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WARNING! Work for this project will NOT be accepted late! If you miss the deadline, you will NOT be eligible to submit a draft. Therefore, be proactive and meet the posted deadlines; otherwise, the loss of points will substantially hurt your semester grade! Review the electronic submission policy to make sure you understand your responsibility in this matter.
Mandatory Requirements: As part of the exercise, make sure you address each of the following points precisely:
1. Format the piece according to basic MLA Style.1
o You’re expected to develop a fair knowledge about MLA Style. To learn what you need to know about basic formatting, go to Lessons/English Composition/MLA Style Resources/How to Format Pages in MLA 8 & MLA Page Format.
2. Type the document using 12-point Times New Roman.
o You’re reading 12-point Times New Roman.
3. Include a title.
o Be creative. A title is always the first words of your work a reader reviews.
4. Produce a clear thesis in your essay’s introductory paragraph, and be sure to underline it.
o A thesis is the single most important sentence in your essay and is the focal point around which all content revolves. A poor thesis (or no thesis whatsoever) generally leads to a poor essay.
o Express the thesis in a single sentence.
o A good thesis has a subject (what you intend to write about) and a controlling idea (the point you intend to debate).
5. Construct your essay so that it exhibits a formal structure with an introduction, body, and conclusion.
o Follow the advice offered in the “Formal Essay Basics” PowerPoint presentation. Make sure you have unified body paragraphs, all of which have a clear topic sentence, and all body paragraphs must logically relate back to and support the thesis.
6. Produce a minimum of 900 words.
o Be aware that you will lose 10 points off the project grade for every 25 words your word count is under the minimum; five points for anything less. You will not be penalized for going over the maximum, but don’t go off the deep end and write a book.
7. Polish your work. It is imperative that you address all the requirements of the exercise, but you should also consider content, grammar, and punctuation. This is an English class, after all.
8. Download your draft to the SA2 Turnitin.com drop box in Blackboard: Lessons/Essay Projects/Cause & Effect/SA2.
9. Meet the posted deadline. Late work is NOT accepted!
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1 MLA stands for Modern Language Association. Among other things, this organization sets standards for writing academic papers at the college level. In particular, many humanities departments (which includes English) tend to employ MLA Style.
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Project Grade: 20% of total semester grade or 200 points.
If you neglect any of the mandatory requirements above, this omission will have a negative
impact on your project grade. Following instructions precisely is always a factor in the grade
assigned to your effort.
Assignment Specifics
Your essay may deal with an informal or personal topic and may exhibit use of first person,
depending, of course, on your topic choice. Avoid second person pronouns. Do not select any
topic that requires that you do outside research. At this point, we have not yet discussed the
particulars of writing a research paper including proper documentation; therefore, stick to what
you know to avoid charges of plagiarism.
Central Project Purpose
The central purpose of writing this piece will be to develop a formal essay that accomplishes at
least two of these goals:
1) Clarify either the causes of an effect or the effects of something, i.e., a cause behind an
effect.
2) Make readers see important patterns.
Example: What are the causes for obesity (effect)?
Example: What are the effects of smoking (cause) on a person’s long-term health?
Basics of Writing an Acceptable Thesis
An appropriately written thesis should:
Express a generalization, a broad statement about a subject that needs clarification because
a good essay seeks to move from the general to the specific in an attempt to develop and
prove a point.
Make an assertion (an opinion about the material you intend to discuss) because the
function of an academic essay is to debate and prove the thesis, which is your opinion about
a given subject.
Include a subject and a controlling idea (subject = what you intend to discuss, controlling
idea = point you intend to make about the subject).
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Possible Topics: Note that you are not required to write about any of these; they are merely prompts to get you thinking. I do think it wise, however, that you run any original ideas by me before you write something up and submit it.
Causes or effects of a bad habit
Historical events–causes or effects
Causes behind or effects of a change of mind about some important issue or belief
Causes or effects of an accident or misadventure
Causes or effects of a family tradition or ritual
Causes behind the popularity of some sport, hobby, fad, or style
Causes behind or effects of a radical change in your appearance
Causes or effects of a form of pollution or crime
Causes behind or effects of an important decision or action
Causes or effects of an act of heroism or sacrifice
Causes or effects of a superstition or irrational fear
Causes or effects of a disappointment or success
Causes or effects of racism or sexism or some other kind of discrimination
Effects of a personality trait such as introversion or extroversion (It would be absurd to examine causes behind why your personality is the way it is since it is something you’re essentially born with.)
MLA Style format for a short essay:
In case you’ve forgotten what it looks like, don’t know, didn’t review the assigned materials, here is basic MLA Style format:
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For details about margin settings, spacing, and other rules that govern basic MLA style format, check the assigned MLA Style materials, which tell you literally all you need to know to manage the format side of the exercise. Also, if you will look in Microsoft Word under Page Layout/Margins, you will find a margin template for 1” margins, the first template listed.
Change/set default line spacing in WORD The default line spacing is 1.15 in Word. By default, paragraphs are followed by a blank line and headings have a space above them. To change the default to ensure your spacing conforms to MLA Style, do the following: 1. Choose Home > Paragraph 2. In the Paragraph dialog box, go to Spacing: Before/After. 3. Change the paragraph spacing in the After box to 0, and then choose Set as Default. 4. For Line spacing, choose Double. Note: To ensure that your text is indeed double spaced, you must either choose your settings before you begin typing your paper, or when you’re done typing your paper, you must drag the cursor across your essay from first word to last and then apply the settings. Once you’ve done this, visually inspect your paper to ensure the text is uniform.