Means - Result

Cause and Effect

This is the third sub-category of 'Cause and Effect' - I was driving too fast (cause) and missed the turn off (effect).

  • Reason - Result
  • Means - Purpose
  • Means - Result
  • Grounds - Conclusion

These relationships are often reported to be missing or to be exaggerated.

Means and Result

The most basic way of explaining this is 'How + outcome' - sorry, not much help is it. Lets look at some examples.

 
As the student did not use their time well, the assignment was 3 days late and they lost 15%


  Means (What was done)
 Result (What happened)
- By making the most of the opportunities given to me at Bahrain Polytechnic, I got a really good job.
 Made the most of time at BP
 Got a good job
- Creating a really robust IT infrastructure should enable the organisation to perform better
 Create good IT infrastructure
 Organisation performs better

- Writing down and publishing clear mission statements, long term goals and operational action plans to staff helped to ensure that decisions made were not in contradiction with each other.

 Creating strategic documentation Decisions aligned

- The government changed the level of import tax on certain goods coming into the country resulting in higher over heads and a decrease in income.

 Changes in taxation Higher expenses and less profit
The files were all converted to Portable Document Format (PDF) to ensure that they were easily read by most computers and could not be edited in the future Changed to PDF Easy to open and cannot be edited

The means result relationship may be an appropriate choice for all students - it is the manner in which you claim that something was done to account for a particular outcome. The grammatical is very often uses 'by' or 'to'. This relationship often most uses past simple (to explain why one event happened).

Always remember that when you write your assignment, your voice is made stronger by including the voice of other expert others - so yes, you must include citations.

Sidebar

Hey - did you know what PDF meant above? Do you know what an acronym is?

PDF is an acronym and, in academic writing, you must always define them first time they are used, even if it is something that you use every day - like PDF. Even if you know that your tutor knows what it means, always define them first.

What are these? Look them up if you need to.

  • URL
  • UN
  • TBH
  • LOL
  • RSVP

Any problems with the above examples? No? Ok, please read the below. Let's leave referencing out right now.

The government changed the level of import tax on certain goods coming into the country resulting in higher over heads and a decrease in income. AND Writing down and publishing clear mission statements, long term goals and operational action plans to staff helped to ensure that decisions made were not in contradiction with each other.
What is the different between these two sentences? Who made the changes in the first sentence?
 
The government changing the level of import tax on certain goods coming into the country results in higher over heads and a decrease in income. OR Writing down and publishing to staff clear mission statements, long term goals and operational action plans will help to ensure that decisions made all assist in the betterment of the organisation.
Can you tell my why the second set of sentence is Means Purpose? Not Means Result? See how the means result in the first set of sentences is in the past tense and the means purpose can be used to talk about general rules - and so uses present simple. Think about how you write in your degree - what kind of relationship is the most helpful to you?

So in an attempt to be clear...

Means Purpose - something is done for a reason

Means Result - something is done and something happens - either intended or not

Your Turn

Go to one of your assignments. Try to find five Means Purpose or Means Result sentences. Add them here, but write each of them twice. Once in the present simple tense and once in the past simple tense. Then explain in your own words what the difference is. Include your citations and modality as appropriate.

When you have done that - look at the example below. Is there a difference in the meaning at all?

  • Organisations should have clearly stated long term goals and action plans as they ensure that everyday decisions are made in accordance with those plans and goals (Pencarrow, 1988).
  • Pencarrow (1988) suggests that in order to ensure that everyday decisions are made in accordance with those plans and goals, organisations should have clearly stated long term goals and action plans.

Do you think that there is a difference in the meaning here?

This is something called 'Sentence loading'. Simply put, the first part of the sentence is what you are talking about. So if your paragraph is about "...long term goals and action plans ..." - use the first sentence. If your paragraph is about aligning everyday decisions - then use the second sentence. Capisce?

Change the sentence loading of your five sentences you submitted above. Do they still work? What do you think?

Some other little tips

Here are some things that I have learnt from hard experience. I will not keep saying this stuff (I lied approve), but try to keep it in mind as you do your assignments?

  • Only include one main idea per sentence.
  • Keep sentences short - 25 words max (ish).
  • Do not repeat yourself.
  • Use non-redundant academic language.
  • Read your work out loud.
  • Proof read at least seven times - that is one more than six, two more than five, seven less than 14.
  • Write numbers in full until ten and then write the number (see sentence above mixed)
  • Avoid using colloquialisms such as 'sort of' or 'basically'. Use 'somewhat' or 'fundamentally'
  • Write words out in full - '...is not...,' not 'isn't'
  • No cliches - '...at the critical moment....' not 'in the nick of time'
  • Do not use sexist language - refer to all people (singular or plural) as 'they' or 'them'
  • Data is plural, datum is singular. But it is an uncountable noun... 'The data are...' is always correct. Good luck talk to your tutor.
  • Passive vs Active - The passive voice is often used in academic writing as it is seen as more impersonal and therefore more objective. I agree. Your tutor may not - check with them.