Academic Writing Support

Cause and Effect

The fourth 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.

Grounds Conclusion

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

	Grounds	Conclusion
- The student was wearing a Rolex, so they must be rich.	Rolex	Student is rich... or a thief
- Sims (2007) stated that businesses with well written mission statements and long term goals generally outperform those with no clear direction. The organisation that was analysed as a part of this project had no such clear statements or goals and so may not do well in the future.	Evidence from author	The organisation will not do well
- Managers and Chief Executive Officers (CEO) should have a lot of experience in both their industry and in managing people (Pencarrow, 2009). The CEO of the business under consideration has 17 years of experience and has worked in every facet of the organization.	Evidence from author	The organisation should do well
- Analysis was done of the external factors that have historically affected the organisation. It was discovered that they are cyclical and could possibly create the same set of disturbances in the future.	Evidence from research	The organisation might not do well
- Archival research of the impact of the strategic planning for the 2014 and 2015 periods was undertaken. The evidence suggested that previous strategic decisions have had minimal impact on the organisation.	Evidence from research	The organisation might not do well

The Grounds Conclusion relationship may not be an appropriate choice for all students. Remember that in academic writing, almost all of what you say is an opinion backed up with the evidence supplied by expert others. The expert others have published their work and this most often means that others who are also experts have read it and agreed. That is why including the information from journals and text books is so much more acceptable than websites which could have been created by anyone.

As this relationship involves you making a claim (the conclusion), this relationship should be used carefully.