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Writing about Cause and Effect

PowerPoint Presentations

These two presentations show how to organize a Cause and Effect essay.

Traffic Congestion in Abu Dhabi How to write Introductions, Cause paragraphs, Effect paragraphs and Conclusions. (Right-click, Save Target as.. 146kb)
Divorce in the UAE. A Powerpoint presentation about Causes and Effects (Right-click, Save Target as... 550kb) new!
Destruction of the Rainforest. A Powerpoint presentation about Causes and Effects (Right-click, Save Target as... 550kb)
Sharks - Causes and Effects of Overfishing (Powerpoint - 246kb).

New! Before you look at the PowerPoint presentation above, visit this BBC website, and download and read this document and answer the questions (Microsoft Word - right-click and save to your desktop: 50kb.

Here is one suggested answer, and an essay by Khalid Al Khouri

Student PowerPoint Presentations

Two Cause & Effect presentations from Level 2 students.

Smoking: Mohamed Al-Dahham Al-Mansoori, Mohammed Al-Sayegh, and Mohammed Al-Menhali
Overuse of the Internet: by Sultan AlAmeri, Mashal Saleh, Tariq AlHamili, Hamad AlQubaisi

Reading

Shrimps: The Impact of Shrimp Farming

Essay Models

Why is Fast Food so popular in the UAE?

Outline

Full essay

Alternative outline

Outline 2 Put the sentences in order - coming soon.

Essay about Traffic Congestion in Abu Dhabi (Version 1)
Another essay about Traffic Congestion in Abu Dhabi, by student Saleh Salem Al Braiki
Read another Cause and Effect essay about traffic in Abu Dhabi.(Version 2)
Causes and Effects of Obesity. This page has information and mostly problem and solution essays. You should be able to turn these into cause and effect essays. Read one model here. Also, see this external page: Obesity in the UAE.
Telecommuting
Homework
The UAE Marriage Fund. Has it succeeded? Why was it set up?
Student Essay on the Causes and Effects of Divorce
Omar Ahmed

Short Online Exercises

Match the sentences - Abu Dhabi Traffic
Adverb Clauses. Advanced. A graded multiple-choice quiz on adverb clauses from a4esl.org. http://a4esl.org/q/h/mb/adv_cause.html
A gapfill exercise on smoking.
A gapfill exercise on transport
An easy quiz from San Mateo Community College
Identify cause and effect in these short quizzes from Sam Houston State Univ - Test 1, Test 2, Test 3
Do questions 11-24 in this quiz: affect and effect.
Find the mistakes in the Cause and Effect conjunctions here. (University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana).
From the same site, try this exercise on joining sentences Discuss the answers with a colleague - it's tricky to type.
An article and questions on effects of using mobile phones and laptops. (Also available in Word format)
Cause and Effect: Adverb Phrases http://esl.about.com/library/grammar/blgr_adverbclauses_cause.htm

Longer Exercises

Worksheet for Cause and Effect of the Destruction of the Rainforest (by Julie Wallace)
Causes of Hunger
Cause and Effect Checklist - TJ Everest
Use for peer correction with your colleagues

Essays and Readings

The effects of living in a foreign country. An example of a student’s cause and effect essay. http://eslbee.com/anon.htm
Smoking: Cause and Effect. From a publisher’s site Houghton Mifflin. Not graded, but a very strong argument against smoking. http://college.hmco.com/devenglish/wong/paragraph_essentials/1e/students/exercises/ch9_1.html
Another cause and effect essay about overcrowding in Mexico http://eslbee.com/luisam.htm
Do television programs influence children? Read this article from a leading US newspaper. http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/getasciiarchive?script/98/04/17/041798.us.us.3
Cause and effect of pollution in the sea - an essay by an Emirati student. http://www.lclark.edu/~krauss/advwrf99/causeeffect/mubarakcause.html
A useful article with lots of Cause and Effect vocabulary about Trends in Urban Transportation
Readings on Divorce: Causes and Effects.

Marriage and Modern Development (Gulf News, Mar 03: HTML copy

Divorce Rates Plummet in Dubai (Gulf News, Aug 03: Read HTML copy

Saudi Man Weds 13-year-old (AlSharq Alaswat, Mar 04 HTML copy

Causes of Divorce (DivorceReform.org):
HTML copy)

For Teachers (and Students)

Global Warming: The new movie "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore is coming soon. Molly Kirk has the book and materials - very suitable for cause and effect. Check the website http://www.climatecrisis.org for more. new!
Cause and Effect Themes - five different topics on one handy sheet! (PDF Acrobat file)
http://www.onestopenglish.com/News/Magazine/Vocab/writing_cause_effect.htm OneStopEnglish Cause and Effect essay. PDF download (285kb): a classroom activity on cities and overcrowding.
http://www.literacymatters.org/content/text/cause.htm. Links to materials about cause and effect.
Exercises on Two Model Essays Traffic Jams in Abu Dhabi and Obesity in UAE - TJ Everest Microsoft Word - right-click and save to your desktop
Great handout on cause and effect of fires in Yellowstone National Park (12 pages PDF file) from Holt Rinehart & Winston. http://go.hrw.com/elotM/0030526671/student/ch03/lg1403092_103.pdf. Click here for a Word version
Cause and Effect essays: How To!
Cause and Effect: Why soccer may not succeed in the US

Topics for you to write about

What were the reasons behind the establishment of the Marriage Fund in the UAE, and what have been the results?
Identify causes of water pollution and its consequences.
Many Emiratis prefer to work in the public sector, rather than in the private sector. What are the reasons for this, and what effects does it have on the UAE?
Diabetes and heart attacks are on the rise in the UAE. What are the main causes of this, and what effects could this have for individuals and the government?
What are some of the causes of global warming? What could some of the effects be?

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