Cause and Effect Essay

             Write an essay about a social or historical event that has meaning to you personally.  The climate, the Gulf War, random acts of violence, or other events may have caused effects on you personally.  Pick an event that will be familiar to most everyone, but one that has affected you, your family, your neighborhood or town, or your country.  Explore in a well written and tightly argued essay the causes of this event and its effects.

             The first paragraph should explain objectively at least one cause for the event that you are describing.  If you wish to explain the reasons for increases in school violence, for example, you might argue that teens are led to violence in schools through the availability of handguns.  There may be several other reasons as well, and you might discuss more than one.  Make an effort to describe objectively the event and its possible causes.  In fact, you might base your discussion on a newspaper or magazine article that gives particular information about the event.

             In the second, third, and fourth paragraphs, give three effects of the event on your life or the lives of others.  Examine in detail how life has changed, and give examples.  You might interview other people or draw your information from the article you use.  Be sure that the topic sentences clearly state the effects that have resulted from this event.  In addition, try to use transitional expressions that show cause and effect throughout the essay.  There is a list of transitional expressions in the Little Brown Handbook, pp. 89-90.