Transcript Cause and Effect Monica Perez, Molina Hauv, Jaela Williams, Mikayla Souza What is cause and effect? o_0 • • Causes that lead to a certain.

Cause and Effect
Monica Perez, Molina Hauv, Jaela Williams, Mikayla Souza
What is cause and effect? o_0
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Causes that lead to a certain effect
writing that seeks to explain the causes
for change and new developments
Why do we use it?
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To inform and educate
To provide the basis for an argument
To persuade audience to approve/disapprove
of something
Methods of Cause and Effect
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Focus on two unrelated topics and look for a cause-andeffect connection between them
- Back it up with strong argument
Look at an effect and try to explain what brought it about
Primarily Speculative: type of writing where the
author theorizes about what causes an event or the
consequences of what certain actions may be
-EX: Drugs, Sports, Body Image and G.I.Joe, Natalie Angier
Identifying Cause and Effect
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Cause
why something happened
Effect
what happened
Usually there is multiple causes or effects
* Sometimes cause and effect will
be easy to identify because of
these phrases, but other times
it’ll be harder to identify it.
*Don’t Get Confused*
• Comparison & Contrast:
analyzing information to reveal insight
into the nature of the information being
analyzed
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-Discusses how things are
different and the relationship
between them
• Process Analysis:
something works
explains how
• Cause & Effect
: analyzing
causes that lead to a particular effect or,
vice versa, the effects that result from a
powerful cause
- Discusses why things are
different and what the
cause/effect of the relationship
is
•Cause & Effect:
explains what
caused something to work the way it does
Do You Really Understand Cause and Effect?
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More young people
became politically
active as use of the
Internet spread
throughout society.
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Cause?
use of the Internet spread
throughout society
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Effect?
more young people became
politically active
Example
• “I remember picking up my father’s books before I could read. The words
themselves were mostly foreign, but I still remember the exact moment
when I first understood, with a sudden clarity, the purpose of a paragraph. I
didn’t have the vocabulary to say “paragraph,” but I realized that a
paragraph was a fence that held words. The words inside a paragraph
worked together for a common purpose. They had some specific reason for
being inside the same fence. This knowledge delighted me. I began to think
of everything in terms of paragraphs. Inside our house, each family member
existed as a separate paragraph but still had genetics and common
experiences to link us. Now, using this logic, I can see my changed family as
an essay of seven paragraphs: mother, father, older brother, the deceased
sister, my younger twin sisters and our adopted little brother.”
• -Superman and Me, Sherman Alexie
Analysis
• “I remember picking up my father’s books before I could read. The words themselves were mostly
foreign, but I still remember the exact moment when I first understood, with a sudden clarity, the
purpose of a paragraph. I didn’t have the vocabulary to say “paragraph,” but I realized that a
paragraph was a fence that held words. The words inside a paragraph worked together for a
common purpose. They had some specific reason for being inside the same fence. This knowledge
delighted me. I began to think of everything in terms of paragraphs. Inside our house, each family
member existed as a separate paragraph but still had genetics and common experiences to link
us. Now, using this logic, I can see my changed family as an essay of seven paragraphs: mother,
father, older brother, the deceased sister, my younger twin sisters and our adopted little brother.”
• -Superman and Me, Sherman Alexie
• Cause- Author picks up his father’s books and looks at them
• Multiple effects- Has a definite understanding of a paragraph, matured/ enhanced his thinking, applying
learning to his family
Example
• “In recent decades, cities have grown so large that now about 50% of
the Earth's population lives in urban areas. There are several reasons
for this occurrence. First, the increasing industrialization of the
nineteenth century resulted in the creation of many factory jobs,
which tended to be located in cities… Second, there were many
schools established to educate the children of the new factory
laborers… Finally, as the cities grew, people established places of
leisure, entertainment, and culture, such as sports stadiums,
theaters, and museums. For many people, these facilities made city
life appear more interesting, than life on the farm, and therefore
drew them away from rural communities.”
Analysis
• “In recent decades, cities have
grown so large that now about 50%
of the Earth's population lives in
urban areas. There are several
reasons for this occurrence. First,
the increasing industrialization of
the nineteenth century resulted in
the creation of many factory jobs,
which tended to be located in
cities… Second, there were many
schools established to educate the
children of the new factory
laborers… Finally, as the cities grew,
people established places of leisure,
entertainment, and culture, such as
sports stadiums, theaters, and
museums. For many people, these
facilities made city life appear more
interesting, than life on the farm,
and therefore drew them away from
rural communities.”
• **Notice also how the topic sentence
is followed by the "focusing" or
"prediction" sentence, There are
several reasons for this.
• Function: help the reader anticipate
the organization of the paragraph or
essay
EFFECT
CAUSES
Cities have
Factory jobs
grown very large. attracted people.
Cities have
Better schools
grown very large. attracted families
to move
to the city.
“Drugs, Sports, Body Image and G.I Joe” Precis
1. In “Drugs, Sports, Body Image and G.I Joe” (1998), Natalie Angier
concludes that over the years, the morphology of the classic American dolls
‘G.I Joe’ and ‘Barbie’ have caused our society to accept drug use and body
enhancements as the only solution to gain that “perfect image.”
2. Angier supports this idea by describing that the cause of this facade is the
“cut image” of the G.I Joe dolls and then goes on to show that the effect is
men striving for the unrealistic masculinity only attainable with the use of
steroids.
3. She illuminates these effects in order to prevent men from continually
using drugs to polish their appearance which can be achieved through
exercise rather than enhancements.
4. Although in the beginning of the excerpt Angier discusses the aspects of
women’s ideal physical appearance, she is mostly addressing men by delving
into how the male population is influenced by the features of the G.I. Joe
doll that portrays the impractical image of masculinity.
Tips for your essay 
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Don’t overemphasize your case
Don’t oversimplify cause and effect relationship
Don’t mistake a simple coincidence or sequence for
an example of a cause and effect relationship
You can explain a cause then the effects or vice versa