27 Assignment Part One: Write a Cause-and-Effect Essay

What do you do?

For this assignment, imagine that you work for the educational office of the United Nations. You will be hosting adult students from your college. Your supervisor asks you to prepare a report about an important issue in the UDHR. You get to choose the issue from the UDHR. What do you think college students should know about this issue? You may choose to write about its effects so that students understand the scope of the problem. Or you may choose to write about its causes so that students understand what can (or cannot) be done to change the situation. Or you may also choose to write about how its causes and effects are a chain reaction and cannot be separated.

Here are the steps in the process:

• After you receive feedback from your teacher about your cause-and-effect paragraph, then expand that cause-and-effect paragraph into a cause-and-effect essay. Choose the best organizational strategy (block or chain), and add enough detail and description to explain each cause or effect sufficiently.  Write at least five paragraphs. Use the essay self-check and grading rubrics to review your work before you submit it to your teacher.
• After you receive feedback from your teacher about the first draft of your cause-and-effect essay, then edit your work according to your teacher’s instructions. Use this feedback to prepare the second draft of your cause-and-effect essay. Again, use the essay self-check and grading rubrics to review your work before you submit it to your teacher.

How should you do it?

Note the new tasks in bold.

• Follow the schedule from your instructor. Pay close attention to the due dates for each part.
• Type your essay on a computer using Google Docs and use the Share function to send to your instructor. You do not need to print anything.
• Use 1-inch margins on all sides.
• Use Times Roman 11 or 12 point font or similar.
• Use double-spaced lines.
• Use page numbers.
• Put your full name, class name, and date in the upper left-hand of the first page.
• Add a title, centered at the top of the page. Be creative with your titles! Get the reader’s attention.
• Use the TAB key on your keyboard to indent each paragraph.
• Write as many body paragraphs as you have major points (each major point is a separate body paragraph).
• Include some information from at least one outside source, such as a website, book, magazine, newspaper, etc. Do not copy directly from another source without proper citation. That is plagiarism and may result in 0 points for this assignment. If you use ideas or information from another source, you must paraphrase (use your own words) or quote (use exact words inside “quotation marks”). Either way, you must say where you found the information. For this assignment, a simple phrase like “According to [author name] in [title of article or book or website], [rewrite the idea in your own words]….. Example: According to Tim Krause in The Book about Everything, plagiarism is the same as cheating and doesn’t help students to learn.
• Include at least one adjective clause, one noun clause, and one adverb clause in your essay. Underline them.
• Try new vocabulary words! Your teacher will let you know if they are not used correctly.
• Write in a more formal academic tone by writing in the third person (do not use I, me, my, we, our, ours, you, your, yours); do not use contractions like don’t and can’t. Avoid vague vocabulary, such as bad, good, a lot, big, etc.; use more precise words.
• Proofread carefully to make sure you are accurately using standard grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.

How will your work be graded?

You will receive two scores for this project. One score is for the first draft; it focuses on content and organization. The other score is for the second draft; it focuses on grammar and mechanics. Review the grading rubrics to understand how your teacher will evaluate your work.