Flow Chart of Causes and Effects — Worked Example

A cause-and-effect chart is not in time order, so the sequence markers will not help you. Look instead for the words that signal causation — because, as a result, leads to, owing to, consequently — and let the chart's arrows tell you which side of each relationship a box wants.

The format

Sequence markers will not help you here

A cause-and-effect chart is not in time order, so first, then and finally are of no use. What you look for instead are the words that signal causation, and they point in both directions — some introduce the cause, some the effect.

Which side of the relationship each word introduces

Let the arrows tell you what each box wants

An arrow runs from cause to effect. So a box at the tail of an arrow holds a cause and a box at its head holds an effect, and reading the arrow direction before you read the passage tells you which half of each relationship you are being asked for.

Watch for chains and for branches

Cause-and-effect charts often branch: one cause with three effects, or three causes feeding one effect. Count the arrows into and out of each box, and do not assume the chart is a single line simply because a process chart would be.

• Several arrows leaving one box → one cause, multiple effects.
• Several arrows entering one box → multiple causes, one effect.
• A chain → an effect that becomes the cause of the next thing.

Keep the phrasing neutral

Boxes in a cause-and-effect chart are usually noun phrases rather than verb phrases — loss of farmland, rise in food prices. Match the given box, and avoid words that judge (terrible damage) rather than describe.

Model answer

Worked example

Passage

River erosion is among the most destructive of Bangladesh's natural hazards. Because the great rivers carry an enormous load of silt, their channels shift constantly, and every year they take large areas of farmland with them. The loss of land pushes affected families into poverty, since most of them depend entirely on cultivation. Many are consequently forced to migrate to the cities, where they arrive without skills or savings and end up in the slums. This steady inflow puts further pressure on urban services that are already strained.

The chart, with box 1 given

heavy silt load in the rivers → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5

Answers

2 — constant shifting of channels. 3 — loss of farmland every year. 4 — poverty among affected families. 5 — migration to city slums.

Note

Every link was signalled: because introduces the cause in box 1, since explains the poverty in box 4, and consequently introduces the migration in box 5. The final sentence about pressure on urban services would be box 6 if the chart had one — it does not, so it is left out.

What earns and loses marks

• Read the arrow direction before you read the passage. It tells you whether each box wants a cause or an effect.
• 🚨 Because and since introduce the cause; so, therefore and consequently introduce the effect. Confusing the two reverses the chart.
• Count arrows into and out of each box — cause-and-effect charts branch far more often than process charts do.
• Use neutral noun phrases and match the given box.
• Do not add a cause you know from elsewhere; only what the passage states.