How to Choose a Topic and Write a Cause and Effect Essay

The cause and effect essay is based on a scenario, in which one action or event causes specific effects to occur. Most students encounter a problem right at the beginning: it’s difficult for them to choose cause and effect essay topics.

It would be easier if professors assigned cause and effect essay topics for college students, but they usually don’t. They will provide a general theme, and they expect the student to come up with their own ideas for a topic.

Who said college or university was easy? This is higher education, so you have to show advanced thinking and writing skills. As all other students, you’re not only expected to follow instructions, but to show some creativity as well. The selection of a title for your papers is part of that creativity.

If you already knew how to pick topics and write cause and effect essay examples, college would be way easier. But if you’re like most students working on their first essay of this type, you’ll probably encounter some difficulties. You cannot rely on a random topic generator, since you want this essay to be creative and unique.

We’ll teach you how to choose such a topic. Plus, we’ll provide examples that will certainly inspire you to come up with your own approach.

Tips: How to Write a Good Cause and Effect Essay

Before we get to the topic suggestions, let’s go through few important tips that will help you handle the overall assignment.

  • Your professor wants you to showcase your academic writing skills, but they also want insights into your organizational skills. The way you organize the structure of the paper is important! In addition, this assignment should convey objective thinking and great attention to details.
  • Always create a cause and effect essay outline template before you start writing. The outline will give you a specific template to follow, so it will be much easier for you to write the actual essay. This type of paper is consisted of the following parts:

Introduction This is the part where you’ll set the tone of the essay and you’ll grab the reader’s attention with an interesting fact, quote, claim, or anecdote. You’ll also provide some background info on the topic, and you’ll provide a thesis statement at the end.
Body This is the main part of the essay. It’s supposed to show and prove the connection between the causes and effects you mentioned in the thesis statement.
Conclusion Finally, you’ll emphasize the importance of your topic, and you’ll summarize the causes and effects. It’s smart to provide a call to action, which could take things to a better direction.

  • When students pick their cause and effect essay example topics and plan what to write in each part of the essay, the actual writing part becomes much easier. All they need to do is focus on the plan and fill in the gaps.
  • You must never forget or neglect the editing part! It doesn’t matter how focused you were while writing. It doesn’t matter how strong your arguments are. What matters is the way you convey them in written. Go through the content several times to make sure it’s absolutely flawless!

Tips on How to Choose Good Topics for Cause and Effect Essays

When you get to choose your own topic for a cause and effect essay, you might feel like the flexibility is an advantage. When you start struggling with the topic selection, you realize this is not an easy challenge, after all. It would be so much easier to get a sample of a title and work on it, wouldn’t it?

Keep this in mind: the topic of your paper must determine a scenario in which one event or action leads to another. You must choose a major event related to the general theme your professor gave you.

If, for example, The Great Depression is the general theme, you may choose the low wages as one of the major reasons for the market collapse. Your statement will discuss how that cause contributed to such an effect. However, you cannot use the thesis statement as a title for your paper. It has to be shorter. The Link between the Low Wages and the Stock Market Crash of 1929 may be a good topic for this paper.

You may also write the topic in the form of a question, without necessarily revealing the connection between the cause and effect. What Caused the Stock Market Crash of 1929? That’s a more general topic for this essay, but it could work.

Here are some brief tips that will help you come up with topics:

  • Brainstorm to get general ideas that are relevant to the theme your professor suggested.
  • Narrow down the large topic to a very specific event or action.
  • Think of a specific effect that event or action caused.
  • Stick to the aspect of the theme that really gets your interest. That will make the writing process easier for you.
  • Set a short, clear title for your essay.

Cause and Effect Topic Suggestions!

If you don’t have the perfect topic, it won’t matter how much you try to maintain the clean structure and style of your essay. First comes the topic, and then comes everything else.

Hopefully, these examples will help you come up with a great topic for your cause and effect essay:

  1. How Modern-Day Nutritional Issues Cause Obesity in Children
  2. The Causes of Divorce in Western Societies
  3. The Effects of Abortion on Marriage
  4. The Effects of Chemical Weapons on Global Peace
  5. Why Do African People Want to Preserve Their Traditions
  6. What Causes Police Brutality in the USA?
  7. Fast Food as One of the Main Causes of Obesity
  8. The Effects of the Educational Format in Modern-Day USA
  9. How Blast Fishing Disturbs the Earth’s Ecosystem
  10. The Causes of the Solid Waste Problem in USA

What are the main things we notice about these topic suggestions?

  • They give you enough space for research.
  • They are quite specific.
  • They are cohesive with a general theme.

Those are the main things to remember when picking topics for your cause and effect papers.

If you get stuck at any of the pre-writing, writing, or editing stages, you may simply order the academic content online. You’ll get unique, custom-crafted content that you may use as samples for your own writing, but you may also submit as your own.

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