Getting Started (Part 15): Cause/Effect and Compare/Contrast Essays

By Joanne D. Kiggins

Cause/effect and compare/contrast essays can open many avenues of writing. If you do your research, these types of essays may leave you surprised at how many subjects can be explored with the results you find. Here we'll explain how to develop both.

In a cause/effect essay the writer focuses on a subject or situation and explains the relationship between a subject and its cause and/or the effects it had on something or someone. The essay should ask why (cause) and/or explain the result (effect). The writer should be careful not to mistake coincidence with cause, and also consider all the possible causes and possible effects.

Let's say you are going to write an essay about a natural disaster. That is your idea or subject. There are many types of natural disasters: floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc. Which disaster could you best discuss the causes and/or effects of?  You think explaining the cause and effect of tornadoes will be easy, right?  

Maybe.

Tornadoes are caused by swirling wind and the effect is major damage.

Not a very dramatic or helpful statement. This 12-word sentence doesn't give much explanation to the scientific cause or the type of damage that can occur, does it?

This is where cause and effect essays can be challenging. Not only can you investigate, research, and study the cause of a tornado, but you can also explain the results or effects that tornadoes have under particular circumstances.

Here are a few questions you could ask yourself about the cause of a tornado:

1. How do tornadoes form?
2. Is it true that low pressure during a tornado causes buildings to explode as it passes?
3. How does a tornado demolish one building and leave the next totally untouched?
4. Does a tornado cause the barometer to drop?

If you focus on one particular idea about the tornado and research that idea, there's no reason why you can't write an informative essay about the cause and/or effects.

Here is a list of effect questions to go along with those above:

1. What happens when a tornado forms?
2. What effect does low pressure have during tornadoes?
3. Does a tornado skip certain areas?
4. What effect does the barometer have on tornado damage?

Let's try that first question and first sentence again and see how a bit of research on the subject can change the first sentence of the essay to encourage the reader to keep reading.

Supercells are the leading cause of the most destructive and deadly tornadoes.

This 12-word sentence gives a scientific cause and a reader is more likely to continue reading to find out what a supercell is and why it causes a tornado to be more destructive and deadly.

Writing a cause/effect essay doesn't always mean you have to explain both the cause and effect. The writer can choose to write only about the cause or the effects of the subject chosen.

Here's a list of subjects on which you could decide to write about the cause and effect, the cause or the effect of something:

-- Suicide (cause of suicides, effect suicide has on family and/or friends)

-- Alcoholism (cause of alcoholism, effects on the alcoholic and/or family)

-- Sleep deprivation (cause and/or effects of sleeplessness)

-- Pollution (effects on animals, humans, and/or environment, etc.)

-- Rape (effects rape has on the victim)

-- Secondhand smoke (effects on others)

Try making your own list and see what subjects you can come up with to write an essay explaining either the cause and/or effect something has on something or someone.

The compare/contrast essay is used to compare two ideas, concepts, people, places, and/or things, etc. Writers should show the subjects' similarities (compare) and/or the differences (contrast). This essay can be written to show insight on a subject, convince the readers of the benefits of the subject, or simply to entertain the reader.

First you must decide whether you will be concentrating on the similarities or differences.

Normally, the more similar things are, the easier it will be to point out the differences, and vice versa. For example, let's say you decide to compare two works written by the same author. You could go into great detail on either the similarities or the differences in the author's writing. Or, if the author has changed genres, you could compare the differences in his style, tone, characters, etc.

When writing a compare/contrast essay you should list all the possible ideas for a detailed account of similarities and differences.

Let's say you are going to write an essay about shopping. What similarities or differences could you write about on the topic of shopping?  Why not discuss the similarities or differences between shopping at small shopping centers as opposed to large shopping malls?

Here is a list of questions to help you decide some of the finer details that could use to discuss the similarities or differences:

1. What is the difference/similarity between a small shopping center and a large mall?
2. What are the conveniences or inconveniences of both?
3. Is there a difference or similarity in the varieties of stores in each? 
4. Are there advantages to shopping at malls rather than centers and why?
5. Are prices similar or higher in malls?
6. Is the parking similar or different?
7. Are the employees similar or different?
8. Is the clientele similar or different?

Using much of the list above, a writer could use an essay to show the benefits of shopping in a small local shopping center as compared to shopping in a large mall.

Shopping malls may have a larger variety of stores to shop, but small local centers offer lower prices, smaller crowds, neighborly employees, and the convenience of shopping close to home.

As a writer, you have control over how far and deep you would like to compare or contrast anything about any subject.

Let's go back to the idea of using authors as an example.

Horror writer Stephen King wrote under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. Was his style or tone different?  If so, what are the similarities or differences? Did he write in a different genre while writing under the name Bachman? How did the Bachman books sell prior to readers knowing Stephen King wrote the books? 

What about romantic suspense writer Nora Roberts?  She writes hard-core detective novels with a touch of romance under the pseudonym J.D. Robb. Does her style or tone change?  What are the similarities or differences? How did the Robb books sell prior to readers knowing Nora Roberts wrote the books?

Just about anything can be used as a subject of comparison or contrast. Again, the list is endless.

Search the inquisitive part of your brain and reap from what subjects you find of interest. Remember all those questions you have asked other people over the years?  Write them down.

Whether you decide to write a cause/effect or compare/contrast essay, try researching the answers to all your own questions and write the best essay you can write on the subject.

There is no better place to start writing essays than to answer those questions to which you have always wanted the answers.

Joanne will accept questions by e-mail about writing from readers and answer those questions in her column.

E-mail Joanne:   joannedkiggins@comcast.net

Visit her site at  http://joannedkiggins.home.comcast.net/

Joanne Kiggins has published more than 2,500 articles. Her most recent articles were published in ByLine Magazine, Writer's Digest, Absolute Write, Moondance, The Compulsive Reader, BlogCritics, Cleveland.com, Everything Alabama, and The Plain Dealer.    

An excerpt from the mystery suspense novel she is currently writing, Unearthed, placed her in the top ten finalists of the Absolute Write Idol contest. Her co-authored romance novel Unforgettable Journey placed fifth in the Grand Beginnings romance contest in March 2005. Her essay, "Perseverance," is published in the Stories of Strength anthology written in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, for which 100% of the profits will be donated to various disaster relief charities.

For more columns by Joanne Kiggins, please click here.

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