Common Writing Assignments
11 The Cause/Effect Essay
The cause/effect essay delineates the reasons why—the causes—an event or phenomenon has occurred and explains the consequences—the effects—of that event or phenomenon. It is a common assignment in most school and college courses. What were the causes of the First World War and how did the war affect Canadian society? Why does Hamlet procrastinate and how does his procrastination affect the plot of the play? What causes global warning and how does global warming affect the integrity of the planet? Why did the NBA introduce the three-point shot into basketball and how has the three-point shot affected the game?
Every cause/effect essay will include causes and effects, though not necessarily in the same proportion. The writer might give them equal treatment: Here are the three main causes of global warming and here are three ways in which global warming affects our lives on planet earth. Or the writer might privilege one, depending on the purpose of the essay or the nature of the assignment. If you are writing an essay about how divorce affects teenagers, you are not necessarily going to present a full account of the causes of divorce, but rather provide some indication of its frequency as part of your introduction. If you are writing an essay about the effects on health of a vegetarian diet, you may mention the increasing popularity of vegetarianism in your introduction, but then focus your attention on the diet’s effects in body paragraphs.
Read carefully the following essay on the causes of forest fires.
Example: Why Our Forests Are Burning
Forestry ranks among British Columbia’s most lucrative industries, generating billions of dollars in export revenue and providing jobs for over 200,000 workers. The resulting costs to the province in loss of revenue, purchase and use of expensive equipment, and overtime wages have reached nearly half a billion dollars (Lindsay). Though lightning strikes and human carelessness continue to be the leading causes of forest fires, global warming has intensified the danger in recent years.
In order to spread, fire needs fuel, oxygen, and heat. Biomass production and vegetative growth provide fuel for forest fires and the photosynthesis of living green organisms creates oxygen (Nix). When these natural combustibles reach 572ºF, gas in the steam given off reacts with oxygen to reach its flash point with a burst of flame, creating an uncontrolled forest fire.
There are three primary classes of forest fires, depending on the types of fuels involved and their moisture content. Surface fires typically burn readily but at a low intensity; crown fires generally result from intense rising ground fire heat and occur in the higher sections of draping trees; ground fires are the most infrequent type of fire but make for very intense blazes that can potentially destroy all vegetation and organic manner, leaving only bare earth. These largest fires actually create their own wi