LibGuides: ENGL 1301- Ewing: Cause-Effect Assignment

Library Consultation Appointment

Please be aware that your instructor requests that students schedule a consultation with a librarian as part of the Cause-Effect Research assignment. Content covered in this appointment will vary by student depending on individual information, research and citation needs and progress made by the student at the time of the consultation. It is advised that one review the LibGuide to better understand the research and citation needs of the assignment and utilize this information to identify their topic and from there, research their topic. Also try citing the research that you do find using the information on the MLA Citations tab of the LibGuide. As you go through this review process, you are still bound to have some questions, concerns or needs. When scheduling the appointment, be sure to note your needs and progress (if any). Our Librarians report that most students find this a productive experience and conclude the consultation not only with clearer direction of the library intangibles (research & citations) but with a better understanding of the assignment as a whole.

How to Schedule a Librarian Consultation
Instructions on how to schedule an appointment with a BC Librarian.
Library Visit Reflection form
Complete one Library/Writing Center appointment no later than March 31st, so please schedule your appointment with a Librarian right away by clicking the Schedule Consultation button below Mr. Cooper's photo on the left or click the Schedule a Consultation link on the BC Library's website. Please note the BC Library closes at 12pm on Fridays and is closed on weekends.
Submit your completed Reflection Form in the appropriate DROPBOX location.

Paper 4: Cause & Effect Research Paper

100 Intriguing Cause and Effect Essay Topics for Students
Coming up with engaging cause and effect essay topics can be challenging. This list of ideas includes a variety of topics that range from social and cultural movements to mental health and the environment.
Topic Ideas
Included in this handout are examples of how to take a broad topic and narrow it, tailoring the idea to the type of assignment you’re writing, such as a narrative, an argument, or a causal analysis (causes/effects).
Browse Issues- From Opposing Viewpoints
Choose a category and browse the list below to find information about people, places, and subjects.

Cause-Effect Research Practice Sheet
A great tool to access when beginning your research for the cause-and-effect research paper Notes library resources and cause-and-effect search terms. Also includes a practice template for your research. Adapted from Glendale Community Colleges

Topic Selection

Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints
Why Search Here? This resource is for researching multiple viewpoints of contentious issues. Topics are updated frequently and include academic journals, editorial and opinion pieces, and other information. Each topic has an overview with supporting documents and question for critical reflection.
Issues and Controversies
Why Search Here? Understand today’s crucial issues by exploring hundreds of hot topics in politics, government, business, society, education, and popular culture. Presented in a balanced, pro/con format, each article presents the key facts, arguments, history, and current context—an ideal resource for research papers, debate preparation, and persuasive writing assignments.
Points of View Reference Source
Why Search Here? Contains resources that present multiple sides of an issue, and provides rich content that can help assess and develop persuasive arguments and essays, better understanding controversial issues and developing analytical thinking skills.

Topic Overview

Credo Reference
Why Search Here? Credo Reference's curated, authoritative reference sources provide a firm foundation for understanding a topic. Core Collection subscribers can search in hundreds of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, quotations, and subject-specific book titles and video titles, as well as thousands of images, audio files, and maps.

Relevancy/ College Level Searching

Do an advanced search and enter your topic in the first search box. Consider other terms to reflect your topic separated by the boolean operator OR i.e. Global Warming OR Climate Change

In the second box, enter something to reflect cause or effect. Suggested terms are found under Lingo on the Cause-and-Effect Research Practice handout and the Tips for Finding Cause or Effects Sources. These terms can be later replaced with terms noting a specific cause and/or effect for your topic in box one.

One Search/Gator Search
Search many of the BC Library's subscription databases with "One Search".
Gale Power Search
Why Search Here? Cross-search content from select Gale products, including Gale's OneFile periodicals, In Context products, and/or eBooks.

Cause by Gregory Smithsimon
Call Number: HM1033.S62187 2018

ISBN: 9781612196763

Publication Date: 2018-02-13

Cause uses sociology's tools to explain how, as humans in general, we are bad at determining cause and effect, particularly when we're trying to understand social problems like poverty, discrimination, or how to respond to climate change and terrorism. Divided into three sections, the book examines how and why humans tell stories; the unseen influences that we overlook when telling these stories; and how a smarter story could greatly enhance how we understand ourselves and each other. Cause offers nothing short of a new way of looking at our world.
The Book of Why by Judea Pearl; Dana Mackenzie
Call Number: Q175.32.C38 P43 2018

ISBN: 9780465097609

Publication Date: 2018-05-15

A Turing Award-winning computer scientist and statistician shows how understanding causality has revolutionized science and will revolutionize artificial intelligence "Correlation is not causation." This mantra, chanted by scientists for more than a century, has led to a virtual prohibition on causal talk. Today, that taboo is dead. The causal revolution, instigated by Judea Pearl and his colleagues, has cut through a century of confusion and established causality -- the study of cause and effect -- on a firm scientific basis. His work explains how we can know easy things, like whether it was rain or a sprinkler that made a sidewalk wet; and how to answer hard questions, like whether a drug cured an illness. Pearl's work enables us to know not just whether one thing causes another: it lets us explore the world that is and the worlds that could have been. It shows us the essence of human thought and key to artificial intelligence. Anyone who wants to understand either needs The Book of Why.
Counterfactuals and Causal Inference by Stephen L. Morgan; Christopher Winship
Call Number: e-book

ISBN: 9780521856157

Publication Date: 2007-07-30

Did mandatory busing programs in the 1970s increase the school achievement of disadvantaged minority youth? Does obtaining a college degree increase an individual's labor market earnings? Did the use of the butterfly ballot in some Florida counties in the 2000 presidential election cost Al Gore votes? If so, was the number of miscast votes sufficiently large to have altered the election outcome? At their core, these types of questions are simple cause-and-effect questions. Simple cause-and-effect questions are the motivation for much empirical work in the social sciences. This book presents a model and set of methods for causal effect estimation that social scientists can use to address causal questions such as these. The essential features of the counterfactual model of causality for observational data analysis are presented with examples from sociology, political science, and economics.
Cause and Chance by Phil Dowe; Paul Noordhof
Call Number: e-book

ISBN: 9780415300988

Publication Date: 2003-12-09

Philosophers have long been fascinated by the connection between cause and effect: are 'causes' things we can experience, or are they concepts provided by our minds? The study of causation goes back to Aristotle, but resurged with David Hume and Immanuel Kant, and is now one of the most important topics in metaphysics. Most of the recent work done in this area has attempted to place causation in a deterministic, scientific, worldview. But what about the unpredictable and chancey world we actually live in: can one theory of causation cover all instances of cause and effect? Cause and Chance: Causation in an Indeterministic World is a collection of specially written papers by world-class metaphysicians. Its focus is the problem facing the 'reductionist' approach to causation: the attempt to cover all types of causation, deterministic and indeterministic, with one basic theory. Contributors: Stephen Barker, Helen Beebee, Phil Dowe, Dorothy Edgington, Doug Ehring, Chris Hitchcock, Igal Kwart, Paul Noordhof, Murali Ramachandran and Michael Tooley.
Everyone's an Author with 2016 MLA Update by Andrea Lunsford; Michal Brody; Lisa Ede; Carole Clark Papper; Keith Walters; Beverly J. Moss
Call Number: ENGL 1301 EVERY ROOM

ISBN: 9780393617467

Publication Date: 2016-08-12

Built on the keystones of rhetoric, Everyone's an Author provides a strong foundation for authoring in the digital age: in college essays, but also on Twitter; in print, but also online; with words, but also with sound, video, and images. It shows students that the rhetorical skills they already use in social media, in their home and religious communities, at work and in other nonacademic contexts are the same ones they'll need to succeed in college. Examples and readings drawn from across multiple media and dealing with topics that matter to students today make this a book that everyone who takes first-year writing will relate to.

Assignment Sheet- Cause & Effect Research Paper
Assignment sheet for the Cause & Effect Research Paper

Tips for Finding Cause or Effects Sources
Searching for your topic with the term "causes of" or "effects of" can be a great way to get articles in databases to support your paper, but there are other terms you can combine with your topic that may also help
Cause and Effect
Determine the purpose and structure of cause and effect in writing.
Understand how to write a cause-and-effect essay.
Writing Cause and Effect Papers
Cause and effect papers use analysis to examine the reasons for and the outcomes of situations. They are an attempt to discover either the origins of something, such as an event or a decision, the effects or results that can be properly attributed to it, or both.