Exposition Cause-and-Effect Essay

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ExpositionCause-and-Effect Essay

• adapted from Writing and Grammar Communication
  in Action, Prentice-Hall, Publishers, 2001

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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
  problemall these activities show an awareness of
  cause-and-effect relationships.

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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.

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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.

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Ingredients in the Cause-and-Effect Essay

• Good cause-and-effect essays contain
• A clearly stated topic that explains what
  cause-and-effect relationships will be explored.
• An effective and logical method of organization
• Details and examples that elaborate upon the
  writers statements
• Transitions that smoothly and clearly connect the
  writers ideas

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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

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PrewritingChoosing 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

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Choosing Your Topic

• Sketch a SceneDraw 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 years drought on local flowers and crops.

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Choosing Your Topic (2)

• Make a ListList 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 doesnt have a strong
  enough cause-and-effect relationship, continue
  the listing process until you find one that does.
  

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Choosing Your Topic (3)

• Scan a NewspaperScan 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.

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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 MusicWrite an
  essay that reveals how blues instruments, blues
  singers, and recurring themes in blues songs
  affect music today.

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Topic Bank (2)

• Causes of Changes in Rain ForestsIn a
  cause-and-effect essay, explore the various
  factors that have led to the rain forests
  acreage being decreased.
• You can find information about deforestation in
  current periodicals available at the library.

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Topic Bank (3)

• Responding to Fine ArtFind a picture such as
  Rolling Power (see next slide) that depicts a
  close-up view of the workings of a locomotive
  (see http//www.smith.edu/artmuseum/exhibitions/sp
  ectrum/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.

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Rolling Steel
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Topics Bank (4)

• Responding to LiteratureRead 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.

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Cooperative Writing

• History or Science DisplayWork 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.

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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.

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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.

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6 Questions

• Describe ItHow would you describe your topic to
  someone who is unfamiliar with it?
• Associate ItWhat other situations or events does
  your topic bring to mind?
• Apply ItWhy is your topic important? Why is it
  useful to explore?
• Analyze ItWhere is it? When did it happen? Why
  might it happen again? Can anything stop it from
  happening?
• Compare or Contrast ItHow does your topic
  compare and contrast with similar topics?
• Argue for or Against ItWhat are the positive and
  negative effects of your topic?

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The Cube
Describe It
Apply It
Analyze It
Compare or Contrast It
Analyze It
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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

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Audience and Purpose Planner
Audience
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
Purpose
Details
Style of Language
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Gathering Details

• Before you draft, collect and organize details
  for your cause-and-effect essay.
• Following are two methods for collecting and
  organizing details

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Collect Note Cards

• When you research a topic, its 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.

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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.

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DraftingShaping 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

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Chronological Organization

• Chronological, or time, organization is a logical
  choice for structuring a cause-and-effect 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.

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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.ht
  m

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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.

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Effects Organized in Order of Importance

• The Titanics 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 ships 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. .
  . .

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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

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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.

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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.

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Revising Your Overall Structure

• As you look at the structure of your essay, make
  sure that the ideas youve 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.

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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.

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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 paragraphsthose
  that contain a topic sentenceare unified.

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Strengthen the Unity of Paragraphs

• Revise your topical paragraphs to make them
  unifiedto 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.

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Revision Strategy color-Coding to Identify
Related Details

• Circle each topic sentence in every topical
  paragraph.
• (Functional paragraphsthose that perform a
  specific functiondo 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.

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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.

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Grammar in Your WritingTransitional 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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Review Your Word Choice

• USEFUL REPETITION
• In the 1920s, people flocked to theaters to see
  plays in the 1930s, the flocked to theaters to
  see movies.
• CARELESS REPETITION
• Because I have always loved the theater, Im
  studying theater and theater arts in school.

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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.

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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.

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Peer ReviewSay 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.

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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 youve correctly used the following
  commonly confused words since, because, then,
  and than.

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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 because to mean for the reason that.
Use then to refer to a previous time.
Use than in comparisons between people, places,
ideas, and events
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Publishing and Presenting

• When you are finished writing your
  cause-and-effect essay, share it with others.
• Following are some ideas for sharing your
  writing

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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.

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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?

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Rubric for Self-Assessment