🔗

Understanding Cause and Effect Relationships

May 19, 2025

Identifying Cause and Effect in Texts

Importance

  • Understanding cause and effect helps us comprehend events.
  • Key questions to ask:
    • Cause: "Why did this happen?"
    • Effect: "What happened?"

Definitions

  • Cause:
    • Occurs first.
    • Explains why something happens.
  • Effect:
    • Happens after the cause.
    • Describes what happened.

Examples

  1. Rain and Carolina
    • Cause: It rained.
    • Effect: Carolina got wet.
  2. Phil's Fatigue
    • Cause: Phil stayed up late.
    • Effect: Phil was tired in the morning.

Everyday Cause and Effect Relationships

  • Studying hard leads to better grades.
  • Not using sunscreen results in getting sunburnt.
  • Playing in the mud leads to getting muddy.

Identifying Cause and Effect in Texts

  • Signal Words and Phrases: Indicators of cause and effect relationships.
    • Examples: "so", "due to", "because", "since", "if".

Practice Examples

  1. Wendy's Sickness

    • Sentence: "Wendy was feeling sick so she stayed home from school."
    • Signal Word: "so"
    • Cause: Wendy feeling sick.
    • Effect: Wendy stayed home.
  2. Swimming Carnival Cancellation

    • Sentence: "The swimming carnival was cancelled due to bad weather."
    • Signal Phrase: "due to"
    • Cause: Bad weather.
    • Effect: Carnival cancellation.
  3. Children’s Hunger

    • Sentence: "The children were hungry because they hadn’t eaten all day."
    • Signal Word: "because"
    • Cause: Not eating all day.
    • Effect: Children were hungry.
  4. Teacher's Suggestion

    • Sentence: "Since the class worked so hard, the teacher suggested a game."
    • Signal Word: "since"
    • Cause: Class worked hard.
    • Effect: Teacher suggested a game.
  5. Race Cancellation

    • Sentence: "Max said he’d cancel the race if the track was wet."
    • Signal Word: "if"
    • Cause: Track being wet.
    • Effect: Race cancellation.