A prolific painter of portraits before and after the French Revolution ...

ch07.qxd 12/2/04 11:59 AM Page 339
explaining:
the writing process
339
something is typically done. In her essay “Anorexia Nervosa,” student writer Nancie
Brosseau uses transitional words to signal the various stages of anorexia. In the
following sentences, taken from the third paragraph of her essay, the italicized words
mark the chronological stages of her anorexia:
Several serious health problems bombarded me, and it’s a wonder I’m still
alive. . . . As my weight plummeted, my circulation grew increasingly
worse. . . . My hair started to fall out, and my whole body took on a very
skeletal appearance. ...I would force myself to vomit as soon as possible if I
was forced to eat. The enamel on my teeth started to be eaten away by the
acid in the vomit, and my lips cracked and bled regularly. I stopped menstruating
completely because I was not producing enough estrogen. . . . One
time, while executing a chain of back handsprings, I broke all five fingers
on one hand and three on the other because my bones had become so brittle.
. . . I chose to see a psychologist, and she helped me sort out the emotional
aspects of anorexia, which in turn solved the physical problems.
C AUSAL A NALYSIS In order to explain why something happens or what the effects
of something are, writers often use one of the following three patterns of cause
and effect to shape their material:
Cause 1 + Cause 2 + Cause 3 ...+ Cause n → Effect
In the case of fire, for example, we know that three causes lead to a single effect.
These causes do not occur in any special sequence; they must all be present at
the same time. For historical events, however, we usually list causes in chronological
order.
Sometimes one cause has several effects. In that case, we reverse the pattern:
Cause → Effect 1 + Effect 2 + Effect 3 ...+ Effect n
For example, an explanation of the collapse of the economy following the stock
market crash of 1929 might follow this pattern. The crash (itself a symptom of other
causes) led to a depreciated economy, widespread unemployment, bankruptcy for
thousands of businesses, foreclosures on farms, and so forth. An essay on the effects
of the crash might devote one or two paragraphs to each effect.
In the third pattern, causes and effects form a pattern of chain reactions. One
cause leads to an effect that then becomes the cause of another effect, and so on:
CRITICAL THINKING
Teachers often do not assign
causal-analysis essays,
preferring (and rightly so)
to have writing assignments
focused on a writing
situation. But don’t forget
to have students practice
doing causal analysis on the
issues in their own essays.
Almost every topic has
issues that are open to cause/
effect reasoning. Model for
students how to use causal
analysis on their topics to
help them examine causal
logic in their essays.
Cause 1 → Effect 1 (Cause 2) → Effect 2 (Cause 3) → Effect 3
PROFESSIONAL COPY—NOT FOR RESALE