project 1 research proposal
Research Proposal for Project 1: Writing to Explain Causes and Effects (25 points)
This assignment is designed to help you organize your thoughts about your topic and to facilitate the early stages of your research process. Using the “Qualities of Effective Writing to Explain Causes and Effects” discussed in Chapter 11, provide information for the following:
Part 1: Causal Argument (15 points)
1. Presentation of focused causes or effects: When you consider what causes what, or what the effects of something are, you need to convince your target audience that the cause-effect relationships you see in fact exist.
Give a summary of the causes or effects that you will be arguing for in your paper. See the guide at the end of this document in Part 3 for different types of cause-effect relationships to begin thinking of what types of causes or effects exist within your topic.
Remember, your argument should be specific to your local experience – one within your academic, professional, or local community – and highly focused. Please avoid approaching topics at a global or national level. Also, avoid speculating on future effects of an event that has not yet occurred.
2. A clearly stated claim/thesis: After you have done enough research to be certain that the causes or effects you assert in fact exist, you will be prepared to state the nature of that cause-effect relationship.
State your claim/thesis in one sentence clearly, including the specific causes or effects (either one, not both) that you will be developing in your paper.
For example, “The terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, led to tighter security screening at airports and cyber surveillance of digital communications” asserts a clear cause-effect argument with two specific effects to be developed.
Cause: Terrorist attack on September 11, 2001
Effects: Tighter security screening at airports and cyber surveillance of digital communications
3. Anticipation of possible objections or alternative explanations: While your causal analysis may be highly plausible, there are almost always other possible causes for the same effect or other possible effects of the cause that you are considering.
Acknowledge those other potential causes or effects and show (with support) why your causes or effects are more likely.
Part 2: Rhetorical Considerations (10 points)
What rhetorical considerations have you made about how to present your argument? Write about your rhetorical decisions for each of the following concepts:
1. Audience: While your instructor and classmates are your initial audience, you should target an audience related to your specific community or current/future career. Who is the target audience for your cause-effect essay? Be sure to identify a specific person or group of people with strong influence in your community, industry, or field.
2. Purpose: Your general purpose is to convince your target audience that a cause-effect relationship exists. How can you establish the causes of something (an effect), establish the effects of something (a cause), or show how a series of causes and effects are related? Why and how is the cause-effect relationship that you have identified important to your target audience?
3. Voice and tone: Why are you interested in the cause-effect relationship that you have chosen to write about? What preconceptions about it do you have? What are your attitudes toward your topic and audience? How will you convey those attitudes?
4. Context, medium, and genre: Although you are writing this persuasive paper to fulfill a college assignment, most issues worth writing about are important beyond the classroom. How might your views make a difference to your community, career, or school?
Keeping the context of the assignment in mind, decide on the most appropriate medium and genre for your writing. Consider what will be the most effective way to present your argument to your specific audience. You might write a report, a newsletter to your classmates, prepare a memo for colleagues at work, or write an op-ed piece, a magazine article, or a tri-fold brochure for members of your community.
Part 3: Tips for Writing your First Draft
While there are no points assigned to this section, please read it thoroughly to help you prepare to plan and write an effective first draft.
1. Use Clear, Logical Thinking
People often jump to conclusions when they see two events happening at the same time and assume there is a cause-effect relationship (see the discussion of post hoc, ergo propter hoc on p. 376). So consider these issues and write down your thinking as you search for cause-effect relationships:
Does the effect have a single cause, or multiple causes? Things are rarely as simple as they first appear to be. More often than not, an effect will have multiple causes. Carefully analyze and research all the causes that may contribute to a particular effect.
What are the contributing causes, and do they lead to a precipitating cause? Often, a number of causes together contribute to what might be called a precipitating cause, the final cause that sets the effect in motion. Several contributing causes might set up a single precipitating cause. Although the football fan might blame the kicker who missed a last-second field goal for the team's loss of the important game, there surely were many other reasons that contributed to the loss (for example, dropped passes, poor execution of running plays, missed tackles).
Is a particular cause remote or immediate? It is sometimes useful to examine a chain of causes so that you understand what came first, what happened next, and so on. Writing down the sequence of causes and effects will help you see the events in the causal chain as they happened over time.
Is a particular cause necessary or sufficient? A necessary cause is one that must be present for the effect to occur. A sufficient cause is one that, if present, always triggers a particular effect. For example, for a teenager to be able to borrow the family car, his or her family must have a car—that cause is necessary to the effect of the teenager being able to borrow it. The teenager's forgetting to put gas into the family car before bringing it back, however, is a sufficient cause for the parents to refuse to lend it again; other causes would be sufficient as well (bringing the car home dirty or running into a utility pole and denting the fender are also possible causes for the parents' decision), so forgetfulness is not a necessary cause.
2. Organize Your Paper
Once you have a working thesis and supporting evidence and have determined your purpose, you need to consider how you might organize your text. Decide which of the two organizational approaches you might choose for your paper.
Approach 1: Argument that states a cause and then examines its effects
Cause A ----------> leads to Effect B, Effect C, Effect D
Approach 2: Argument that states an effect and then traces the effect back to its causes
Effect D ----------> stems from Cause A, Cause B, Cause C
3. Allow Time for Feedback, Rewriting and Proofreading
Remember that your rough draft is only one step in a long and complex writing process. Effective, persuasive writing requires multiple drafts that give careful attention to rewriting in order to integrate feedback from peers, instructors, tutors and potential audience members. Be sure to plan ahead to allow enough time for revision.