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Using the topic of global warming, this video explains how to structure a cause and effect essay, with examples of cause and effect connectors (i.e. transition signals) and example sentences to explain the grammar of the connectors.
▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 Intro
00:27 Overview
03:01 Structure
09:00 Connectors for cause and effect
11:37 Conclusion
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Cause and effect essays are common at university as well as in exams such as IELTS and TOEFL. To write them effectively you need to choose an appropriate structure, namely either the block structure (which lists all causes first, then all effects), or the chain structure (which gives each cause followed immediately by each effect, which may itself become the next cause).
There are many possible connectors which can be used to show cause and effect relationship, for example:
- As a result
- As a consequence
- Consequently
- Therefore
- Thus
- is the cause of
- is caused by
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This video is brought to you by eapfoundation.com
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the website for all your academic English needs. So this video will look at cause and effect essays
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We'll begin with a brief overview of cause and effect then we'll look at different ways to structure a cause and effect essay
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and finally we'll look at various connecting words that we can use to signal cause or effect relationships
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So cause and effect essays look at the reasons or causes and the results or effects of something
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Another term for cause and effect essay is therefore reason and result essay
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And sometimes with this essay type we might look at both causes and effects
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but it's also possible to have an essay that looks only at causes of something
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or only the effects of something. For example, discuss the causes and effects of global warming
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This would be a cause and effect essay. Or account for the fall of the Roman Empire
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This essay asks us to explain why the Roman Empire fell. So this is a causes only essay
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Or discuss the WHO and its effects on global health. So this is an effects only essay
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So let's imagine we're writing an essay on that first topic about global warming
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So we need ideas that will help us to answer that essay topic discuss the causes and effects of global warming
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So let's first think of some causes. One cause of global warming is the burning of fossil fuels
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from factories, vehicles and so on which give rise to greenhouse gases that heat the atmosphere
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Another cause of global warming is farming activities. In particular methane gases and other greenhouse gas
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that comes from farm animals. A third cause of global warming is cutting down trees or deforestation
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because trees play an important role in trapping greenhouse gases rather than allowing them to be released into the atmosphere
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So how about the effects of global warming? One of the effects is extreme weather events
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such as hurricanes, droughts, floods and so on. Another effect which comes from the rising temperatures
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is melting glaciers from the polar regions. Another effect of global warming is rising sea levels
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Another effect is the loss of animal species such as polar bears, arctic fox, green seal, beluga whales, leatherback turtles
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So species loss is another effect of global warming. So let's turn now to the second part
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which is the structure of cause and effect essays
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So there are two ways to structure a cause and effect essay. The first one is block
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which looks at all of the causes first and then considers all of the effects afterwards
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The other type of structure is chain in which each cause is followed immediately by the effect
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Let's look at these two structures in a bit more detail now and to do this we'll actually use the ideas we just saw for global warming
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So first of all the block structure. What does this look like
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Well like any essay we have an introduction at the beginning and a conclusion at the end
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And this essay has two blocks. First for the causes which come at the beginning
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and then for the effects which come at the end. In between we might have a transition sentence
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to link the causes to the effects and we'll see an example of that in a moment
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So let's put in some of the ideas we just saw. So for causes we have burning fossil fuels, farming
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and deforestation. So let's take the fossil fuels idea first. So this is going to be the central idea of the first paragraph
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So first of all we need a topic sentence. The first main cause of global warming is burning fossil fuels
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And then we will complete the paragraph by adding examples, facts, reasons, statistics and so on
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So looking at the second idea, farming. Again let's make a topic sentence
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The second important cause of global warming is farming. And again we need to add some supporting sentences
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with reasons, facts, examples and so on. And then our third topic sentence
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A third significant reason for global warming is deforestation. Followed again by examples, reasons, facts and so on
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So that's all of the causes in one block at the start of the essay
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In order to move on to the effects it's useful to have a transition sentence
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So this could be something simple like This leads to the following effects
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We could make it a bit longer for example. The causes above give rise to three significant effects
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Or we could actually make this even more detailed like a mini thesis in the middle of the essay by saying what the effects are
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The causes above give rise to three significant effects. Namely extreme weather events, rising sea levels and species loss
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So those are the effects I'm going to put in this essay. Extreme weather events, rising sea levels and species loss
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And again I need to make these into topic sentences and add supporting ideas
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So one result of global warming is extreme weather events. And then my supporting ideas
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Another important consequence is rising sea levels followed by supporting ideas. The final significant effect of global warming is species loss
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Followed again by supporting ideas. Such as the examples polar bear, arctic fox and so on
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So that's block structure for a cause and effect essay. I said before that we can have an essay that only looks at causes or only looks at effects
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And the structure for that type of essay is very simple. For this type of essay we need to use a block structure
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But in this case there is only one block. So if it's a causes only essay we will have cause 1, cause 2, cause 3 and so on
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If it's an effects only essay then effect 1, effect 2, effect 3 and so on
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So next the chain structure. What does this look like? Well as with any essay we need an introduction at the start and a conclusion at the end
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Remember this essay has each cause followed immediately by the effects. So this means cause 1 first and then the effect of cause 1
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Then the second cause and the effect or effects of the second cause
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Then the third cause followed by its effects. Then the next cause and the next one and so on
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Often the first effect can itself be a cause and the second effect can be a cause and the
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third one and the fourth one. And that's why this structure is called the chain structure
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Because the effects and the causes are connected together like the links of a chain
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To understand this let's again look at the global warming example. So we had the cause burning fossil fuels and two effects we had were melting glaciers and
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rising sea levels. Now burning fossil fuels doesn't lead directly to either of these effects
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But burning fossil fuels because of the production of greenhouse gases does lead directly to
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rising temperatures. And it's the rising global temperatures that lead to melting glaciers
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And the melting glaciers at the polar regions in turn lead to rising sea levels
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Another effect we considered was species loss. Again rising sea levels don't directly lead to species loss
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But rising sea levels do lead to loss of habitat. In other words land where species like the polar bear and the arctic fox can live and survive
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And so loss of habitat in turn leads to species loss. So that's the two ways to structure a cause and effect essay block and chain
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Let's turn now to look at cause and effect connectors. So what are cause and effect connectors
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Cause and effect connectors are structure words or transition signals which show the
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cause and effect relationship. When using these it's important to be clear which is the cause or the reason and which
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is the effect or the result. Remember that the cause happens first and the effect happens after
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So these are some examples of cause and effect connectors. Here C means cause and E means effect
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Results in, results from, has an effect on, is the effect of, is affected by, is a consequence of
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There are actually many more of these and you can see more examples on the website
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Let's use a few of these to make sentences for the global warming essay to understand
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the grammar of how these connectors are used. Many factories and vehicles burn fossil fuels
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As a result, many greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere
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The burning of fossil fuels is a cause of greenhouse gas build-up in the atmosphere
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Because of melting glaciers, the sea levels are rising. Due to rising sea levels, animals such as the polar bear and arctic fox are suffering
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habitat loss. As a result of habitat loss, there is a danger of species loss
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Huge numbers of domestic animals in farming results in large-scale emissions of methane gases
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Deforestation has an effect on Earth's ability to trap greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide
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Rising sea levels are a consequence of global warming
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So that's cause and effect essays. We've seen what cause and effect essays are
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We've seen two ways to structure cause and effect essays, namely blog structure and chain structure
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And we've seen examples of a few cause and effect connectors. For more information, please visit the website. www.apfoundation.com
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