Cause and Effect
Function | Word or phrase | Example |
Expressing causes (Reasons) | One reason for ... is. There are several reasons for .... One reason is ... . One reason why (clause) is .... There are several reasons why (clause). One reason is ... . Due to ... Owing to ... Because of ... (These are prepositions and are followed by a noun or noun phrase. Use the fact that to introduce a clause.) | One mason for The financial crisis in 2008 was lack of regulation in the banking sector. There were several reasons for the economic downturn in 2008. One reason was the collapse of the housing market. One reason why people were unable to repay their mortgage was the increase in the interest rate. There were several reasons why people were unable to repay their mortgage. One reason was the increasP in the interest rate. Due to the decrease in demand, many companies were forced to downsize their workforce. Owing to the fact that there was a decrease in demand, many companies were forced to downsize their workforce. |
Expressing effects (Results) | Consequently, As a result, Therefore, For this reason As a consequence, This means that ... . This can / may / might mean that ... This results in .... This can / may / might result in .... One of the main results / effects is ... An important result / effect is .... | Many companies went bankrupt. Consequently, there was a rise in unemployment. There are stricter regulations on lending money. This means that it is more difficult to borrow. More people are renting houses than buying. This may result in an increase in rent prices. The number of house sales has fallen dramatically. One of the effects has been a decline in the construction of new homes. |
Practice Exercises
A. Underline the cause and draw a wavy km under the effect in each of the following pairs of sentences. Then rewrite them using one of the transition phrases in the chart.
1. A decline in the number of bookstores. Many people are buying books online.
2. More people are working from home. Communication by computer is faster and more efficient.
3. People watch movies at home on the Internet, or on DVD. Fewer people are going to movie theaters.
4. Too many people try to text and drive at the same time. There are many car accidents.
B. Complete the paragraph with words or phrases from the box. Some words can be used more than once.
as a result because of cause consequently due to effect reason result result in resulted therefore meant that
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The Industrial Revolution 1. in enormous changes to the way society was organized. The most popular view is that the main 2 was the invention of new technology, most notably, the steam engine。 3. improved machinery, craft industries that were traditionally carried out in the home were replaced by factories. This 4 people started to move to the towns and cities for work. 5 towns and cities became larger and more crowded. Another 6 was that goods could be produced cheaply and in greater quantities.7. more people could afford to buy them and their quality of life improved. Another view, however, is that an important 8 for placing workers in large factories was that employers could have greater control over their workers 9 they had to work longer hours and produce more. Technology was 10 developed in order to speed up their productivity.
In the 20th century, the Information Revolution is also having an 11 on the organization of our society. 12 the invention of the Internet, people can communicate more quickly and efficiently than ever before. One 13 of this may be that in the future more people will work from home. It is possible that this may 14 a change of attitude concerning how much control employers need to have over their workers. |
