Your Great Writing 5 Book is really good. You can learn a lot from it and then use what is learned to help you write the first essay. Please do not start writing your essay until you have finished these reading exercises.

THIS IS A READING ONLY ACTIVITY. You will have an assignment to complete activities in the book on the next page.

                                                                                                                      

Read the following: 

Pages 72-77  - understand the difference in Cause and Effect.

                                                                                                                             

There are three types of Cause and Effect essays.

• First is an essay just on the Effects of something happening (page 74).
• Second is an essay on the Causes, explaining WHY something occurred (page 75).
• Third would be a Cause & Effect essay where both the reasons why something happened (cause) is also discussed with the effects of that event (page 75-6).  

Your assignment for Essay #1 will be to write on a topic (to be discussed later) connected to a theme in Hidden Figures in which you write a Cause essay OR an Effect essay from Personal Experience.

 

Read pages 76 (bottom) -77. Look at the ways DETAILS are listed in support of causes and effects.

Remember when you wrote the essay on Cell Phone use? Was that a Cause paper? Or an Effect paper?

If you guessed Effect you were correct. That paper discussed the many benefits/changes in your life [effects] due to cell phone use.

 

Review Essay 4.1 on pages 78-79. Is this a Cause or Effect essay? Look at the Thesis Statement and Topic Sentences. You can tell by the verbs that it is an Effect essay. Thesis - "Although  . . . on a particular day, the weather . . . . has caused world history to radically shift in important ways. . . " This means we will be hearing about how world history events shifted [effects] due to the weather.

Please Note: if you use the verbal phrase "has caused," this will lead to an "Effect" paper because you are going to describe what results came about from that particular cause. Understand?  For example, "Covid-19 has caused many disruptions in the personal lives of many people." [this essay will be about the kinds of disruptions (effects) to people's lives].

 

Review Essay 4.2 on pages 84-85. This essay examines the Causes of happiness. Look at Thesis Statement in the Introduction:  "In this new field of happiness studies, some intriguing answers are beginning to emerge about what makes [causes] people happy." The body paragraphs detail the ways [or causes] people can be happy.

 

 

Examine page 82 on Thesis Statements. Notice you can use the words "causes" OR "effects" in your Thesis. For example, "There are several causes for climate change. " OR "There are many good effects in taking English classes."

Other words could be used for Cause paper: "There were several reasons why...." or "Many changes in the environment have occurred every year due to climate change."  You are answering the question WHY something happened [or its cause].

                                                                    

 

Other key words for an Effect paper: "There are many benefits in taking English classes" OR , "Not preparing for an exam has several consequences." OR "Moving to a better climate has resulted in my improved health."  

                                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                                       

                                                                            

NOTE: DO NOT MAKE ANNOUNCEMENTS in your Thesis. Even though the book shows an example of "This essay will discuss...." - or some students say "In this paper I will discuss....," in my writing classes, I usually tell students to avoid making announcements. Mature writers do not "announce" their topic. 

 

 

                                                                                                                                

 

Next, look at pages 83-84 on Transitions and Connectors - Practice using good transitions in your essays.  [note: remember the Transitions/Connectors in the back of the book - pages 206-08]. When you start writing the essay, you can use some of these transitions to show Causes or Effects. Some examples:

Cause Transitions: because, because of, since, due to, as, as long as, while, when.

Effect Transitions: as a result, therefore, lead(s) to, so, as a consequence, consequently, results in, for this reason, thus.

Practice using transitions where appropriate, to move from one point to another.

Before we get into the topic of your essay, please complete the assignment on the next page first which involves turning in textbook activities for Unit 4 on grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure.