SFL/METU
Dept. of B.E.
WHO 1
Cause-Effect Paragraphs
February 2017
PIN-B GROUP
A. REVISION
In previous handouts, you studied how to write a paragraph. Remember that a good paragraph consists
of three basic parts:
TOPIC SENTENCE
MAJOR SUPPORT 1
MAJOR SUPPORT 2
MINOR SUPPORT
example/detail
MINOR SUPPORT
example/detail
CONCLUDING/ SUMMARY
SENTENCE
The topic sentence tells the reader what the paragraph will be about. The supporting sentences give
specific details about the main idea. The concluding sentence is the summary or the repetition of the main
idea. In addition to these, a good paragraph should also include ideas that flow smoothly from one sentence
to the next sentence, and all the ideas should be relevant to one another.
B. INPUT
When you need to talk about factors that lead to a particular result, you may have to write about the causes
and/or effects of something. Writing about causes/effects is an important part of academic life.
A cause is a factor that produces an effect, while an effect is the result of the cause. Many things usually
have more than one cause. For example, a person may become ill because of too much stress, lack of sleep,
poor nutrition and exposure to a virus. Similarly, many things can have more than one effect. For instance,
a violent storm may destroy trees, flood streets and blow down power lines.
Please note that for some topics the term cause/effect is not suitable and reason/result is more
appropriate. That’s why, in certain contexts, cause/effect relationship is referred to as
reason/result.
e.g. The reasons for cheating on exams (NOT the causes of cheating on exams)
It may sometimes be difficult to distinguish between causes and effects.
*
*
To determine causes, you may ask “Why did this happen?”
To identify effects, you can ask “What happened because of this?”
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TASK 1. Underline the causes and effects and write "C" under the cause and "E" under the effect.
Example: Serious family problems can cause depression.
C
E
1. Many car accidents happen because of careless driving and bad weather conditions.
E
C
2. Loss of motivation among students usually results from getting low grades.
E
C
3. Air pollution is caused by gases from cars and smoke from factories and houses.
E
C
4. Most teenagers do not want to be seen as children. Therefore, they imitate adult behavior.
C
E
5. Lack of self-discipline and lack of good planning are the two main causes of academic failure.
C
E
6. Hair loss, high blood pressure, and skin problems are the three physical effects of stress.
E
C
TASK 2.
A. Do you sometimes feel stressed as a university student? Why / Why not? Discuss with a friend.
B. Read the gapped text and complete it with the sentences given below. Are your ideas from Part A
mentioned in these sentences?
There are three possible causes of stress in the lives of university students. The major cause is the heavy
workload. Because of challenging classes and difficult tests, students find themselves studying hard for
long hours. They have to meet deadlines to submit their assignments, and if they lack time management
skills, they may get stressed out. (c) They also have to work very hard to compete with their classmates
for grades. All these academic requirements may be a source of stress for students. (b) Parental pressure
is another cause of stress for university students. Parents want their children to succeed in school, and
they want their children to get good grades all the time. Due to their parents’ high expectations of their
school performance, students may suffer from stress. Finally, stress is sometimes caused by social
challenges. (a) Since students have to create a new social network and deal with being away from
home for the first time, most of them face social stress. Finding and living with a roommate, balancing
friends with school work and dating or failing to date can all be difficult, and these challenges can lead to
significant stress. To sum up, university students may be under stress due to their academic studies, their
families’ high expectations and social challenges.
a. Since students have to create a new social network and deal with being away
from home for the first time, most of them face social stress.
b. Parental pressure is another cause of stress for university students.
c. They also have to work very hard to compete with their classmates for grades.
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TASK 3. Read the text in TASK 2 again and fill in the missing parts in the table below.
ORGANIZATION
CONTENT
(writer’s explanation of the possible causes of
stress in the lives of university students)
TOPIC SENTENCE
There are three possible causes of stress in the
lives of university students.
... three (possible) causes of...
MAJOR 1
Minors
heavy workload
a) challenging classes + difficult tests →
studying hard for long hours
b) having to meet deadlines (to submit their
assignments)
c) competing with their classmates for grades
The major cause (of ...) is …
Because of
and
also
MAJOR 2
parental pressure
... is another/also a cause of ...
1st support
2nd support
3rd Support
Minors
Parents want their children to succeed in
school and get good grades all the time
+
high expectations → students suffer from stress
LANGUAGE
(e.g. transitions, patterns, etc)
Due to
MAJOR 3
social challenges
Finally, ... is caused by ...
Minors
a) having to create a new social network
+
dealing with being away from home
since
lead to
b) finding and living with a roommate
+
balancing friends with school work
+
dating or failing to date
CONCLUSION
To sum up, university students may be under
stress due to their academic studies, their
families’ high expectations and social challenges.
To sum up, ...
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THE TOPIC SENTENCE
The following sentence patterns are useful in writing topic sentences for a cause/effect paragraph.
These sentences exemplify just two major ideas. Feel free to write additional ones.
 There are two main causes/effects of _______.
 There are two main causes/effects of _______: _______ and _______.
* There are two main causes of air pollution.
* There are two main effects of obesity.
* There are two main causes of air pollution: gases from cars and smoke from factories and houses.
* There are two main effects of obesity: diabetes and heart disease.
 There are two factors that lead to/cause _______.
* There are two factors that lead to air pollution.
 The two main causes/effects of _______ are _______and _______.
* The two main causes of air pollution are gases from cars and smoke from factories and houses.
* The two main effects of obesity are diabetes and heart disease.
 _______ and _______ are the two main causes/effects of _______.
* Gases from cars and smoke from factories and houses are the two main causes of air pollution.
* Diabetes and heart disease are the two main effects of obesity.
 _________________ has two main effects on _________________.
* Obesity has two main effects on the body.
In addition to the structures and expressions that you have put in the table, you can use other structures to
talk about cause/effect relationship in a paragraph. Below is a list of items that show you alternative
structures to be used in your paragraph. Pay attention to punctuation.
CAUSE
Noun
Noun phrase
Ving
EFFECT
cause(s)
lead(s) to
result(s) in
contribute(s) to
Noun
Noun Phrase
Ving
* Eating too much fast food leads to obesity.
EFFECT
Noun
Noun Phrase
Ving
CAUSE
result(s) from
is/are caused by
is/are the result(s) of
is/are the effect(s) of
Noun
Noun Phrase
Ving
* Obesity is caused by eating too much fast food.
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CAUSE
Independent (main) clause
EFFECT
./; As a result,
./; Therefore,
./; Consequently,
./; For this reason,
./; Because of this,
, so
independent (main) clause.
* There are economic problems in the country; therefore, the citizens
cannot have a high standard of living.
CAUSE
EFFECT
Because
As
dependent clause,
independent (main) clause.
Since
* Because children watch too much TV, they lose creativity.
* He was accepted to Oxford University since his grades were high.
CAUSE
EFFECT
As a result of
Noun,
Because of
Noun Phrase,
independent (main) clause.
Due to
Ving,
Thanks to **
* Due to watching too much TV, children lose creativity.
* There are a lot of car accidents in the city because of drunk driving.
** ‘Thanks to’ is usually used to explain why something good has happened in a cause-effect
paragraph.
Because of the dramatic increase in world population, many people suffer from unemployment.
Thanks to the precautions that are taken by the government, people have started to find jobs.
The verbs CAUSE and LEAD can also be used with somebody / something to do something.
Smoking may
cause
Inflation and lack of job opportunities may
cause
cause
lead
the person to develop cancer.
effect
the crime rate to increase.
effect
“HEDGING” TO AVOID OVER-CERTAINTY
In some cases, we cannot be 100% sure that the effect will happen. Usually, the effect happens in most
people, but not in all people all the time. In academic writing, writers need to be careful about this. In order
to add some “uncertainty” to sentences, and sound more “true,” we can choose to use certain structures.
* Learners can / may / *might increase their reading speed by reading a lot.
NOTE: might is informal. Use “may”.
* Most learners tend to / are likely to / usually increase their reading speed by reading a lot.
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THE CONCLUSION
There are numerous methods of writing a conclusion for cause / effect paragraphs.
1. Mentioning ways to stop the causes of effects, ways to continue them, or ways to cope with them
(ADVICE)
2. Evaluating the causes or effects (EVALUATION)
3. Make a prediction (PREDICTION)
TASK 4. Rewrite the sentences without changing the meaning and using the prompts in parentheses.
1. Drunk people get angry easily because alcohol increases levels of anxiety and aggression.
Alcohol increases levels of anxiety and aggression; therefore, / .Therefore, drunk people get angry easily.
(therefore)
2. He was driving slowly because he didn’t want to be fined for exceeding the speed limit.
He didn’t want to be fined for exceeding the speed limit, so he was driving slowly.
(so)
3. The increase in the number of obese people results from unhealthy eating habits.
Unhealthy eating habits lead to the increase in the number of obese people.
(lead to)
4. Using mobile phones may cause some nervous disorders in human body.
Some nervous disorders in human body may result from using mobile phones.
(result from)
5. Loss of motivation among students usually results from getting low grades.
Students usually lose motivation as a result of getting low grades.
(as a result of)
Getting low grades usually causes students to lose their motivation.
(cause sb. to do sth.)
6. Many parents have negative ideas about watching TV. As a result, they don’t let their children watch
TV for long hours.
Many parents don’t let their children watch TV for long hours since they have negative ideas about
watching TV.
(since)
Many parents don’t let their children watch TV for long hours due to their negative ideas about
watching TV.
(due to)
7. Unemployment may cause a rise in the number of criminal acts.
A rise in the number of criminal acts may result from unemployment.
(result from)
8. People gain weight when they take in more calories than the body consumes.
Taking in more calories than the body consumes results in weight gain.
(result in)
Weight gain is caused by taking in more calories than the body consumes.
(cause)
Taking in more calories than the body consumes leads people to gain weight.
(lead sb. to do sth.)
9. Lack of self-discipline and good planning are the two causes of academic failure.
Lack of self-discipline and good planning result in academic failure.
(result in)
Academic failure is caused by lack of self-discipline and good planning.
(cause)
Because of lack of self-discipline and good planning, some students fail in their classes.
(because of)
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