minor or a major cause, an obvious or a hidden cause, a triggering cause (the one that got the cause-effect process started) or a continuing cause (the one that keeps it going)?

    • What kinds of evidence could I use to argue in favor of or against X? (If you don’t already have supporting evidence, make a Research To Do note indicating what kind of evidence you need and where you might possibly find it.)

  3. Classify the causes or effects you plan to discuss in your essay into three categories: plausible cause(s)/effect(s) you want to argue for, causes/effects your readers may favor that you can CONCEDE but put aside as obvious or minor, and causes/effects you should REFUTE because your readers are likely to think they are important.

Turn to A Writer at Work to see how Clayton Pangelinan used this activity to analyze his list of possible causes.

Plausible cause(s)/effect(s) to argue for Readers’ causes/effects to concede/put aside Readers’ causes/effects to refute
     
     
     
     

Remember that the only category you must include in your essay is the first: one or more causes or effects you will argue played a major, and perhaps surprising, role.

Conduct research.

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If you are analyzing a cause that others have written about, try searching for articles or books on your topic. Enter keywords or phrases related to your cause/effect or subject into the search box of

To learn more about searching a database, consult Chapter 21.

To locate numerical or statistical evidence that you could use or to draw graphs or tables, try the following sites:

To learn more about finding government documents, consult Chapter 21.

Bookmark or keep a record of the URLs of promising sites. If you find useful information, you may want to download or copy it to use in your essay. When they are available, download PDF files rather than HTML files, because the PDFs are more likely to include visuals, such as graphs and charts. If you copy and paste relevant information from sources into your notes, be careful to distinguish all source material from your own ideas and to record source information, so you can cite and document any sources you use, including graphics.

Another option is to conduct field research and to use personal experience. Field research, such as interviews, surveys, and direct observation, can offer statistical data and information about public opinion. Your own experience may also provide anecdotal evidence that might interest readers.

Cite a variety of sources to support your causal analysis.

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Writers of causal analyses often rely on evidence from experts to support some causes or effects and refute others. For college assignments, the instructor may require that certain kinds of sources be used and may even specify a minimum number of sources. But for most writing situations, you have to decide whether your sources are appropriate and sufficient. Using too few sources or sources that are too narrow in scope can undercut the effectiveness of your analysis. Consequently, it can be important to offer information from a number of sources and from sources that reflect a variety of areas of expertise.

Look, for example, at the sources Wallis uses to support her causal analysis in “The Multitasking Generation.” Because her essay was originally published in a popular magazine, she does not include a works cited list or parenthetical citations, but she does identify each of her sources by giving their credentials and academic affiliations: professors from a range of distinguished universities (such as MIT, Duke, and the University of Michigan) and different disciplines (such as history, psychology, and neuroscience). She uses as support for her analysis the specific findings of a number of academic research projects. The number and variety of expert sources adds to the credibility of Wallis’s analysis.

Similarly, student Clayton Pangelinan uses a number of sources to support his causal analysis in “#socialnetworking: Why It’s Really So Popular.” Because he is writing for a class, Pangelinan includes both in-text citations and a list of works cited. Like Wallis, he uses signal phrases (the author’s name and an appropriate verb, plus the author’s background where context is needed). He also cites independent sources his readers are likely to find credible, such as the Pew Research Center and an academic article. The number of sources, their authority, and their variety lend credibility to Pangelinan’s own speculations.

As you determine how many and what kinds of sources to cite in your essay, ask yourself questions like these:

Formulate a working thesis stating your preferred cause(s) or effect(s).

Once you have identified one or more interesting and plausible causes or effects that could be the focus of your analysis, try drafting a working thesis. (Some writers may want to skip this activity now and return to it after they have developed their analysis and completed some research.)

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HOW CAN I ASSERT MY THESIS?

To get an idea about how you might formulate your thesis, take a look at the thesis statements from the reading selections you’ve studied in this chapter.

The fact that social networking is popular is well established. The question is why is it so popular? . . . A better answer . . . is that social media offer people a way to satisfy their desire to connect with others and maybe also be “world-famous for fifteen minutes” (as Andy Warhol supposedly remarked). (Pangelinan, par. 2)

The mythic horror movie, like the sick joke, has a dirty job to do. It deliberately appeals to all that is worst in us. It is morbidity unchained, our most base instincts let free, our nastiest fantasies realized . . . and it all happens, fittingly enough, in the dark. (King, par. 11)

The mental habit of dividing one’s attention into many small slices has significant implications for the way young people learn, reason, socialize, do creative work and understand the world. (Wallis, par. 13)

I want to offer a disturbing idea. The reason human beings seem to care so little about mass suffering and death is precisely because the suffering is happening on a mass scale. The brain is simply not very good at grasping the implications of mass suffering. (Vedantam, par. 12)

Now draft your own thesis statement, using the examples from the readings or the sentence strategies that follow as a jumping-off point. You can put your ideas into your own words now or when you revise:

  • The reasons for X may surprise you, such as .................... , .................... , and .................... .

  • The effects of X may be alarming, but they are clear: .................... .

  • X plays a disturbing role in our lives/our families/our communities/our workplaces: It does/is/provides .................... .

  • For many years, Group A has believed that .................... . Now there is research supporting this claim, but not for the reasons you may think. It’s not .................... that has been causing this phenomenon but .................... .

Draft a response to objections readers are likely to raise.

The following activity will help you respond to possible objections your readers might raise. Start by analyzing the reasons your readers object to your cause or effect, and then consider ways you might respond to their objections.

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HOW CAN I RESPOND EFFECTIVELY TO MY READERS’ OBJECTIONS?

  1. For each of your preferred causes or effects, consider the questions your readers might raise. Some possibilities include the following:

    • Even if you can prove that X and Y increased/decreased at the same time, how do you know X actually caused Y?

    • Even if you can prove that Y occurred after X, how do you know X actually caused Y?

    • Could X and Y both have been caused by something else altogether?

    • X seems to have been an effect of Y but was it really a major effect or just one of many insignificant results?

  2. Use the following sentence strategies or language of your own to respond to one of these objections:

    • The objection that Y may result from things other than X may be true. But there is strong evidence showing that X played a central role by .................... .

    • Researchers studying .................... have shown a causal connection between X and Y. They claim that .................... [quote/paraphrase/summarize information from source] (cite source).

    • A large number of people have been polled on this question, and it appears that X was an important factor in their decision to .................... .

Research Note

You may need to conduct research to find evidence to support your refutation. If so, revisit the sections Conduct Research and Cite a Variety of Sources to Support Your Causal Analysis.

Draft a response to the causes or effects your readers are likely to favor.

In the preceding activity, you analyzed and drafted a response to the objections your readers are likely to raise. The next activity will help you respond to your readers’ preferred causes or effects.

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HOW CAN I RESPOND TO MY READERS’ PREFERRED CAUSES OR EFFECTS?

  • Choose an alternative cause or effect, and summarize it. Be sure to summarize it accurately and fairly. Do not commit the straw man fallacy of knocking down something that no one really takes seriously.

  • Decide whether you can REFUTE the alternative cause or effect or whether you need to CONCEDE it. Refute the alternative cause or effect if you can show that it lacks credible support or if the underlying reasoning is flawed. Concede it by pointing out that the cause or effect is obvious and setting it aside or by showing that it plays a less important role than the cause or effect you are championing. Try the following sentence strategies, or use language of your own.

To Refute

Lacks Credible Support

  • Just because Y caused .................... does not mean that it caused .................... [a similar subject]. Here’s why: .................... .

  • The scenario/anecdote others sometimes use to explain why X caused/occurred certainly helps dramatize .................... , but it doesn’t really explain why X happened.

  • If X is the result of Y , then one would expect to .................... happen, too, but it hasn’t/the opposite has happened.

Reasoning Is Flawed

Mistakes correlation for causation.

  • Some argue that Y caused X because X and Y occurred/began rising sharply at the same time. But, in fact, this is merely a coincidence/both were caused by something else altogether.

Mistakes chronology for causation.

  • Just because Y occurred before/after X doesn’t prove that X caused/resulted from Y .

  • Proponents .................... of have not provided convincing evidence to show how Y could have caused X .

To Concede

Set Aside a Well-Known Cause

  • An obvious explanation is .................... . But if we dig deeper, we find that .................... .

  • Typical explanations include .................... and .................... , but let’s consider a totally different possibility: .................... .

Show That an Alternative Cause Is Minor

  • .................... is one of the answers but may not play as central a role as most people think it does.

  • .................... may have kept the process going, but X was the trigger: Without it, Y would never have gotten started.

  • .................... may have been a factor at the outset, getting the process started, but what keeps it going is X.

Create an outline that will organize your causal argument effectively for your readers.

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Whether you have rough notes or a complete draft, making an outline of what you have written can help you organize the essay effectively for your audience. A causal argument may contain as many as four basic parts:

  1. A presentation of the subject

  2. Plausible causes/effects, logically sequenced

  3. Convincing support for each cause or effect

  4. A consideration of readers’ questions, objections, and alternative causes or effects

Compare the possible outlines that follow to see how you might organize your essay depending on whether your readers primarily agree with you — or not.

If your readers are not likely to favor any alternatives, you may want to anticipate and respond to their possible objections to your causes or effects.

  1. Presentation of the subject: Demonstrate that the subject exists and that its causes/effects are uncertain

  2. Thesis and forecasting statement: Announce the causes/effects you will offer

  3. First cause/effect with supporting evidence and refutation of objection

  4. Second cause/effect with supporting evidence and refutation of objection (and so on)

  5. Conclusion: Reassertion of judgment

 If you expect readers are likely to favor alternatives, you may want to concede or refute them before offering your own cause or effect.

  1. Presentation of the subject: Demonstrate that the subject exists and that its causes/effects are uncertain

  2. Thesis statement: Acknowledge alternative causes/effects readers are likely to know about

  3. Concession of first alternative cause/effect to set it aside

  4. Refutation of second alternative cause/effect with supporting evidence

  5. Writer’s preferred cause/effect with supporting evidence

  6. Refutation of objection(s)

  7. Conclusion: Reassertion of judgment based on shared criteria

For more on outlining, see Chapter 11.

Whatever organizational strategy you adopt, do not hesitate to change your outline as necessary while drafting and revising. For instance, you might find it more effective to begin with your own preferred cause or effect and to hold back on presenting unacceptable alternatives until you’ve made the case you think is most plausible and interesting. The purpose of an outline is to identify the basic components of your analysis and to help you organize them effectively, not to lock you into a particular structure.

Write the opening sentences.

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Review what you have already written to see if you have something that would help you present the subject of your causal argument effectively for your audience:

Demonstrate the relevance of your topic by putting it in context for your reader:

Complain about problems in a tweet over Twitter; add a friend, virtually poke each other, and like friends’ postings and ramblings on Facebook; send images and videos to each other using Snapchat; capture a selfie with Instagram, edit it, add hashtags, and share it for your friends to see and comment on: Social networking is only a click away . . . (Pangelinan, par. 1)

Begin with a surprising assertion that would help grab your readers’ attention:

I think that we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better — and maybe not all that much better, after all. (King, par. 1)

Begin with a scenario or an anecdote:

It’s 9:30 p.m., and Stephen and Georgina Cox know exactly where their children are. Well, their bodies, at least. (Wallis, par. 1)

The Insiko 1907 was a tramp tanker that roamed the Pacific Ocean. Its twelve-man Taiwanese crew hunted the seas for fishing fleets in need of fuel; the Insiko had a cargo of tens of thousands of gallons of diesel. (Vedantam, par. 1)

Draft your causal argument.

By this point, you have done a lot of writing to:

Now stitch that material together to create a draft. The next two parts of this Guide to Writing will help you evaluate and improve that draft.