Cause and Effect Reading with Adjectives and Examples

Cause and Effect Reading with Adjectives

Cause and effect are important elements of reading text that help readers to follow and infer the writer’s thoughts. As a writer, it helps to organize and structure text in a logical way to establish cause-and-effect relationships in fiction or non-fiction.

Cause 

In the context of reading, cause is the driving force in the text. Cause (why) is the reason behind the occurrence of things /events.

Effect (what)

It refers to the events that occur in a text. It is what happened in the text due to a preceding cause.

Cause and effect can be stated clearly and explicitly or can be inferred from the text if unstated. At times, link or chain is made to show effects. One effect leads to a second effect which may lead to another effect, and so on.

Cause and effect signal words indicate the connection between the reasons and sequence of events in the text directly.

Example- Tricky cause and effect text

Near his garage, John planted an apple tree. The tree was struck by lightning a few years later. The trunk was damaged by lightning. The tree began to deteriorate over time. One day, the tree fell, and a branch smashed the garage window.

Effect – The garage window broke.

To trace the causes- ask ‘why’ backward.

Why did the window break? because the branch fell.

Why did the branch fall? Because the tree had rotten.

Why did the tree become rotten? because it got damaged.

Why was the tree damaged? because it was struck by lightning.

Note – We can see multiple causes in the text that led to the effect. Sort causes in different categories.

Causes – Can be categorized as the immediate cause, root cause, or concurrent cause.

Immediate cause – Cause nearest to the effect

Root cause – Primary cause of the effect

Concurrent cause – Happens at the same time and this cause has an indirect role in triggering the effect.

Example

Last summer, there was a serious wildfire in this city. The epidemic was detected by experts in a dry forest area. The city has been in a severe drought for the past few years. City officials attributed the declining rainfall to climate change.

Effect –Serious wildfire

Immediate cause – Dry forest area

Root cause – Severe drought

Concurrent cause – Possibly climate change contributed to low rainfall