SAT® · Reading and Writing: Expression of Ideas
Cause and Effect Transitions
Words like therefore, thus, and consequently claim that the first sentence's fact caused the second one. Pick them only when the logic actually runs forward, cause to effect, not just when events happen one after another.
Therefore, thus, consequently, as a result, and hence all do the same job: they point an arrow from one stated fact straight into another, saying the second is true because the first is true. That's a strong claim. To use one correctly, cover up the connector and ask whether sentence one is actually the mechanism that produces sentence two, not just something that happened earlier. A failed harvest can make prices rise; a reopening can only make membership numbers rise if nothing else in the text could explain the jump.
The test exploits the gap between sequence and causation constantly. If a passage mentions a second event that could also explain the result, a time word like subsequently or later is the honest choice, because it commits only to order, not to cause. Save therefore and its siblings for passages where the causal mechanism is clear and nothing else competes for credit.
The arrow can also run backwards. When a sentence states an effect or a claim first and the reason follows, connectors like after all, since, or because fit, pointing from the second sentence back to the first as its justification. Spotting which sentence is doing the explaining, and which is being explained, is the whole skill: read both sentences, decide which one is upstream, then match the connector's direction to that arrow.
Key terms
- Causal connector
- A transition word such as therefore or consequently that claims one stated fact produced another.
- Confound
- A second plausible explanation sitting in the text that competes with the proposed cause.
- Sequential transition
- A word like subsequently or later that marks order in time without claiming one event caused the other.
- Backward-pointing connector
- A word like after all or since that introduces a reason for a claim already stated in the prior sentence.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow do therefore, thus, consequently, as a result and hence all mark one causal arrow?
- Worked exampleFind the connector between 'The rains failed for three years' and 'The reservoir fell to a tenth of capacity'.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't 'therefore' safe whenever the second sentence simply happens later in time?
- Going furtherWhat changes when the cause sits in the second sentence and the effect in the first?
Check yourself
End of topic.