Whatever your academic subject, you’ll invariably find yourself describing cause-and-effect relationships. Of course, in academic writing these relationships can be very complicated, but luckily the grammatical structures used to describe them often boil down to a simple formula.
When using verbs like lead to, cause, or generate, the structure is very straightforward:
noun (cause) + verb + noun (effect)
Even complex examples follow this simple pattern:
Others say globalization and lower levels of unionization may have led to a longer-term shift in the balance of power between workers and employers.1
Can you recognise the simple structure in this complex example? To explore in more depth, I’ve made a short video using lead to as an example.
Continue reading “Cause-and-effect relationships: It’s (not) complicated”