SMARTHINKING Writer's Handbook

Chapter 3, Lesson 18: Section 2

Exposition: Cause and Effect as a Writer's Organizational Tool

Objective: To explore ways to use reasoning as a tool to organize paragraphs and essays.

Writing to Explore Causal Relationships

The underlying idea of Cause and Effect writing is to explain how one event, or action, caused another to occur. Usually, not just one thing causes another because there are many little different circumstances that cause something to happen. It is too easy to say that your friend Fred gained a hundred pounds because he ate three candy bars every day. There would be other circumstances such as how much Fred exercised, the other foods in Fred's diet, and his sleep schedule that might explain more about the weight gain. So, the most important feature of a piece of Cause and Effect writing is that the reasons something occurred (effects) are really based on what you define as the cause.

Ways to discover what really causes something to happen are to use practice thesis statements and a short listing devices that help you discover other viewpoints.

Probably the most common conversation that goes on in homes with teenagers goes something like this:

Teenager (casually): "I'm going to the party at Fred's and I'll be home at two."
Parent (sternly): "No you are not young lady!"
Teenager (angrily): "You don't trust me!"

Using this short example, let's look at an example of each kind of reasoning tool.

Practice Sentences
How can the cause effect relationship in this quick argument be identified? When you are testing your ideas to see if a cause and effect relationship really exists, your can plug your ideas into these kinds of practice sentences:

Because X happened, Y happened.

Remember our Fred and the candy bar example? Let's try that one in the second practice sentence to see if it works: "Because Fred got fat, we know that he ate three candy bars every day." Is this true? Could there be lots of other causes? Of course, you could argue that this relationship is one cause of Fred's weight, but not the only cause.

If X happens, then Y is the result.

In our example parent-teenager example, this would read something like "If parents say no to their children, then arguing is usually the result." Because this is so often true, you can comfortably explore why one causes the other.

Here the parent's refusal is the cause of the teenager's anger (an effect), but there are others still other influences. When you write about cause and effect, you have to pin down the exact cause, or causes, that create one effect. The parent's decision is an effect of the teenagers off hand statement, or some other thing. The teenager staying home from the party is also an effect of a decision that she sees as unfair.

Listing to Discover Viewpoints or Causes
As the teenager believes, trust could be an issue in this situation, but what other causes might have the effect of the parent to say the teenager couldn't go to this party? We know the result, so we are looking to find what causes a parent to say not to their teenager. One way to discover more reasons is to use simple lists that explore the situation from both viewpoints:

In this case, by working at seeing all the issues that lead to the parent's decision, you can start to see the causes for the decision. Of course, by looking at the daughter's viewpoint you start to see things that you might use in a paper to develop the content!

You can imagine that you had your choice of going to a movie or going to a ball game. What would make you choose one over the other? The reasons you choose to make the decision are the causes for the effect of actually doing one thing or the other. In the text box below, use "movie" and "ball game" to practice making lists of things that would persuade you to do one or the other.

Did you use reasons like cost, time of day, and weather? These would be good starting choices for activities!

All of the examples we looked at here are immediate because they cause people to make a decision right away. Effects can also be remote. For instance, exposure to too much sunlight during childhood may cause skin cancer years later. In this case, there may still be other things that influence the development of cancer, but the primary cause would be recognized as sunlight, even though it happened years before. Papers that have remote causes, and possible other influences, are usually written as research papers, containing facts and evidence that the writer gathers from outside sources.

Using Cause and Effect to Organize Your Writing

As a writing tool, comparing and contrasting is often used in introductions, topic sentences, and transitions.

Introductions and Thesis Statements
Cause and effect can be combined in a sentence level definition that will help readers understand the writer's opinion (expressed in the thesis). Here is one way to explain how cause and effect might set up a thesis that agrees with the parent's viewpoint in our example:

Parents who don't allow their children to break family rules are usually seen as strict and untrusting.

This sentence defines parents' behavior as the cause of a perception, but thesis statements themselves are often cause and effect statements. Here is an example :

Parents and children often argue because they perceive the world as dangerous in different ways than teenagers.

This sentence has both an opinion and a fact. The opinion, perceptions are different, is what the writer would prove in a paper based on this thesis. The fact is that parents and children argue. Most people would agree that parents and children argue, so this a commonly believed "fact" and it does not need proof.

In sentences, cause and effect relationships can be developed by "bridge words" that link ideas. Here are some examples of different kinds of words you can use to show this link: accordingly, actually, as a result, because, consequently, so, then, therefore, and the verb caused.

• Parents and children often argue because they have different perceptions about the dangers in the world outside their homes.
• Accordingly, children do not understand when parents say not because they have not looked at the whole chain of reasons behind the answer.
• As a result, children and parents fight about personal freedoms.
• Consequently, some homes are not happy places on Friday nights.
• Sometimes parents don't feel that they need to explain decisions, so teenagers really believe that they are not trusted.
• If parents don't explain their decisions, then teenagers stay confused.
• Therefore, good communication could be one factor in showing teenagers that they are loved and trusted.
• It is usually misunderstanding that causes these kinds of arguments.

These kinds of word choices show your audience that you believe there is a close relationship between a cause and its effect.

Topic and Transition Sentences

Showing that one event or action causes another helps support persuasive and argumentative papers. You might organize your paragraphs following these strategies by focusing topic and transition sentences:

Teenagers often think that their parents don't trust them when actually the parents are concerned about safety. My friend Carla was angry when her parents refused to let her go to Ben's party. However, the next morning she heard that during the party there was a fire and many of her friends were in a hospital with severe burns. Even though she still felt like a geek, she was relieved that she was safe. However, it did not make her feel better when her mother pointed out that the decision to make her stay home was right. Of course, safety during the party was not Carla's parents only concern because accidents occur traveling to and from an event more often than house fires burn people.

There is an organizational pattern in this paragraph. Did you notice it? Here is a quick outline to help based on the kind of sentences used to develop this paragraph:

Topic sentence: defines the content of the paragraph (cause/effect)
Extended example: illustrates how one thing causes another by describing how things are, how things change, and how things turn out
Transition sentence: moves to the next idea (cause/effect) which will be driving

Using this kind of structure will let you show readers exactly what you mean. It answers the question "How does one thing cause another?"

Summary

The cause and effect organizational tool helps you show how one thing makes another thing happen. The danger in using this tool is that you have to be sure that the cause/effect relationship really exists, so you have to be careful to test your idea to find other things that might be influences. One way is to use practice sentences, and another is to explore the connection from different viewpoints to discover how what seems like a simple linked relationship can be more complicated.

There are patterns that help writer develop cause and effect, and there are words that help readers understand the relationship. You will often find cause/effect used to organize thesis statements and proof paragraphs. When you look at examples of cause and effect writing, try identifying the following words as "bridges" the link actions and results: accordingly, actually, as a result, because, consequently, so, then, therefore, and the verb caused.