Cause & Effect Part 2 – Structure

In this blog post, you will learn about the structure of a Cause and Effect Essay.

The Cause and Effect Essay has three main parts: introduction, body and conclusion. The body is usually two paragraphs and may contain causes and effects, causes and solutions, or effects and solutions.

Introduction

Background Information: Write some general information about the topic to set the context of your essay.

Avoid overgeneralisations, like “As everyone knows…” and “It cannot be denied…”.

Also avoid clichés, such as “Nowadays, more and more people…”, and “With the development of modern technology/society…”.

Instead, try to think of some background information that is appropriate for your topic, and helps to introduce the main idea of your essay.

Thesis Statement: A clear thesis statement is one of the most important parts of an essay. It tells the reader the main idea of your essay and helps them to understand the structure of what they will read.

Most topic sentences use the future with “will”. Examples include: “This essay will set out the causes and effects of global warming”, or “This essay will explore the effects of and some solutions to childhood obesity”.

Body

Topic Sentence: A clear topic sentence is also very important. The topic sentence sets out the main idea of your paragraph. This sentence tells the reader if the paragraph is about causes, effects or solutions. It may tell them how many points you will write about.

Examples include: “There are several causes of air pollution,” or “There are three main effects of smoking”.

Supporting Sentences: Each paragraph should have 2-3 supporting sentences. In a Cause and Effect Essay, these sentences represent the different causes, effects and solutions. Each of these should be supported with facts or examples. Persuasive facts and examples make your point stronger, by helping the reader understand why they should agree with you.

Make sure the facts and examples follow the sentence they support. The paragraph will look like this:

Topic Sentence
Supporting sentence
Facts/examples
Supporting sentence
Facts/examples

Thus, the paragraph is logically structured, and it is easy for the reader to know which examples go with which sentences.

Conclusion

The conclusion is a summary of what you have already said. You should never include new information in the conclusion. You may choose to end the essay with a final thought or opinion.

Re-state Thesis: The first sentence of your conclusion should re-state the Thesis Statement, using the present perfect simple.

For example: “This essay has highlighted the main causes and effects of addiction to technology”, or “This essay has examined the effects of and solutions to E-waste”.

Summary: Summarise (list) the main ideas from your body paragraphs. This can be very simple, e.g. “The causes include X, Y and Z, and the effects include A, B and C”.

(Final Thought - Optional): You might like to include your final thought or opinion on the topic. Remember to avoid clichés, such as “There is no time to lose”.

Learn more about studying with RMIT Training and RMIT University

Want to learn more about the pathways programs available? RMIT Training offers Academic English or Foundation Studies pathway programs.

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13 November 2020

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Cause & Effect Part 2 – Structure