Cause and Effect Paragraph

What is Cause and Effect Paragraph?

Cause and effect paragraph shows either the causes or effects of a situation. Therefore, you can write about the:

• Causes of a situation – what makes a situation happens.
• Effects of a situation – what happens as the result of the situation.

We can write the cause and effect paragraph in two ways:

• Cause-to-Effect method – You focus on Effects
• Effect-to-Cause method – You focus on Causes

Development Techniques and Samples

Cause-to-Effect Method

The topic sentence introduces the situation and the effects of the situation. The supporting sentences support the topic sentence by explaining each effect with details. Finally, the concluding sentence closes the paragraph. Hence, we can organize it in the following way.

Title
Topic sentence = Situation + (causes/makes) EFFECTS (e.g. Road accidents three main problems.)
Supporting sentences =

• SI1: Effect 1 (e.g. death and injury) + SD1: Details of Effect 1 (e.g. lost of lives, many become disabled...)
• SI2: Effect 2 (e.g. damage properties) + SD2: Details of Effect 2 (e.g. repairing, compensation...)
• SI3: Effect 3 (e.g. wasting time) + SD3: Details of Effect 3 (e.g. solve the problem, law suit...)

Concluding sentence= Restate / Summarize / Predict / Suggest

Here is the sample paragraph.
Road Accident
(1) Road accident causes three main problems. (2) First, it causes death and injury. (3) It has become one of the leading causes of death as it has claimed many lives so far and injured tens of people everyday. (4) Second, it damages the personal and public properties. (5) The damages do require repairing and compensating. (6) In some cases, it costs a lot of money. (7) Last, it wastes the time. (8) Those who are involved lose the time to work as well as to solve the cases or court cases. (9) These may last for years. (10) In brief, ones must try their best to avoid it.

Effect-to-Cause Method

The topic sentence introduces the situation and the causes of the situation. The supporting sentences support the topic sentence by explaining each cause with details. Finally, the concluding sentence closes the paragraph. Hence, we can organize it in the following way.

Title
Topic sentence = Situation + (is caused by/ is made by) CAUSES (e.g. Deforestation is caused by three main factors.)
Supporting sentences =

• SI1: Cause 1 (e.g. drivers) + SD1: Details of Cause 1 (e.g.careless, drunk-driving, speeding...)
• SI2: Cause 2 (e.g. vehicle) + SD2: Details of Cause 2 (e.g. too old, technical defects…)
• SI3: Cause 3 (e.g. roads) + SD3: Details of Cause 3 (e.g. curving, slippery, no signs…)

Concluding sentence = Restate / Summarize / Predict / Suggest

Here is the sample paragraph.
Road Accident
(1) Road accidents are caused by three factors. (2) Firstly, they are brought about by drivers. (3) Being careless, drunk-driving, speeding, and abusing the laws are the best examples. (4) Secondly, vehicle conditions also lead to accidents. (5) Some vehicles are too old, have technical defects, or are not regularly checked. (6) Finally, the road conditions might also be one of the causes. (7) Some accidents happen due to poor, curving, or slippery roads. (8) In short, the drivers, vehicles, and roads are the main causes of accident.

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