This week, we turn to a more objective way of writing. Before, in descriptive and narrative writing, you were allowed to overtly express your thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. Because of purpose and genre, you get to write in a particular way and use certain strategies. Now, we turn, to blending emotion and logic. You must learn to write a clear causal analysis essay (cause and effect).
First, read the textbook material in chapters 1 and 2. Focus on how to argue, generally, in Lesson 1.7, and specifically in chapter 2, Lesson 2.4, when it comes to persuasion. It’s important to note that persuasion is the purpose and argumentation is the way, the mode, to achieve the purpose.
Second, choose a clear topic from the following site: Essay Writer:
20 Best Cause and Effect Essay Topics for 2023
Links to an external site.
.
Then, third, you’re expected to use our library website and Google Scholar to find two sources to support your ideas, your main point, your argumentative thesis.
Fourth, read the
prompt, and begin drafting. As always, if you want feedback on your individual essay, please email it to me with any questions you may have long before Friday when it’s due.
Fifth, publish your proofread and polished essay.
Persuasive Writing: Causal Analysis
Question: How did A problem cause B effect?
Causal analysis:
Prove that A caused B. In this essay, you must show that there is a logical connection and causal relationship. Your facts, used as evidence/proof/support, must be facts.
Orientation and Explanation
: You must research a problem. Every problem has a lot of causes and a lot of effects. Your job is to pin-point the most relevant relationship and persuade your audience to do something about it. You are going to read a lot about people disagreeing in terms of importance. Some people will say things like, “Z was caused by Y and if we could do something about Y, we’d solve Z.” Do you believe them? If so, take that information and use it for your own audience. Persuade them, change their mind, and, therefore, hopefully, their behavior/decisions, to fix Z by eradicating the impact of Y.
This essay is seeks to get you to think critically about complexity and challenge you to become familiar with academic research, how to find it, read it, and use it. This essay seeks to get you to make more informed, educated, and strategic decisions about what you choose to write about topically and how to write about it in a professional, scholarly way.
Objective
: In this essay, you have to write
three full pages (with a corresponding title page and fifth References page for
a total of five pages). You must find and document two academic sources from either the library’s Speedy Search, ERIC, and or Google Scholar.
Assessment/Point Distribution
:
30 points: The essay has a developed and properly formatted introduction that ends with an argumentative thesis at the end. Give your audience only the most relevant background pertaining to the problem you’ve analyzed. Tell them, in one sentence, what the conclusion of your causal analysis is.
50 points: The essay displays a clear body and subsequent conclusion that show your understanding of argumentation and persuasion. Each body paragraph must have a topic sentence that clearly communicates what the paragraph itself is about but also relates to your thesis. Each body paragraph must show proficiency with academic paragraph structure. Each body paragraph must incorporate research, analyze the research, and explain it to the audience. Your job is to find sources that provide you with enough information to use over and over again for different reasons. None of your body paragraphs should look or sound like opinion, as if what you’re arguing is only coming from you and your personal emotions. Your voice and tone should be more academic and, therefore, indirectly emotional. In this essay, please do not use first person “I.” As always, do not ever use second person, “you/your.”
20 points: The essay shows a clear attempt at APA-style general formatting and basic citation. Remember that an in-text citation (or parenthetical) provides brief information, attribution, in the sentence. For example, I could say something like, “According to Smith (2019), ‘…..'” or I could summarize and paraphrase and my sentence would, instead look like this: “………” (Smith 2019). The first quotes and the second does not. Based on my choice, my citation changes but the information, the author’s last name and the publication year stays the same. This goes hand-in-glove with the
full, complete citation on the References pageLinks to an external site.
. It would then look something like:
References
Smith, A. (2019). “Climate change is causing floods.”
Journal of American Ecology, 23(2), 243-265.
