Simple Steps to Write a Cause and Effect Essay Outline

All academic writers or students writing academic papers have to write an essay. Cause and effect essays are one of the major types of essays. It is written to explain the reasons behind or outcomes of a particular thing or event.

Finalizing an outline before writing the whole essay will help you structure your essay easily. It will also give a direction to your essay. Finally, an outline will organize the points of your essay.

We have mentioned the samples and structures of essay outlines according to the three major types of cause and effect essays.

Read this blog further to know more.

What is a Cause and Effect Essay Outline?

As per the cause and effect essay definition, a cause and effect essay explains how one thing has caused another. This is a form of argumentative essay and is used in both school and college.

A cause and effect essay outline is the point-wise description of all the causes and effects written in the essay. You will write these points according to the basic structure of the essay: the introduction, body, and conclusion.

A cause and effect essay outline serves the following purposes:

• It logically organizes your research.
• It makes the essay writing process shorter and minimizes errors.
• It will help you highlight the significant points effectively.
• It will make your essay coherent.

So basically, an outline gives a general idea of your essay. There are three main types of cause and effect essays. To learn how to write an outline according to each type, read below.

How to Write a Cause and Effect Essay Outline?

Follow the steps given below to write a structured outline for your essay.

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1. Understand the Requirements

Before writing the essay, make sure that you understand the requirements properly. No matter if you choose the topic yourself or work on the one given by your teacher, understand its main focus before you begin with writing. Understand it thoroughly. Know its different dimensions and make some initial notes.

2. Conduct Topic-Based Research

The next step is to research the topic. The research will assist you in finalizing the points that you want to write in your outline and later in the essay.

You can collect the facts, examples, events, or actions related to the points that you want to write in the essay. But, make sure that you do not get lost while researching. Instead, pay attention to the topic and its particular dimension only.

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3. Brainstorm and Gather Your Thoughts

After conducting the research, you will have a lot of data and points to write. But, you can not just write them in the essay haphazardly. You need to organize them. Do some brainstorming and categorize the points.

For a cause and effect essay, you should first categorize the causes and effects separately. See if the causes or effects have any further categories.

For example, global warming has two major causes, anthropogenic causes, and natural causes.

If needed, you can even scribble these points roughly on a paper before you draft your actual outline.

4. Create the Outline

The outline should include all your points starting from the introduction to the conclusion. The cause and effect essay outline structure is as follows:

• Introduction: The introduction of the essay is a paragraph that describes the topic. It gives a tentative idea to the reader about what they are going to read further.
  • Hook: An attention grabber is a catchy phrase or piece of information that will hook your reader to your essay.
  • Topic Brief: A topic brief is a general introduction and gives the reader a general idea.
  • Thesis Statement: It briefly explains the main idea of your essay. You can also state the major cause and effect related to the topic here.
• Body: Usually, the body section contains three paragraphs. However, you can increase them as per the scope of your essay. It is the meatiest section of your essay, and you will explain all the causes and effects here.
  • Description of the Causes: If there are multiple causes, each will be explained separately, and if there is a single cause, it will be explained in a single paragraph after the introduction.
  • Explanation of the Effects: The essay’s body should describe all possible outcomes or effects related to the topic.
  • Relation between Both of Them: Explain the relationship between the causes and effects. You can either do it in a single para or use separate ones for each cause and effect.
• Conclusion: The conclusion paragraph is the crux of the whole essay. Your conclusion should remind the readers of the purpose of writing your essay. This is conveyed by rewriting the thesis statement.

Furthermore, the conclusion paragraph should mention all the causes and effects again, but briefly. A good way to end your essay paragraph is to write any provoking sentence that impacts the reader.

Structure your outline according to the type of cause and effect essay that you are writing. These types are further described below.

Cause and Effect Essay Outline Format According to its Types

The basic structure of all essays remains the same. All essays have an introduction, body, and conclusion. Similarly, all outlines at least have those three components.

But, the structure of the body of the essay varies according to each type. The outline structure of the three types of cause and effect essays is further explained below.

Outline Structure of Multiple Causes, Single Effect Essay

It is the type of cause and effect essay where various causes lead to a single effect. This means that the topic has multiple reasons for why it happened.

If you want to write a cause and effect essay with multiple causes and single effect, then you can opt for the following structure:

Introduction

• Hook
• Explanation of the topic or the main effect
• Thesis statement

Body of the Essay

• Cause number 1
• Cause number 2
• Cause number 3
• Cause number 4

Conclusion

• Rewrite the thesis statement
• Describe the single major effect
• Write the possible causes
• Closing line

Outline Structure of Single Cause, Multiple Effects Essay

Another type of cause and effect essay has a single cause and multiple effects. This type of essay highlights how a single topic can have different effects. First, you will explain the cause. Then you will explain all the outcomes.

The structure of this type of cause and effects essay is as follows:

Introduction

• Attention Grabber
• Description of the topic
• Thesis Statement

Body of the Essay

• Effect #1
• Effect #2
• Effect #3
• Effect #4

Conclusion

• Restate the thesis
• Describe the cause
• State all the effects briefly
• Concluding sentence

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Outline Structure of Chain Cause and Effect Essay

The third type of cause and effect essay has the same number of causes and effects. So, every single cause and effect will be explained one after the other.

An essay with multiple causes and effects will have a slightly different outline from the other two types of essays.

Introduction

• Attention Grabber
• Describe the topic - define its key terms
• State the major causes and effects
• Thesis Statement

Body of the Essay

1. Body Paragraph I and II
   • Cause 1 (Topic sentence telling the cause)
   • Effect 1 (Topic sentence telling the effect)
2. Body Paragraph III and IV
   • Cause 2 (Topic sentence telling the cause)
   • Effect 2 (Topic sentence telling the effect)
3. Body Paragraph V and VI
   • Cause 3 (Topic sentence telling the cause)
   • Effect 3 (Topic sentence telling the effect)
4. Antithesis Paragraph:
   • A paragraph stating the opposite stance.

Conclusion

• Add the rephrased thesis statement
• State all the causes and effects briefly
• State how are they related to the topic
• Broader Message

Another cause and effect essay outline template for this type of essay is as follows:

Introduction

• Attention Grabber
• Describe the topic- define its key terms
• State the major causes and effects
• Thesis Statement

Body of the Essay

1. Section 1 of the Body - Describe Causes
   • Para 1: Cause # 1
   • Para 2: Cause # 2
   • Para 3: Cause # 3
   • Para 4: Cause # 4
2. Section 2 of the Body - Describe Respective Effects
   • Para 5: Effect # 1
   • Para 6: Effect # 2
   • Para 7: Effect # 3
   • Para 8: Effect # 4

Conclusion

• Mention the rephrased thesis statement
• State all the causes and effects briefly
• State how are they related to the topic
• Broader message

Cause and Effect Essay Outline Examples

If you want to write a good cause and effect paper, you can check out the following essay samples for guidance.

Tips for Writing a Good Outline of Cause and Effect Essay

Following are some tips to write a good cause and effect essay outline:

• You should prefer using simple language for this type of essay. But do not compromise on the necessary technical terms.
• Do some brainstorming before structuring your outline and finalize the causes and effects. Make a list of all those, and then start your essay.
• It may be possible that a cause and effect essay would require you to express your opinions. You will mention the reasons you think are the causes behind it rather than mention another researcher’s more likable opinion.
• The cause and effect relation can be better explained through examples. It can be in the form of a general observation, facts or statistics, etc.
• Some conjunctive words are excessively used as an expression in cause-and-effect essays. These include, In relation to, Concerning with, This is why, etc. Such phrases and words make the linking of the cause and effect simpler.

Even if you hire an essay writing service to write your essay, make sure that they follow one of the outline structures mentioned above. Creating an outline can become very easy for you by following the mentioned guidelines.

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