How to Write Effect and Cause Essays in College

How to Write Effect and Cause Essays in CollegeUsing 'how' instead of 'what' in your college essay is a big difference. Using 'how' will make the essay flow more naturally. Instead of introducing the topic by describing the 'what' of it, you can introduce the topic first by giving a detailed description of the 'how'. That is, you can describe the event or situation, then move on to describing how that event or situation came about.It does not matter if you already know the effects of a situation or event on another person. What matters is that you have a clear understanding of the underlying cause. The whole essay is built around this key concept. Students who make this mistake often change the subject midway through the essay. This is especially true when it comes to describing how something has come about.We are reminded of a classic example in a class we took where one of the students explained the concept of cause and effect to us. He began by telling us about the spontaneous com bustion of the logs into the fire, the campfire which caused the flames and smoke to billow out. We looked at him confused and asked what he meant by 'voluntary human combustion'. He repeated, 'Voluntary human combustion is the act of voluntarily feeding something into a process, which will cause a reaction.' To this day, we cannot remember what he had told us about voluntary human combustion.So the goal of the essay is to explain what the cause is, why the cause occurred, and how the cause has a specific effect. It is important that the essay remain focused on the effect.If you wish to focus on the cause, there are several ways to do this. The most traditional approach is to use an anecdote that helps to illustrate the cause, or to use the testimony of the principal character in the story. Another effective way to explain the cause is to focus on its relationship to other events or factors.An effect that is brought about by another event is also an effect of the cause. A classic ex ample is comparing apples and oranges. The apples have a different shape, weight, or content than the oranges. The oranges have a different color. Both of these effects have a cause.An effect that occurs when the cause occurs is also an effect of the cause. For example, say that you throw a ball across the room, hitting a table, and the table is made of glass.Once the ball hits the table, the glass will shatter. When the ball hits the table, the glass will shatter, and if the ball was made of steel, the steel would break. These two effects have a cause, and both are effected by the cause. Of course, the case would be different if you had thrown a ball made of iron at a table made of glass, and both pieces of glass had been made of iron.