Unit 9: Cause - Effect Analysis

The recognition of causes and effects is one of the most fundamental insights assigned by the human mind.  Without that recognition, you and I would live in a state of present perceptions with no conception at all of a stream of relationships.  Hence, most of human experience would lack a sense of relationships defined by the passage of time.

Cause - effect analysis examines the relationships between events and conditions, the two factors integral to causes and effects.  An "event" is any happening or occurrence.  A "condition" is a state of being, or a set of characteristics or attributes.

A "cause" is any event or condition that either anticipates or precipitates another event or condition.

An "effect" is any event or condition anticipated by or precipitated by another event or condition.

Four different modes of development useful to the analysis of cause - effect relationships is the identification of "ultimate causes," "immediate causes," "immediate effects," and "ultimate effects."

"Ultimate causes" are any events or conditions that anticipate the possibility of other events or conditions at some point in the future.

"Immediate causes" are any events or conditions that actually precipitate or dictate the occurrence of some event or condition in the future in all of its distinctive features or details.

"Immediate causes" are any events or conditions actually precipitated or dictated by the some previous event or condition.

"Ultimate effects" are events or conditions only anticipated as possibilities sometime in the future.

Instructional Materials
Review the PowerPoint outline for key terms and graphic illustration of the relationships that exist between events and conditions related in time in cause - effect relationships.

Readings in The Longman Writer
Read "Part 3: Cause - Effect," pages 275 - 314.

Assignment
Complete the Exercise 9: The Cause - Effect Essay.

What You Will Submit
You will submit the Cause - Effect Essay.

Due Dates for Submission
Submit "Exercise 9: The Cause - Effect Essay" during Week 10.

Student Learning Outcomes
The following Student Learning Outcomes are addressed in this exercise:

1. Students will demonstrate an ability to select and restrict a topic
2. Students will identify the purpose of writing while considering an appropriate tone, language and audience
3. Students will compose a thesis that states the topic and expresses the writers attitude toward that topic
4. Students will organize materials for writing from personal experience observation, interviews, and/or reading using an appropriate pattern of organization
5. Students will apply the rules of standard English grammar

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