The main purpose of cause-and-effect essay is to determine the relationship between two or more phenomena. In other words, it intends to analyze how the change in the state of one or several objects necessarily leads to the change in the state of other object(s). The inevitability of such a casual sequence is the cornerstone of the analysis as it increases the researcher’s ability to anticipate the consequences of certain events and actions. The latter, in turn, means that most of the time, people could interfere with and control certain processes to increase their positive outcomes and/or reduce their harmful effects. Therefore, cause and effect analysis is crucial for any human activity in professional, social, political, and day-to-day existence contexts.
Usually, people are surrounded by complex phenomena (those caused by several reasons), and, thus, the essays may either seek to determine the most important antecedents of certain effect or concentrate on a single explanation. In this case, each research would follow its own purpose. In the former scenario, the goal is to understand the overall relational link between causes and effect(s) in the latter case – to determine the scope of impact of one particular antecedent. For instance, job satisfaction is positively associated with intrinsic motivation and supervisor support and negatively related to role conflict and role ambiguity (Grobelna et al., 2016). However, motivation may not always positively affect satisfaction with work or may influence it with different impacts regarding moderating factors like age, overall job experience, or salary, to name a few.
The example of job satisfaction shows that the cause and effect essay may be written concentrating on the consequence. In this regard, people try to understand what impacted the appearance of a certain state or event. Contrary, the paper may be written from the perspective of the cause, seeking to elaborate on the results of certain events and actions. For instance, the essay may seek to elaborate on World War II and its impact on the U.S. To answer that question, the author needs to analyze separately the impact of the event mentioned above on society, politics, and the economy. Therefore, it is seen that both types of essays serve slightly different purposes. While the first type seeks to understand phenomenon/a, the second type intends to evaluate whether some action or event can be considered prevalently good (beneficial) or bad (harmful).
Reference
Grobelna, A., Sidorkiewicz, M., & Tokarz-Kocik, A. (2016). Job satisfaction among hotel employees: Analyzing selected antecedents and job outcomes. A case study from Poland. Argumenta Oeconomica, 2(37), 281-310.