In written English, linking devices help your reader to see and understand the relationship between your clauses, sentences, or paragraphs. Linking devices can be conjunctions, adverbs or phrases, and can signal a variety of meanings and relationships, including cause/effect, time sequence, similarities, contrast, examples and explanation. In this unit, we will focus on linking devices showing cause/effect relationships.
Cause
Here are some common subordinating conjunctions used to express cause:
- Because
- As
- Since
These words begin a dependent clause; in other words, they must be followed by a subject and verb. As we saw in the previous unit, this dependent clause can begin the sentence or come after the main clause:
- Because many customers complained, the company changed its policy.
OR
- The company changed its policy because many customers complained.
Here are some other common linking devices used to express cause:
- Because of
- As a result of
- Due to
Because these phrases contain prepositions, they are followed only by nouns/phrases. They cannot be followed by a clause:
- Because of customer complaints, the company changed its policy.
OR
- The company changed its policy because of customer complaints.
NOT
- Because of many customers complained, the company changed its policy.
Effect
Here are some common linking devices used to express effect:
- Therefore
- As a result
- Consequently
These are conjunctive adverbs. As we saw in the previous unit, they are used to connect two independent clauses:
- Many customers complained; as a result, the company changed its policy.
Exercise
Please click the Exercise link to continue.