Cause and Effect

The essays below examine the cause-and-effect relationship of their subjects. You can learn to use this pattern from these websites:

All writers in this collection speak for themselves—and themselves alone.

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Kevin Drum, writing for Mother Jones magazine, explains the effects that lead has had on crime rates.

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New Yorker staff writer David Owen explores some reasons why panda bears living in captivity have problems reproducing.

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Writer Alexandra Owens describes how she discovered international cuisine by visiting EPCOT's World Showcase in Walt Disney World.

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Tips from Former Smokers, the US government's anti-smoking ad campaign, focuses not on the possibility of death but on the poor quality of life resulting from cigarette smoking, leading many smokers to quit their habit.

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CEO Kyle Wiens explains the correlation between someone's grammar competence and that person's readiness for professional life.

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Film and television expert Jason Bailey explores the feminist impact of Cosby Show character Clair Huxtable.

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Jake Halpern, reporting for the New York Times, explores the ways debt collectors operate and provides useful tips for beating them at their own game.

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John Kaag, a professor of philosophy and expository writing, explains how his mother's constant and consistent criticisms of his essays affected his writing.

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Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, explores how people think and how that thinking process is often unclear to the audience.

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Andrew Solomon, who writes about psychology and popular culture in the New Yorker, considers the complexity of Robin Williams's suicide.

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Why do young people make the choices they do? The answer lies in their biology, not just their rebelliousness.

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Michel de Montaigne, writing in the seventeenth century, expands upon eros and marriage and other human problems.

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English professor Gillen D’Arcy Wood describes the global impact of Mount Tambora's 1815 eruption.

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Tomoyuki Iwashita, once employed in a "dream" job, examines the effects of his working for a traditional, demanding Japanese company.

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