Cause/Effect Essay
Sample Introduction
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and look at the clock. It might say 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. Then I toss and turn while trying desperately to fall back to sleep. In this time, my mind starts to wander and usually to a negative place. Am I making enough money? Will my father’s blood test be okay? Why can’t I find a better job? Did I make the right decision to move? This situation is probably familiar to most people. These questions result from the stress we all feel in our daily lives. Stress is caused by many things such as health problems, financial worries, and tough decisions. If we don’t find a way to deal with the inevitable stress in our lives, it can lead to some unhealthy consequences. The most noticeable effects of uncontrolled stress in my life are stiff muscles, crankiness and anxiety.
This essay is going to focus on the effects of stress, but the causes are mentioned in the introduction.
Notice that I begin the introduction with an anecdote (brief story). Then I talk about some of the causes of stress. After that, I mention the effects, which then leads to the thesis statement. The thesis statement tells the three effects stress has in my life. They start from less serious to the most serious.
The body will have one paragraph for each effect. In each paragraph I will explain how my life is affected and why it’s a problem in my life. This might lead me to other effects. For example, crankiness is a problem because it makes me have a short temper, which might make me lose patience with students, coworkers, or my husband.
The conclusion can offer advice about how to reduce stress in order to deal with the causes and avoid the effects I mentioned.
****For this essay, you are going to write about your personal experience with the topic. In the future, you might be asked to write about the causes or effects of stress in general- without talking about your personal experience. It depends on the assignment. For this essay, I want you to use specific details and examples (without being too personal!) from your own life. I am looking for a well organized essay with lots of specific supporting details. There is no need to use the internet for this essay because it should all come from your own experience.
Sample Introduction
Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night and look at the clock. It might say 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. Then I toss and turn while trying desperately to fall back to sleep. In this time, my mind starts to wander and usually to a negative place. Am I making enough money? Will my father’s blood test be okay? Why can’t I find a better job? Did I make the right decision to move? This situation is probably familiar to most people. These questions result from the stress we all feel in our daily lives. Stress is caused by many things such as health problems, financial worries, and tough decisions. If we don’t find a way to deal with the inevitable stress in our lives, it can lead to some unhealthy consequences. The most noticeable effects of uncontrolled stress in my life are stiff muscles, crankiness and anxiety.
This essay is going to focus on the effects of stress, but the causes are mentioned in the introduction.
Notice that I begin the introduction with an anecdote (brief story). Then I talk about some of the causes of stress. After that, I mention the effects, which then leads to the thesis statement. The thesis statement tells the three effects stress has in my life. They start from less serious to the most serious.
The body will have one paragraph for each effect. In each paragraph I will explain how my life is affected and why it’s a problem in my life. This might lead me to other effects. For example, crankiness is a problem because it makes me have a short temper, which might make me lose patience with students, coworkers, or my husband.
The conclusion can offer advice about how to reduce stress in order to deal with the causes and avoid the effects I mentioned.
****For this essay, you are going to write about your personal experience with the topic. In the future, you might be asked to write about the causes or effects of stress in general- without talking about your personal experience. It depends on the assignment. For this essay, I want you to use specific details and examples (without being too personal!) from your own life. I am looking for a well organized essay with lots of specific supporting details. There is no need to use the internet for this essay because it should all come from your own experience.