2 Cause and Effect Essay Examples That Will Cause a Stir
Remember when that annoying light came on while you were driving home last night? Turns out it really did serve a purpose—to tell you one of your tires was low.
Unfortunately, you ignored the warning light. Unfortunately, you missed class because of your flat tire this morning. Because you missed class, you failed a quiz.
This is a perfect example of cause and effect.
The problem: Another light appeared on your dashboard.
The cause: Low air pressure in a tire.
The effects: You missed class. Because you missed class, you didn’t realize there would be a quiz next week, and you failed the quiz.
Writing an effective cause and effect essay isn’t that different from the facts of this scenario. You’ll outline the causes, the effects, or both the causes and effects of a specific problem or issue.
To better illustrate this, let’s take a look at the basics of this essay type before we dive into two cause and effect essay examples.
Basic Training: Cause and Effect Essays
In order to understand how to write a good cause and effect essay, you need to know four basic points.
#1 Know the purpose of the assignment
In order to write an effective essay, you need to follow your professor’s guidelines.
If your topic is childhood obesity, are you supposed to write about the causes, the effects, or about both the causes and effects of childhood obesity?
Paying attention to guidelines really does make a difference in your grade! Know what you’re supposed to be writing before you begin.
#2 Draft a thesis statement
The thesis statement will establish the focus for your paper. In a cause and effect essay, your thesis should let readers know if you’re writing about causes, effects, or both.
Check out these examples:
Thesis statements about obesity might look like one of these.
If the focus of your paper is the causes of obesity, your thesis statement might be something like this:
Children today are increasingly overweight primarily due to overconsumption of highly processed foods.
If the focus of your paper is the effects of obesity, your thesis statement might be something like this:
The recent increase in childhood obesity has resulted in children suffering from numerous health problems, including high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
If the focus of your paper is both causes and effects of obesity, your thesis statement might be something like this:
Due to overconsumption of highly processed foods, childhood obesity is becoming epidemic and leaving children with numerous health problems, such as high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
#3 Organize evidence
If you start writing with a jumbled mess of thoughts in your head, your paper is likely going to end up a jumbled mess.
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Organize your ideas by starting with a simple chart like this (fancy colors optional, of course). It’s a quick way to list information before you actually begin writing.
You may not end up using all of the causes and effects listed in your chart. But by listing as many as you can think of, you’ll be able to choose the best options for your paper.
#4 Use transitions
Readers need to be able to see how you’re connecting ideas. Move from one idea to the next by using the right transitions and transition sentences .
Here’s a list of transitions you might use in your own cause and effect paper:
- consequently
- as a result
And for nearly endless transitional possibilities, check out 97 Transition Words for Essays You Need to Know .
With basic training complete, let’s take a look at two cause and effect essay examples. Then you can see what these elements look like in an actual paper.
Essay Example #1: Examining Childhood Obesity
This essay causes a stir not because it’s an amazing paper but because it’s still in need of some revision.
It’s a good start to a cause and effect essay but struggles to get it right.
The essay does provide an overview of the topic, lists causes and effects, and uses transitions. But it has its share of concerns too.
One of the key problems in the introductions is the lack of a thesis statement. At the end of the first paragraph, it does have a broad overview. However, it lacks the specificity of a strong thesis statement.
The body of the paper struggles with organization. It does includes a lot of ideas and research. But it doesn’t quite organize and develop them.
While the paper uses transitions to link ideas, it goes overboard. It includes transitions to link lists of statements rather than introduce fully developed arguments.
Finally, the conclusion is almost non-existent. A Works Cited is also missing.
Hopefully that helps you avoid some of these issues in your own essay. Now let’s dive into the second of our two cause and effect essay examples.
Essay Example #2: The Negative Effects of Technology
Though this paper struggles a bit with organization, it does include a clear thesis, use of transitions to link ideas, and a basic discussion of the negative effects of technology.
Note that this paper uses evidence from sources to support ideas but doesn’t always use proper in-text citations and does not include a Works Cited. Both of these are required in MLA format .
Training Complete
Congratulations! Your basic training using cause and effect essay examples is complete.
Now that you know the basic components of a cause and effect essay and can spot them in a sample essay, it’s time to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard).
Remember the weak elements in the cause and effect essay examples as you write your own essay to make yours shine.
If you’ve drafted some causes and effects to your topic but are stumped as to how to put them into essay format, try outlining. (Read How to Write a 5-Paragraph Essay Outline .)
After you’ve outlined and have a complete draft, send your paper to a Kibin editor to make sure your paper is in good shape!
Psst... 98% of Kibin users report better grades! Get inspiration from over 500,000 example essays .
About the Author
Susan M. Inez is a professor of English and writing goddess based out of the Northeast. In addition to a BA in English Education, an MA in Composition, and an MS in Education, Susan has 20 years of experience teaching courses on composition, writing in the professions, literature, and more. She also served as co-director of a campus writing center for 2 years.
- cause and effect essay
- essay examples
- thesis statements
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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 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 & 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!
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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.
🎓 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:
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.
Receive a plagiarism-free paper tailored to your instructions.
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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Chapter 4: What Are You Writing, to Whom, and How?
4.9 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 may want to know how our child got sick so we can better prevent it from happening in the future, or why our colleague received 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.
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 is 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 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 words and phrases that denote such linkage. See below Phrases of Causation for examples of such terms.
Phrases of Causation
- as a result
- consequently
The conclusion should wrap up the discussion and reinforce the thesis, leaving the reader with a clear understanding of the relationship that was analyzed.
Self-Practice Exercise 4.8
H5P: Cause and Effect Writing Practice
Exercise Preamble
In this exercise, we will think through the steps of a cause and effect essay. This can be tricky. We’ll start by choosing a topic. You want to pick something you know enough about to make claims about the relationships between cause and effect. For this in-class exercise, there’s no need to do external research, but remember that in a more formal assignment, you’ll want to have good sources for all your claims and to avoid speculation.
Some areas where cause and effect thinking is common include:
- Health and nutrition
For example, you might write a cause and effect essay about whether violent video games cause children to act out, or whether universal basic income programs cause people to live more stable lives. Choose something you can argue from a position of confidence.
Set a timer and freewrite for five minutes about the topic you have chosen.
Can you identify a potential thesis statement from your freewriting? Remember: 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. In other words, you don’t need to claim the only cause or effect — we know that ideas are complex.
Organizing Your Draft
Which makes the most sense for what you are trying to argue in your thesis statement?
Using point form, sketch out the structure of your essay: how many paragraphs, what will each one focus on, and how will you support it?
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 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 Appendix 1: Readings: Examples of Essays to read a sample cause and effect essay.
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 to signal links between various elements in the essay.
Essay 1: Expository essay (15%)
In week 7, you will need to submit an expository essay on one of the following topics. Consider these topics as you work through the rest of this chapter and the next. You will need to choose one topic from one of the rhetorical modes below and write a 750- to 900-word essay. You will need to produce a logically organized essay with a thesis statement, well developed and logically organized paragraphs (with topic sentences), and an introduction and conclusion. You will need to support your ideas using one to three sources and include an APA reference list and citations as outlined in the JIBC APA Style Guide. You need to also demonstrate appropriate use of grammar and correct spelling. Remember, your essay should not just be a story; it should demonstrate logical organization and idea development.
Choose any one of the exercises you have completed for Self-Practice 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, or 4.9 and develop it into your Expository Essay. Consult with your instructor or your classmates if you are having a hard time deciding which activity to develop further.
You need to submit this assignment to your instructor for marking . (15%)
Writing for Success - 1st Canadian H5P Edition by Tara Horkoff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
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How to write a thesis statement, what is a thesis statement.
Almost all of us—even if we don’t do it consciously—look early in an essay for a one- or two-sentence condensation of the argument or analysis that is to follow. We refer to that condensation as a thesis statement.
Why Should Your Essay Contain a Thesis Statement?
- to test your ideas by distilling them into a sentence or two
- to better organize and develop your argument
- to provide your reader with a “guide” to your argument
In general, your thesis statement will accomplish these goals if you think of the thesis as the answer to the question your paper explores.
How Can You Write a Good Thesis Statement?
Here are some helpful hints to get you started. You can either scroll down or select a link to a specific topic.
How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is Assigned How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is not Assigned How to Tell a Strong Thesis Statement from a Weak One
How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is Assigned
Almost all assignments, no matter how complicated, can be reduced to a single question. Your first step, then, is to distill the assignment into a specific question. For example, if your assignment is, “Write a report to the local school board explaining the potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class,” turn the request into a question like, “What are the potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class?” After you’ve chosen the question your essay will answer, compose one or two complete sentences answering that question.
Q: “What are the potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class?” A: “The potential benefits of using computers in a fourth-grade class are . . .”
A: “Using computers in a fourth-grade class promises to improve . . .”
The answer to the question is the thesis statement for the essay.
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How to Generate a Thesis Statement if the Topic is not Assigned
Even if your assignment doesn’t ask a specific question, your thesis statement still needs to answer a question about the issue you’d like to explore. In this situation, your job is to figure out what question you’d like to write about.
A good thesis statement will usually include the following four attributes:
- take on a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree
- deal with a subject that can be adequately treated given the nature of the assignment
- express one main idea
- assert your conclusions about a subject
Let’s see how to generate a thesis statement for a social policy paper.
Brainstorm the topic . Let’s say that your class focuses upon the problems posed by changes in the dietary habits of Americans. You find that you are interested in the amount of sugar Americans consume.
You start out with a thesis statement like this:
Sugar consumption.
This fragment isn’t a thesis statement. Instead, it simply indicates a general subject. Furthermore, your reader doesn’t know what you want to say about sugar consumption.
Narrow the topic . Your readings about the topic, however, have led you to the conclusion that elementary school children are consuming far more sugar than is healthy.
You change your thesis to look like this:
Reducing sugar consumption by elementary school children.
This fragment not only announces your subject, but it focuses on one segment of the population: elementary school children. Furthermore, it raises a subject upon which reasonable people could disagree, because while most people might agree that children consume more sugar than they used to, not everyone would agree on what should be done or who should do it. You should note that this fragment is not a thesis statement because your reader doesn’t know your conclusions on the topic.
Take a position on the topic. After reflecting on the topic a little while longer, you decide that what you really want to say about this topic is that something should be done to reduce the amount of sugar these children consume.
You revise your thesis statement to look like this:
More attention should be paid to the food and beverage choices available to elementary school children.
This statement asserts your position, but the terms more attention and food and beverage choices are vague.
Use specific language . You decide to explain what you mean about food and beverage choices , so you write:
Experts estimate that half of elementary school children consume nine times the recommended daily allowance of sugar.
This statement is specific, but it isn’t a thesis. It merely reports a statistic instead of making an assertion.
Make an assertion based on clearly stated support. You finally revise your thesis statement one more time to look like this:
Because half of all American elementary school children consume nine times the recommended daily allowance of sugar, schools should be required to replace the beverages in soda machines with healthy alternatives.
Notice how the thesis answers the question, “What should be done to reduce sugar consumption by children, and who should do it?” When you started thinking about the paper, you may not have had a specific question in mind, but as you became more involved in the topic, your ideas became more specific. Your thesis changed to reflect your new insights.
How to Tell a Strong Thesis Statement from a Weak One
1. a strong thesis statement takes some sort of stand..
Remember that your thesis needs to show your conclusions about a subject. For example, if you are writing a paper for a class on fitness, you might be asked to choose a popular weight-loss product to evaluate. Here are two thesis statements:
There are some negative and positive aspects to the Banana Herb Tea Supplement.
This is a weak thesis statement. First, it fails to take a stand. Second, the phrase negative and positive aspects is vague.
Because Banana Herb Tea Supplement promotes rapid weight loss that results in the loss of muscle and lean body mass, it poses a potential danger to customers.
This is a strong thesis because it takes a stand, and because it's specific.
2. A strong thesis statement justifies discussion.
Your thesis should indicate the point of the discussion. If your assignment is to write a paper on kinship systems, using your own family as an example, you might come up with either of these two thesis statements:
My family is an extended family.
This is a weak thesis because it merely states an observation. Your reader won’t be able to tell the point of the statement, and will probably stop reading.
While most American families would view consanguineal marriage as a threat to the nuclear family structure, many Iranian families, like my own, believe that these marriages help reinforce kinship ties in an extended family.
This is a strong thesis because it shows how your experience contradicts a widely-accepted view. A good strategy for creating a strong thesis is to show that the topic is controversial. Readers will be interested in reading the rest of the essay to see how you support your point.
3. A strong thesis statement expresses one main idea.
Readers need to be able to see that your paper has one main point. If your thesis statement expresses more than one idea, then you might confuse your readers about the subject of your paper. For example:
Companies need to exploit the marketing potential of the Internet, and Web pages can provide both advertising and customer support.
This is a weak thesis statement because the reader can’t decide whether the paper is about marketing on the Internet or Web pages. To revise the thesis, the relationship between the two ideas needs to become more clear. One way to revise the thesis would be to write:
Because the Internet is filled with tremendous marketing potential, companies should exploit this potential by using Web pages that offer both advertising and customer support.
This is a strong thesis because it shows that the two ideas are related. Hint: a great many clear and engaging thesis statements contain words like because , since , so , although , unless , and however .
4. A strong thesis statement is specific.
A thesis statement should show exactly what your paper will be about, and will help you keep your paper to a manageable topic. For example, if you're writing a seven-to-ten page paper on hunger, you might say:
World hunger has many causes and effects.
This is a weak thesis statement for two major reasons. First, world hunger can’t be discussed thoroughly in seven to ten pages. Second, many causes and effects is vague. You should be able to identify specific causes and effects. A revised thesis might look like this:
Hunger persists in Glandelinia because jobs are scarce and farming in the infertile soil is rarely profitable.
This is a strong thesis statement because it narrows the subject to a more specific and manageable topic, and it also identifies the specific causes for the existence of hunger.
Produced by Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
- Cause and Effect Essay
What is a cause and effect essay?
Cause and effect essays are concerned with why things happen (causes) and what happens as a result (effects). Cause and effect is a common method of organizing and discussing ideas.
Follow these steps when writing a cause and effect essay
Sometimes, many causes contribute to a single effect or many effects may result from a single cause. (Your instructor will specify which cause/effect method to use.) The following are examples:
However, most situations are more complicated. The following is an example of a chain reaction:
Thinking about friend…forgot to buy gas…car wouldn't start…missed math exam…failed math course.
- Develop your thesis statement. State clearly whether you are discussing causes, effects, or both. Introduce your main idea, using the terms "cause" and/or "effect."
- Chronological. Details are arranged in the order in which the events occurred.
- Order of importance. Details are arranged from least to most important or vice versa.
- Categorical. Details are arranged by dividing the topic into parts or categories.
When writing your essay, keep the following suggestions in mind:
- Remember your purpose. Decide if your are writing to inform or persuade.
- Focus on immediate and direct causes (or effects.) Limit yourself to causes that are close in time and related, as opposed to remote and indirect causes, which occur later and are related indirectly.
- Strengthen your essay by using supporting evidence. Define terms, offer facts and statistics, or provide examples, anecdotes, or personal observations that support your ideas.
- Qualify or limit your statements about cause and effect. Unless there is clear evidence that one event is related to another, qualify your statements with phrases such as "It appears that the cause was" or "It seems likely" or "The evidence may indicate" or "Available evidence suggests."
To evaluate the effectiveness of a cause and effect essay, ask the following questions:
What are the causes? What are the effects? Which should be emphasized? Are there single or multiple causes? Single or multiple effects? Is a chain reaction involved?
Choosing the essay topic for cause and effect essay type is not difficult, here are some sample essay topics :
- Effects of Pollution
- The Changes in the Ocean
- The Civil Rights Movement and the Effects
Please, make sure you choose the essay topic that is really important for you. Choosing the correct essay topic makes your cause and effect essay more interesting and successful.
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Crafting A Thesis Statement For A Cause And Effect Essay: 10 Basic Tips
Not sure how to write the thesis statement for your cause and effect essay? It is really important to make it make sense and be understandable so here are a few great guidelines to follow when crafting a thoughtful and relevant statement for your paper.
- First of all, the focus of your cause and effect paper’s main statement should be centered on either a cause or an effect- generally not both. You will need to pick one and base your statement, and in turn your paper on that one point. If you choose a cause, you should talk about the effect and vice versa but the highlight of your paper should be specifically about one or the other.
- A cause and effect paper is arguing that one thing caused another thing or vice versa, so make sure to state this.
- It should include a brief explanation or opinion about the cause or effect that you chose to highlight in your paper.
- To decide on the focus of the statement, start by brainstorming and writing down a few different options for topic statements that focus on the cause or effect you chose.
- Make your statement efficient and effective. It should be short and specific, not wordy and long winded.
- The statement should only be about one idea. That cause or effect you chose as your focus should be the only idea talked about and highlighted in your statement.
- Take a side and express a strong point on one side of an issue. This will make for a very strong and intriguing paper.
- Once you have a good sample statement, or a few, write out sample arguments to back up those statements. This will help you see if there is enough substance to make a strong argument and an interesting paper.
- Consider your audience and read your main argument thinking about the different points of views that may be represented. Think about the objections they may make and incorporate responses to that into your paper.
- Once you have a solid draft, give it to other people to look at and proof read it for flaws and mistakes.
After going through and carefully following all of these guidelines, you will certainly have a solid thesis statement to make your essay high quality and well written.
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For a thesis statement in a cause and effect essay, we need to indicate what ... If you plan well, you're more likely to have a good essay.
The thesis statement will establish the focus for your paper. In a cause and effect essay, your thesis should let readers know if you're writing
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
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.
Can you identify a potential thesis statement from your freewriting? Remember: The cause and effect essay opens with a general introduction to the topic, which
This is a strong thesis because it shows how your experience contradicts a widely-accepted view. A good strategy for creating a strong thesis is to show that
Develop your thesis statement. State clearly whether you are discussing causes, effects, or both. Introduce your main idea, using the terms "cause" and/or "
Most people are not aware of the positive effects of simply walking for 20 to 30 minutes per day. Activity 6. Writing strong thesis statements for cause-effect
To decide on the focus of the statement, start by brainstorming and writing down a few different options for topic statements that focus on the cause or effect
In a cause and effect essay , your thesis statement usually should focus on causes or effects but not both. It should be a strong point, as it is your