In this essay, you will write a cause and effect analysis essay about your chosen topic. Each topic has several supporting texts to use as support; read some or all essays listed with the topic to help develop your ideas. The listed supporting documents are the only ones you may use for this essay unless your instructor approves another.
Cause and effect is an in-depth examination of the relationship between causes and effects. It is not simply a list of causes or effects. In this essay, you will use at least two paraphrases or quotes from at least one of the listed texts to support your ideas. The emphasis in your essay should be on your ideas.
Essay Three Topic Reminders:
Option A: Some public school districts (and colleges) now purchase textbooks in electronic form. Amazon now sells more ebooks than paper ones. Predict and explain the effects of paper texts (textbooks, books, magazines and more) becoming electronic. You might find the following sources useful.
“A Next-generation Digital Book” by Mike Matas (Ted Talk)
“E-books Will Widen the Digital Divide” by Christopher Mims
“Books vs. Ebooks: The Science Behind the Best Way to Read” by Amy Kraft
Option B: Joanna Weiss, in her essay “Happy Meals and Old Spice Guy” writes that “the secret to survival in an ad-heavy world isn’t avoiding marketing, but understanding it” (Weiss). Study and analyze several advertisements (print, video or web). Select 1-3 successful examples and explain how these ads are supposed to reach the targeted consumers. You can focus on the attractive lifestyle promoted in the ad/s (for example, staying fit, being “green” or being financially successful), OR explain the marketing strategies and techniques (such as humor, creating a need, personal testimonies, celebrity endorsement and more) used to make us want to buy the advertised product or service. Use cause and effect analysis to show who the target consumers are and how the elements of the ad/s make consumers want to purchase a product or a service. Make references to specific ad/s for illustration and cite them.
You may find it useful to first read and watch about advertising principles, marketing and consumption in the sources below. Remember to cite them!
“Selling Ideas, Attitudes, and Behaviors” by Douglas Gentile (MC Library database)
“Choice, Happiness, and Spaghetti” by Malcom Gladwell (Ted Talk)
“The Truth About False and Deceptive Advertising” by Sienna Kossman
Option C: Societal campaigns against obesity make fast food restaurants react and change: list calories, expand their menu offerings and more. Explain some other ways that fast food industry should respond to the changes in society (changes in economy, environment protection, culture) and predict the future of fast food chains. Use the sources below for additional reference.
Schlosser, Eric. “What We Eat”
“Good and Hungry” from The Economist online.
“Food: Serving Up Superbrands”
Note: Some of these links will take you to Library databases. Unless you are working from a campus, you will need to have your number handy to log in and proceed.
If at any time one of the links above stops working, please, let me know. Meanwhile, you can search for the titles either on Library websites or on the Internet depending where the original location was. If you discover that you need to use a source of information that is not listed here, please, email me with the source and a brief explanation why you want to use it. For example, you might want to use a video clip with an advertisement for illustration.
Essay Guidelines:
- Your essay should be 4-6 pages long.
- It should be typed using a standard 12 point font. MLA standard pagination is required. See The Little Seagull Handbook 149 for a sample essay in MLA format.
- Follow directions carefully.
- It should be double spaced with margins no bigger than 1 inch.
- You should carefully review the strategies for writing a Cause and Effect Essay. This means, you do not list cause and effects; rather, you develop a larger purpose, some lesson or insight that makes the cause and effect discussion important. Consider how the causes result in the effects or how the effects result from the causes and the importance of that cause/effect relationship.
- Use at least one outside source (from the list of articles/sources provided) of information to develop your essay.
- Use a minimum of two quotes or paraphrases from an outside source.
- Be sure to include your name on your essay.
- Create a Works Cited page and cite all outside sources used in the essay including images and videos.
