Choosing an Essay Topic for a Successful Cause and Effect Essay

Make sure you choose the essay topic that is important for you. Choosing the correct essay topic makes your cause and effect essay more successful. Speaking from your heart and mind instead of listing some vague ideas brings your writing to the next level and makes a great effect on your reader. Here are 3 topics.

What has lead to stricter gun possession laws in the United States? (please mention that disarming citizens will give more power to government and less safety for citizens)

How Will Changes in Gun Regulations Affect Our Society?(please mention 2nd Amendment and why it was created)

Video games have negative effects on mental health.

Write an essay asserting a possible cause, or causes, of an important issue. In this essay you should first address a phenomenon; define it, and make a case for its importance. Second, you should explore possible causes for this phenomenon and link those causes together to form a hypothesis about the cause, or causes, of your chosen subject. 

• Did the student choose an appropriate subject? Was there a question as to the cause of a defined issue?
• Was there a hypothesis made as to the cause, or causes?
• Were links made between causes?
• Does the paper include enough evidence to support these possible causes?
• Is the hypothesis asserted a convincing one?
• Does the paper have a logical structure? Do the ideas flow clearly from one point to the other?
• Is the scope of the causal argument both substantial enough, and narrow enough, to adequately develop in 5-7 pages?
• Is the paper at minimum 4 and three-quarters pages long?  (student may fail if length not met)
• Did the student turn in a rough draft on time? Did the paper develop from rough draft to final draft?
• Did the student comment on others’ rough drafts?
• Was the paper handed in on time and in the proper form?
• Does the paper contain spelling or other errors? 

• Did the introduction catch the reader’s attention from the beginning?
• Did the introduction establish the necessary context? Did it introduce and/or define an issue to investigate the cause(s) of?
• Did the introduction give us a reason that a cause should be looked at? In other words, did the author give us a reason to care?
• Did the introduction set up or otherwise introduce the main points to be developed in the body? 

• Are the points set up in the introduction developed clearly in the body of the paper?
• Are the points presented in a logical way? Is there a logical flow of thought from one sentence to another or are the ideas unorganized?
• Are the sentence structures varied?
• If there are sources, are the sources clearly cited?
• Were smooth transitions used between paragraphs and main points?

Conclusion – 15 points 

• Does the conclusion address the main ideas that have been introduced in this paper?
• Have the main points in the paper been sufficiently addressed to make the paper feel complete?
• Has an overall hypothesis been asserted as to the cause or causes of an issue?
• Is there a call to action or issues to further consider?