Cause and effect essays are often assigned by the instructors in academia and many students find difficulty in understanding them properly. Well, if you come across such a situation where you are required to write a 5-paragraph academic essay, then read the following tips before anything else.
Step 1
First of all, formulate a list of topics that include the element of cause and effect. After making the list, select the topic which suits an essay writer the most based on knowledge and availability of the information, so as to develop an outstanding essay outline. If you think that you can come up with good and valid points about a particular topic from the list, then go for it without hesitation.
Step 2
Once the topic for the essay outline is selected, the next step is for you to determine whether cause should be considered as the angle of analysis or the effect. For that purpose, you need to do some brainstorming based on your thoughts and understanding of the topic. In this stage, make two separate lists of causes and effects and adjust them accordingly in your essay outline.
Step 3
After selecting the essay and the angle from which analysis will be made, the next step is to do the necessary research about the topic. Carefully analyze how the idea of cause and effect can be incorporated later while writing the essay. During the step of research, you should make sure that credible sources of information are selected for the purpose.
Step 4
One of the most important things about any essay is crafting an effective thesis. The more accurate an essay outline is, the more chances are these to make a thesis which outshines other essays on similar topics or themes. While writing the thesis of the essay, make sure that your approach is not self-centered. Rather it should involve the interest of people or the population which is directly affected by the subject to make it interesting and engaging at the same time.
Step 5
The last but not the least step is creating the outline based on the information given in the above paragraphs. This is the most important step and you must be very careful while making the outline of the required essay. The outline of the essay is also dependent on any additional instruction or requirement by your instructor. Once that requirement or specific instruction is listed down in the outline, it becomes easy to adjust that into the context of the essay.
Structure
The first paragraph of the essay is an introduction like in most cases. In this paragraph, you will introduce the essay topic and also state your thesis at the end of the introduction. The next two paragraphs include the ideas that support your thesis, one idea per paragraph. Make sure that the supporting ideas strengthen the thesis and hence increase your chances of getting good grades in the subject.
The supporting ideas are very important as they decide the strength of the thesis developed at the beginning. If you ever feel difficulty in coming up with the supporting ideas for your cause and effect essay outline, try a good essay writing service to get help. The fourth or the second last paragraph of the essay consists of antithesis. It includes the opposing ideas or argumentations related to the thesis developed in the introduction paragraph.
The last paragraph is the conclusion in which the thesis of the essay is stated again with different words and with few supporting sentences. If there is some information related to future aspects, do include that at the end of the last paragraph.