Chapter 12 Cause and Effect

Cause and Effect
Chapter 12

Chapter 12 describes the steps taken to write a cause and Effect paper. Before you begin writing or even researching, make a list of all the causes of this event you already know about. Ask questions like these: Why did this happen? What preconditions existed? Were the results foreseen? Could they have been foreseen? Then do some preliminary research, using what you already know to guide the direction of your reading. Change or add to your original list of causes to reflect new information gathered from your research. Done in depth, this kind of analysis is likely to uncover an almost unlimited chain of linked causes, far more than you can effectively address in one paper. Identify one to three of them as more important (or interesting, or overlooked) than the others. Then, acknowledging that multiple causes exist, limit your discussion to those most important.
The following example names the cause first, followed by the effect:
Because the technology program received independent funding from grants and federal Title I funds, it was relatively untouched by the school district's own budget cuts.