How to write a cause and effect paragraph

Cause and effect is a method of paragraph or essay development in which a writer provides the reasons for—and/or the consequences of—an action, event, or a phenomenon.

A cause-and-effect paragraph or essay can be organized in a variety of ways. For example, causes and/or effects can be put into either chronological order or reverse chronological order (that is to say, you can either start with cause and then effect or vice versa). Addedly, ideas can be presented in terms of emphasis, from least important to most important, or vice versa.

Teachers often ask students to write cause-effect paragraphs. Teachers often focus on them to help learners develop basic writing skills. Here are a few ideas ad tips on how to write a coherent cause-effect paragraph.

Pre-writing of a cause and effect paragraph

Ask yourself: what should I write about?
Is it the cause or effect or both?

You can choose to write only about the causes or only the consequences of a phenomenon. Most of the time, you will be asked to write about both: the cause and effect.

The first thing to do is to identify the topic. If you are given a topic by a teacher or a classmate, you can move to the next step.

Start with the causes. Collect as much data as possible using the brainstorming technique. Do the same thing for effect. Try to make relevant ideas between your ideas.

While-writing of a cause and effect paragraph

Move to writing your first draft. You already have the ideas that you brainstormed. While writing your first draft, explain each cause and effect in the paragraph. Provide as many supporting ideas as possible for each cause and effect.

Use linking words and make smooth transitions from one idea to another.

It is very essential that you include a clear topic sentence that shows the reader that your paragraph is about both cause and effect or just one of them. Your topic sentence should state the topic and the controlling idea.