How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay

write cause and effect essay

A cause and effect essay deals with examining and explaining actions or events and how each effects the other. This type of essay does particularly what its name promises: it reveals why things happen and what happens as a result.

Preparing a great cause and effect essay is not complicated at all. It follows a very logical pattern and once you understand it, the task can be quickly completed.

Here’s what you need to do to write a great cause and effect essay.

​Choose a Clearly Focused Topic

To prepare an outstanding essay, you have to choose a good topic for it. When selecting the topic, consider the length of your essay. If you shouldn’t exceed 600 words, pick a simple topic. Be concise, get right to the point, don’t include too much information for your argument. After all, you’re writing an essay, not a dissertation.

Some topics may have plenty of causes and events to deal with. Surely, you cannot include all of them into your essay, that’s why think carefully which causes are more useful for your narrative. Choose a topic that is interesting for you, it will make your essay effective and successful.

​Create an Impressive Outline

Developing a good outline is the first thing you have to do. This is an important starting point that will help you deal with your topic. To create an outline for your essay, you should decide on its structure.

You can arrange your essay with one effect caused by many things or many effects caused by one thing. To understand which pattern is better for your essay, you need to brainstorm your topic and make a research if necessary. You need to understand how many causes and effects your particular topic has. After that, you can write a topic sentence using all these points.

Support your causes and effects with details and write short sentences that will lead to the next paragraph. At the end, you have to include a short conclusion to connect all the paragraphs.

​Make Strong Arguments

Think about at least three strong arguments that you will develop in your essay. Each argument has to be backed up with 2 or 3 statements that support it. Don’t include too many statements as your reader may be confused about getting the main idea of your essay. It is always wise to limit the number to 3 points to make your essay concise and clear.

​Structure Your Essay Properly

Make sure your essay has an introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion. Your introduction has to present the topic and state the thesis of your essay. The body paragraphs focus on making a relationship between why things happen and what happens as a result. In your conclusion, you have to build a convincing and logical argument, not just to sum up the body of your essay.

Remember that cause and effect essay relies greatly on your analysis of the situation. The convincing power of your paper depends on the logical development of your arguments and clear organization of the material. That’s why structure the information effectively.

​Write a Convincing Conclusion

​The conclusion is the most important part of your essay. Without the solid ending, the whole analysis could become insignificant, no matter how well written the ideas were.
Your conclusion may include your own insights into the topic, perspectives and solutions of the problems, it can express your hopes or present a call to action. If you are not sure how to end your essay, put yourself into the reader’s shoes and think what should be said to wrap things up. Just ask yourself what needs to be written to end the narrative in a clear way. Thus, you will write a powerful conclusion with a great impression that lasts.

To make sure that your essay is short and to the point, go over it several times. Check it for grammar and spelling mistakes to be certain that everything is fine. Remember that when it comes to essay writing, practice makes perfect!