Writing a Cause and Effect Sentence

English Tips to Improve Your Writing Skills

Writing Cause and Effect Paragraphs

© Ugur Akinci

Writing a cause and effect sentence is very commonplace in both fiction and non-fiction works.

Its structure is very simple and very straight forward.

There are two basic types of cause and effect sentences:

1) You start with a CAUSE, then connect it to an EFFECT with a CONJUNCTION.

2) You start with an EFFECT, then connect it to a CAUSE with a CONJUNCTION.

An alternative form starts with the CONJUNCTION:

3) You start with a CONJUNCTION, then follow it with a CAUSE, comma, and an EFFECT.

What is a “Conjunction”?

A conjunction is a sentence component that JOINS two clauses, two parts of a sentence.

Although it sounds complicated, actually it’s not since you already know and use dozens of conjunctions in daily life.

For example, every time you use AND you are using a conjunction.Other examples: OR, NOR, YET, THEREFORE, BECAUSE, SO, WHEN, AFTER, BEFORE, SINCE, etc.

1) Examples that start with a CAUSE and end with an EFFECT:

“He studied hard for the SAT exam [CAUSE] and [CONJUNCTION] got a perfect 800 [EFFECT].”

“They trained hard [CAUSE] but [CONJUNCTION] they still lost the match [EFFECT].”

2) Examples that start with an EFFECT and end with a CAUSE:

“She has been unhappy [EFFECT] since [CONJUNCTION] she was assigned to this case [CAUSE].”

“We chose him [EFFECT] due to [CONJUNCTION] his MBA [CAUSE].”

3) Sentences leading with a CONJUNCTION:

“Because [CONJUNCTION] of the severe weather alert [CAUSE], all flights have been cancelled [EFFECT].”

“Now that [CONJUNCTION] you’ve seen the evidence [CAUSE], I’m sure you can write a better report [EFFECT].”

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