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:
- Excelsior College Online Writing Lab (OWL): Cause & Effect Essay
- Lumen: Writing for Success: Cause and Effect
- Udemy: How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay That Gets You an A+
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.
Cause & Effect • Modern Challenges • Mixed Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
New Yorker staff writer David Owen explores some reasons why panda bears living in captivity have problems reproducing.
Cause & Effect • Love & Relationships • Third Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
Writer Alexandra Owens describes how she discovered international cuisine by visiting EPCOT's World Showcase in Walt Disney World.
Cause & Effect • Identity • First Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
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.
Cause & Effect • Modern Challenges • Third Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
CEO Kyle Wiens explains the correlation between someone's grammar competence and that person's readiness for professional life.
Cause & Effect • Language & Writing • First Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
Film and television expert Jason Bailey explores the feminist impact of Cosby Show character Clair Huxtable.
Cause & Effect • Identity • Third Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
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.
Cause & Effect • Modern Challenges • Mixed Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
John Kaag, a professor of philosophy and expository writing, explains how his mother's constant and consistent criticisms of his essays affected his writing.
Cause & Effect • Language & Writing • First Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
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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Cause & Effect • Language & Writing • Mixed Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
Andrew Solomon, who writes about psychology and popular culture in the New Yorker, considers the complexity of Robin Williams's suicide.
Cause & Effect • Identity • Mixed Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
Why do young people make the choices they do? The answer lies in their biology, not just their rebelliousness.
Cause & Effect • Identity • Mixed Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
Michel de Montaigne, writing in the seventeenth century, expands upon eros and marriage and other human problems.
Cause & Effect • Love & Relationships • First Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts
English professor Gillen D’Arcy Wood describes the global impact of Mount Tambora's 1815 eruption.
Cause & Effect • TImes & Places • Third Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts • Connect with Author
Tomoyuki Iwashita, once employed in a "dream" job, examines the effects of his working for a traditional, demanding Japanese company.
Cause & Effect • Identity • First Person • Discussion Questions & Writing Prompts