Cause/Effect
and
Causal Chain
For further study
Read:
• Chapter 9, pp.179-198, Strategies for Analytical Writing:
Cause and Effect, Strategies for Successful Writing. 5.
• Chapter 2.3, pp. 109-114, Cause and effect, Academic
Writing: A handbook for International students. 3.
• Checkmate. 2. 27 re. The Titanic and Development of
radio
See also:
• http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/fwalters/cause.html
• http://www.eslflow.com/AcCauseEffect.html
• Grammar & Composition
Uses
• Answers the question "why?" or "what if?“
• Report or explain a concept
• Claims of cause and effect: These claims
argue that one person, thing, or event
caused another thing or event to occur.
- What are the causes or series of causes
for a particular effect?
- What effect(s) will result from specific
causes?
What are the causes or series of
causes for a particular effect?
• History: What were the causes of the
Seven Day War between Israel and
Egypt?
• Political Science: What are the reasons
why Reagan won the 1984 election?
What effect(s) will result from
specific causes?
• Sociology: Predict the effect(s) that
changes in Social Security could have
on seniors.
• The popularity of SUVs in America has
caused pollution to increase.
Exercise 1
Suggest five sample questions from your
major that would require a cause/effect
answer.
These questions may be required for the
weekly assignment.
Types of Causes
1. Immediate Causes - closest to the effect and
most apparent
2. Ultimate Causes - Somewhat removed,
somewhat hidden
Causal Chain
This is a complex problem because
ultimate causes are immediate causes to
the successive cause. i.e., causal chain
i.e., An ultimate cause may be, at any
point on the continuum, either an
ultimate cause, an immediate cause, or
an effect.
Example #1
1. Computer salesman prepared extensively to
meet with a client (ultimate)
2. Impressed the client (ultimate)
3. Made very large sale (immediate)
4. Given a promotion (effect)
Example #2
List the possible causes of an upset stomach
upset stomach.
Possible answers
1. overeating,
2. flu,
3. allergy (intolerance),
4. spoiled food,
5. nerves,
6. pregnancy,
7. (and many more)
Some or all may operate at the same time.
Results of high energy costs
•
•
•
•
•
•
Higher profits for utility companies
Fewer sales of appliances
Higher prices for other products
Higher prices for other products
Higher wages for the workers
Development of alternate sources
(competition)
Successful Causal Analysis
Requires:
1. Sound reasoning
2. Objectivity (free from bias)
3. Willingness to admit other possible
causes/effects
4. Careful development of essay organization
Caution
One event immediately preceding another does
not necessarily cause that event. (superstition)
Example:
Every time I see a black cat something
bad happens. Today I saw a black cat and
I know that something bad will happen.
Cause/effect analysis is especially useful
in writing about social, economic or
political events or problems. as the next
paragraphs illustrate.
In the first example, the author looks at
the causes of Japanese collectivism
(which he elsewhere contrasts with
American individualism).
Exercise 2
Identify and state what each sentence is doing in
the following paragraph.
The shinkansen or "bullet train" speeds across the rural
areas of Japan giving a quick view of cluster after cluster of
farmhouses surrounded by rice paddies. This particular
pattern did not develop purely by chance, but as a
consequence of the technology peculiar to the growing of
rice, the staple of the Japanese diet. The growing of rice
requires the construction and maintenance of an irrigation
system, something that takes many hands to build. More
importantly, the planting and the harvesting of rice can only
be done efficiently with the cooperation of twenty or more
people. The "bottom line" is that a single family working
alone cannot produce enough rice to survive, but a dozen
families working together can produce a surplus. Thus the
Japanese have had to develop the capacity to work
together in harmony, no matter what the forces of
disagreement or social disintegration, in order to survive.
(William Ouchi, Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet
the Japanese Challenge)
In sentences 1, 2, and 6 Ouchi specifies
an effect: the Japanese live close
together and work in harmony.
The middle sentences explain the
conditions that caused the conditions
that caused this effect: the Japanese
depend heavily on rice, and growing rice
demands collective effort.
Exercise 3
The following paragraph is a good example
of the difference between immediate and
ultimate causes.
List the links that are used in this and all
model paragraphs.
How many did you find?
The depression was precipitated by the stock
market crash in October 1929, but the actual
cause of the crash was the collapse of an
unhealthy economy. While the ability of the
manufacturing industry to produce consumer
goods had increased rapidly, mass purchasing
power had remained relatively static. Most
labourers, farmers, and white-collar workers,
therefore, could not afford to buy the
automobiles and refrigerators turned out by
factories in the 1920s, because their incomes
were too low. At the same time, the federal
government increased the problem through
economic policies that tended to encourage the
very rich to over-save.
The depression was precipitated by the stock
market crash in October 1929, but the actual
cause of the crash was the collapse of an
unhealthy economy. While the ability of the
manufacturing industry to produce consumer
goods had increased rapidly, mass purchasing
power had remained relatively static. Most
labourers, farmers, and white-collar workers,
therefore, could not afford to buy the
automobiles and refrigerators turned out by
factories in the 1920s, because their incomes
were too low. At the same time, the federal
government increased the problem through
economic policies that tended to encourage the
very rich to over-save.
Discuss, criticize, the soundness of the
reasoning processes in the following
sentences.
Test to see that there is no possible
cause that might have been omitted.
1. The rain always bothers my arthritis. My fingers
and ankles ache today because of the rain.
2. I have an allergy to peanuts that causes my throat
to swell. I have just eaten a peanut butter sandwich
and expect to suffocate soon.
3. Wars are caused by hunger and poverty. These are
characteristic of Third World countries, and we
shall have war there soon.
4. My love affair with Gladys broke up because she
was jealous of me. Gertrude is jealous and we will
breakup soon.
Assignment Due Next Week
Write a 4 to 5 paragraph essay in which you
answer one of the cause/effects questions
which you created in Exercise No. 1 above.
OR
Go to
A list of 40 possible topics here.
OR
Write about any topic of your choice.
Remember.
Correlation does not mean causation!
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