Identifying Cause and Effect in Fiction Educational Resources

Newton's third law states for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. He said this in regards to motion, but it's also a comment on cause and effect, a tool used for compelling storytelling. There are many printable worksheets and lesson plans to choose from in the Learning Library that focus on cause and effect in fiction texts.

Analyzing the relationship between cause and effect is a matter of finding out which one happened first. Find the connection between the two by identifying how the first action resulted in the second one. Once you can identify the link between an origin action and a result, you will be able to follow any chain of events much more clearly.

Cause and effect can be as simple as:

• Jane hit the ball. The ball moved.
• After the earthquake, there was a landslide.

In these examples, the cause is stated clearly before the effect. But, sometimes, the effect is more obvious than the cause:

• At the Boston Tea Party, Boston residents threw tea into the harbor. They were protesting a new tax by the British king.
• Only in the past 50 years has climate change been linked to man made emissions.

In these examples, the cause is stated after the effect. Still, the cause occurred before the effect.

In some reading passages, the cause seems hidden. It helps to think about a story’s chronology, or timeline. Take a moment to remember early grammar lessons, and consider the subject(s) and object(s) in each sentence and passage. If you can identify both the order of events, and the subject(s) and object(s), you will be able to correctly decide which primary action resulted in the secondary event. Brush up on your cause and effect skills with these Education.com activities, and reading stories will be much more fun.