These are around to make it easier for you to tell your audience how something affects you, or why something is happening. Usually, it is easier to figure out effect than it is to figure out the cause for something. For example, people spend lots of time and money on doctors to figure out the cause of an allergy, but they easily know what the symptoms of that very same allergy do to them!
You start them by thinking of a question about what has caused something to happen, or about the results of something that happened, or about both questions.
A paper that would explore causes would answer questions such as: What causes poverty? or Why are people poor?
A paper that would explore effects would answer questions such as: What does poverty do to people? How does poverty affect people?
Whenever you are having real trouble coming up with answers, you probably have a question, or a topic that is too narrow - It is only good for a paragraph. If, on the other hand, you have too many things to mention in your answer, and it is difficult to see how the parts connect, your topic, or your question is probably too broad - You might have to write a book to explain it all. In either case you will have to adjust your question to cover either a larger point, or a smaller portion of the topic. The key here is to develop your ability in narrowing or expanding a topic, to just exactly the size you need your paper to be.
As you are thinking of your subject, try to make a mental outline of the material. If the outline is too simple, you probably don't have enough information for a long paper. If the outline is too complex, you probably have too much information for your paper. Whether you divide your outline and use I II III IV as major points, then ABC as subdivisions of each, and further subdivide these into 123, to go deeper into the subject by subdividing these further into abc, depends on the depth and the length of your paper.
Remember, though, that as you are subdividing the information, you must keep parallel structure in mind. That means that if you have A, you must have a B too, if you further subdivide and use 1, you must use 2. If there is only one point to mention, don't use any letters or numbers at all to explain it.
Keep your readers in mind. The goal for this paper is to explain what you think is causing a problem, or to explain the results, or the effects of a problem from your point of view. Your readers will need clear thoughts, strong transitions, clear examples of what you see.
| Do some research. Use your questions to guide your reading. When you find some information that shows you that your thinking is not really taking you in the right direction, you will have to change your questions to the new direction you need to follow. Sometimes people change their main ideas because they have learned more about the subject and have found out that their thoughts are no longer correct. |
| Take notes - don't forget to write down the source of the information, including page numbers, author, chapter, publisher and dates! |
| Organize the information - categorize it so it will be easier to find materials you can quote. |
| Create a thesis for your paper. |
| Make your outline |
| Write your paper! |
| Revise it |
| Revise it again |
| Make sure the formatting is done properly, and then |
| Turn it in! |
I. Introduction
Hook: Answer questions such as: What are you going to write about? Why are you interested in this?, or tell a story that is an example of why this is important. Make general comments about the topic.
Thesis: Answer the question How or Why does this work? or doesn't work? You will need at least 3 reasons. These will then become your main points for your paper.
II. Transition to your first major point, and main idea for the first point.
A. Support for the first point.
1. You can have several supporting points here.
2. It depends on how long your essay or your research paper is.
B. More support for your first point.
1. Explanation of this point
a. explanation of part of this point
b. explanation of another part of this point.
2. Second important idea to explain this point.
Conclusion for the first point, and a connection to the second point.
III. Transition to your second major point, and main idea for the second point.
A. Support for the second point.
B. You can have several supporting points here,
C. It depends on how long your essay or your research paper is.
Conclusion for the second point, and a connection to the Third point.
IV. Transition to your third major point, and main idea for the third point.
A. Supports for the third point.
B. You can have several supporting points here, depending on how long your essay, or your research paper is.
Conclusion for the third point, and a connection to the next point, if you have more.
V. Continue with your transitions and your points until you have explained your thoughts completely, then transition to the conclusion.
VI. Conclusions should have:
A restatement of the thesis,
A summary, or an evaluation of the topic or the most important parts of it,
A statement to tie all loose ends together for your readers, so that they have a sense of having finished, or understood completely, what you have to say.
Follow guidelines for a good cover page and for the correct format for your Works Cited page in your Grammar reference book. There is an abundance of information there, under researched writing.