Anker Susan. Real Essays with Readings with 2009 MLA Update

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WRITING ESSAYS

Chapter 17 • Cause and Effect 277

groom, the less likely their marriage is to succeed (Amato, Johnson,

Booth, & Rogers, 2003). That may be because, as Erikson pointed out,

intimacy is hard to establish until identity is secure. Thus, in a series of

studies, college students who were less advanced on Erikson’s identity

and intimacy stages tended to deﬁ ne love in terms of passion, not inti-

macy or commitment — butterﬂ ies and excitement, not openness, trust,

and loyalty (Aron & Westbay, 1996).

3 A second inﬂ uence on marital success is the degree of similarity

between husband and wife. Anthropologists distinguish between homog-

amy, or marriage within the same tribe or ethnic group, and heterog-

amy, or marriage outside the group. Traditionally, homogamy meant

marriage between people of the same cohort, religion, socioeconomic

status, ethnicity, and education. For contemporary marriages, homog-

amy and heterogamy refer to similarity [and difference, respectively] in

interests, attitudes, and goals (Cramer, 1998).

4 One study of 168 young couples found that social homogamy,

deﬁ ned as similarity in leisure interests and role preferences, is particu-

larly important to marital success (Houts, Robins, & Huston, 1996).

For instance, if both spouses enjoyed (or hated) picnicking, dancing,

swimming, going to the movies, listening to music, eating out, or enter-

taining friends, the partners tended to be more “in love” and more com-

mitted to the relationship. Similarly, if the two agreed on who should

make meals, pay bills, shop for groceries, and so on, then ambivalence

and conﬂ ict were reduced.

5 A third factor affecting the success of a marriage is

⻬

marital

equity, the extent to which the two partners perceive a rough equal-

ity in the partnership. In many modern marriages, the equity that is

sought is in shared contributions. Both partners expect equality and

sensitivity to their needs regarding dependence, sexual desire, shared

conﬁ dences, and so on, and happier marriages are those in which both

partners are adept at emotional perception and expression (Fitness,

2001). What matters most is the perception of fairness, not absolute

equality.

⻬

PAUSE: What does

intimacy mean

here?

PAUSE: What are

homogamy and

heterogamy?

PAUSE: Why is

social homogamy

important?

PAUSE: What is

marital (or relation-

ship) equity?

■ TEACHING TIP

If the class has studied

deﬁ nition, point out

that paragraphs 3, 4,

and 5 use deﬁ nition.

LANGUAGE NOTE

Eating out means

eating at a

restaurant.

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WRITING ESSAYS

278 Part Two • Writing Different Kinds of Essays

References

Amato, P. R., Johnson, D. R., Booth, A., & Rogers, S. J. (2003). Continu-

ity and change in marital quality between 1980 and 2000. Journal of

Marriage and Family, 65, 1–22.

Aron, A., & Westbay, L. (1996). Dimensions of the prototype of love.

Journal of Personality and Social Relationships, 70, 535–51.

Cramer, D. (1998). Close relationships: The study of love and friendship. New

York: Oxford University Press.

Fitness, J. (2001). Intimate relationships. In J. Ciarrochi, J. R. Forgas, &

J. D. Mayer (Eds.), Emotional intelligence in everyday life: A scientiﬁ c

inquiry (pp. 98–112). Philadelphia: Psychology Press.

Houts, R. M., Robins, E., & Huston, T. L. (1996). Compatibility and the

development of premarital relationships. Journal of Marriage and the

Family, 58, 7–20.

— From Kathleen Stassen Berger, The Developing

Person through the Life Span, 6th ed.

(New York: Worth, 2005)

1. Double-underline the thesis statement (the sentence indicating

whether the piece will discuss causes or effects).

2. Put a check mark (⻬) by each cause or factor affecting marital success.

3. Why do you think certain words are in bold type?

Answers will vary, but

they should indicate that the terms are important to the subject of the

course.

4. Circle the transitions.

5. Does the piece have the four basics of good cause and effect? Be

ready to explain your answer.

6. What do you think are the most important factors for a marriage or

other committed relationship? Answers will vary.

Cause and Effect at Work

The following proﬁ le shows how an attorney, consultant, and city coun-

cilor uses cause and effect.

■ For a list of the

four basics of good

cause and effect, see

page 272.

■ The ﬁ nal question

after each reading in

this section makes a

good essay topic.

■

COMBINING

MODES: If you have

talked about illustra-

tion, point out to

students that the

author uses examples

to demonstrate how

certain factors affect

marriage. She also de-

ﬁ nes terms as needed.

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WRITING ESSAYS

Chapter 17 • Cause and Effect 279

The following is a talk that Jolanda Jones gives to students.

VOCABULARY

The following words are italicized in the essay: consequences, abusive,

coward, aspirations, humiliated, and capable. If you don’t know their

meanings, look them up in a dictionary.

1 Some of the worst life situations I’ve seen were caused simply by

people failing to consider the effects of their actions. Each of you in

this room must learn for yourselves that every single decision you make

has consequences. It is important that you think about the decisions you

make before you make them because if you don’t, then you will end up

somewhere you didn’t plan for.

Jolanda Jones

Attorney, Houston

City Councilor, and

Consultant

BACKGROUND:

I grew up in a housing project in Houston, Texas, where

I lost several relatives to street violence. I always did well in school,

however, as a student and an athlete. I eventually graduated magna

cum laude from the University of Houston, where I was a three-time

NCAA heptathlon champion, and afterwards enrolled in law school.

In 1996, I qualiﬁ ed for the U.S. Olympic Team trials, and I won the high

jump, beating Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who went on to win the gold medal.

However, my brother was murdered at about this time, and for a variety

of reasons, I did not do well in the rest of the trials. In 2000, I received

the NAACP’s Award for Legal Excellence for dedication to community

service. I started my own consulting business, along with a law practice,

and in 2007, I won a highly contested seat on the Houston City Council.

Along the way, I was a contestant in season 10 of Survivor.

COLLEGES/DEGREES: B.A., University of Houston; J.D.L., University of

Houston, Bates School of Law

EMPLOYER: Self

WRITING AT WORK: Legal briefs, proposals, letters, Web site content,

speeches, presentations

HOW JOLANDA USES CAUSE AND EFFECT: As part of my community service

and consulting, I speak to inner-city youth. When I address students, I

emphasize the importance of understanding that for every action they

take, there is a consequence they should consider. During my election

campaign, I emphasized to voters how a vote for me would result

in many changes in the city of Houston.

Proﬁ le of Success

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WRITING ESSAYS

280 Part Two • Writing Different Kinds of Essays

2 My best decisions are the ones I make when I think my grand-

mother might ﬁ nd out about them. If I would be proud for her to know

the decision I’ve made, then it’s probably a good decision. If I have to

sneak or would be ashamed for her to know my decision, then it is prob-

ably a bad decision. In any case, here are some examples of the thought

process in good decision making. They show what happens when you

don’t consider consequences.

3 Some of you girls might be getting pressured by your boyfriends to

have sex. What should you think about? Well, you’re probably wonder-

ing what he’ll say if you don’t sleep with him. Will he break up with

you or call you “prude”? Well, don’t let him deﬁ ne you. What if you

get pregnant? What if you get a sexually transmitted disease? What if

you get AIDS? What if you break up after you have sex with him? Will

he tell everyone how good you were in bed? Will everyone know your

business?

4 Single parenthood is hard. I know from personal experience. I had

graduated from college, was working as a minority recruiter and admis-

sions counselor, and was training for the Olympics. I also planned to go

to law school at Stanford. Then, I got pregnant without planning for it.

Suddenly, I was expecting a child with a man who was both abusive and

unsupportive. I was not married. I was disappointed in myself. I was

ashamed of the shame I brought on my grandmother. I was a coward.

I ﬂ ed the United States and hid my pregnancy in Spain. I absolutely

love my son, but I gave up my Olympic aspirations and Stanford Law

School.

5 Some of you might be thinking about using drugs. Think long and

hard. I have crackheads in my family whose lives have been destroyed.

Some are homeless. Some are dying of AIDS. My aunt was murdered

in a drug house. My brother was murdered buying marijuana. I have an

alcoholic cousin who does not take care of her children, and she is on

welfare. People who do drugs come to love drugs more than they love

anyone or anything else. Then, the drugs control you. You lose control

of your life.

PAUSE: What do

you expect the next

paragraph to be

about?

LANGUAGE NOTE

Break up with

means to end the

relationship. Prude

means too proper.

■ COMBINING

MODES: Note the use

of narration within the

cause and effect.

LANGUAGE NOTE

A crackhead is

a person who is

addicted to crack

cocaine. On

welfare means

getting ﬁ nancial

assistance from the

government.

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WRITING ESSAYS

Chapter 17 • Cause and Effect 281

6 What about crime — just little stuff, like shoplifting that little pair of

earrings at the neighborhood Target? When I was sixteen, I’d worked

to earn money to buy stuff I wanted. I wanted a pair of jeans. Instead,

my mother took my check for herself. I still thought I was entitled to the

jeans, so I went to Target and took a pair. I got caught. I was arrested,

handcuffed, put in the back of a patrol car, and detained. I ducked my

head down in the back of the patrol car. I just knew the whole world

was looking at me. I was humiliated. I should have thought about the

consequences. It wasn’t right to steal from Target even if my mother

took my check. You best believe I’ve thought about that ever since that

date because I’ve never shoplifted again. I even told my son about it.

I don’t want him to make the same mistake that I did.

7 You have choices in life, and it’s up to you to make the decisions

that will most positively beneﬁ t your life. We are all capable of thinking

through stuff and making the right decision. The question is: Are you

going to do it, or are you going to just take the easy road through life?

My grandmother said, “If you make a bad decision, learn from it and

move on; that way it’s not your fault. If, however, you make the same

mistake twice, you’re stupid and it is your fault.” I don’t know about

you, but I’m not stupid.

8 I’ve made good and bad decisions in my life. Thankfully, I’ve made

more good ones than bad. I hope to continue to make good decisions by

considering consequences and learning from my mistakes. I hope that’s

your philosophy too.

1. What grade level of students do you think Jolanda is addressing?

Junior

high or high school

2. What is Jolanda’s purpose?

To show the importance of considering

consequences

3. Double-underline the thesis statement (the sentence indicating

whether the piece will discuss causes or effects).

4. Underline each topic sentence.

LANGUAGE NOTE

Take the easy road

means not making

hard choices.

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WRITING ESSAYS

282 Part Two • Writing Different Kinds of Essays

5. Use ring diagrams to show one of the situations Jolanda presents, along

with the causes or effects.

CAUSE EVENT/

SITUATION

EFFECT

pressure

having sex

pregnancy

Cause and Effect in Everyday Life

The following example of cause and effect writing appeared in a newspa-

per article.

VOCABULARY

The following words are italicized in the essay: peer pressure, con-

serve, consumption, herd, intensifying, activists, oblivion, productive,

insights, quirks, psyche, immobilize, irreplaceable, heritage, symboli-

cally, compliance, manipulate, coincidentally, and scrupulous. If you

don’t know their meanings, look them up in a dictionary.

IN PRAISE OF PEER PRESSURE

Christopher Shea

1 Peer pressure gets bad press, but in some cases more of it might make

the world a better place. In California, psychologists recently found

that they could get people to conserve electricity with a simple notice,

delivered to their doorstep, telling them how their consumption com-

pared with the neighborhood average. In the weeks that followed,

homeowners who were consuming more electricity than their neighbors

cut back — presumably because they were embarrassed to be out of step

with the herd.

■ COMBINING

MODES: If you have

studied deﬁ nition,

point out to students

that while this is a

cause and effect essay,

paragraph 2 uses deﬁ -

nition to explain the

term social-norms mar-

keting.

6. Double-underline the sentence in the concluding paragraph that restates

Jolanda’s main point.

7. Write about a time when you didn’t consider the negative consequences

of an action.

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WRITING ESSAYS

Chapter 17 • Cause and Effect 283

2 The research, reported in Psychological Science, reﬂ ects growing

interest in what’s known as “social-norms marketing” — attempting to

change behavior by telling people what their peers do. The basic con-

cept is about two decades old, but psychologists have been intensifying

efforts to ﬁ nd more effective ways of using it. And now, with a growing

recognition of the limits of browbeating, a wide range of groups — from

climate-change activists to college deans trying to keep students from

drinking themselves to oblivion — have been making peer pressure

their ally.

3 “The norm is like a magnet,” says Robert Cialdini, a professor at

Arizona State University who is an author of the new study. “What’s

appropriate to do, in most people’s minds, is what other people like

them do.”

4 The social-norms approach is part of a general movement to make

productive use of insights into the quirks of the human psyche. For example,

psychologists have found that presenting people with a wide range of

choices (about almost anything) can frustrate and immobilize them, so

that they end up making no choice at all or a bad choice. Supermarket

managers and policy experts designing health plans have taken note.

5 Cialdini’s work tends to focus on the environment. In a paper from

2003, he identiﬁ ed a problem with signs in the Petriﬁ ed Forest National

Park, in Arizona, intended to discourage the theft of ancient, irreplace-

able wood. The signs sternly warned that America’s “heritage” was being

“vandalized” by “theft losses of petriﬁ ed wood of 14 tons a year.”

6 That sent the message that pocketing souvenirs was the norm for

tourists, Cialdini argues. In an on-site experiment, he and his coauthors

demonstrated that by making use of new signs that stressed how few

people removed items from the park and that by symbolically isolating

those who do (on the sign, thieving stick ﬁ gures had red slashes through

them), the park could cut vandalism substantially.

7 In another experiment, Cialdini has shown that hotels will have

more success encouraging their clients to reuse towels if they alter the

wording of their appeals. “Join your fellow guests in helping to save the

PAUSE: What

is social-norms

marketing?

PAUSE: Why would

supermarket man-

agers want to think

about this?

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284 Part Two • Writing Different Kinds of Essays

environment: A majority of our guests use their towels more than once”

works better than any other approach.

8 In Minnesota, a study by the Department of Revenue found that

informing taxpayers that most people don’t cheat on their taxes im-

proved tax compliance more than stressing the link between taxes and

popular public programs.

9 The ﬁ eld is still in ﬂ ux: The effects of peer pressure remain hard

to measure and hard to manipulate — yet the tug of the herd mindset is

everywhere. Coincidentally, I recently came across a survey that found

that 80 percent of adult males in the United States have six or fewer

drinks in a week. I was taken aback, assuming the average was higher.

I skipped wine with dinner a few times that week.

10 Later that same week, I read in an economics journal that freelance

businessmen — I’m a freelancer — report only about 60 percent of their

income, according to IRS estimates. Yet I’m scrupulous to the penny.

Do I want to remain abnormal? Does anyone? I ﬁ led for an extension,

so I’ve got some time to think about it.

— From the Boston Globe, 29 April 2007: E4–5

1. Double-underline the thesis statement.

2. Underline two examples of the positive effect of peer pressure.

3. In paragraphs 5–7, what positive effects of peer pressure are desired?

to stop taking pieces of petriﬁ ed wood, to reuse towels

4. Does the essay have the four basics of good cause and effect? Be

ready to explain your answer.

5. Give some other examples of the effects of peer pressure, either negative

or positive.

Critical Reading and Writing: Key College Skills

1. Summary. Brieﬂ y summarize each of the three selections, including

the subject of each and examples of causes and effects.

2. Analysis. Review the three selections, focusing on the thesis statements

and topic sentences in each. Which of the three has the clearest struc-

ture in the body paragraphs? Why?

PAUSE: Can

you think of an

example of a posi-

tive effect of peer

pressure?

PAUSE: What is

he going to think

about?

■ TEAMWORK

These questions, and

the ones following the