Academic vocabulary · Causing

Causing in academic English

This is the language that does one job: it names which way the arrow points between two things. Problem–solution and cause–effect essays are built entirely from this function, and it is where the most expensive error in Task 2 lives: writing a causal verb when you only have a correlation, or writing it backwards. The words carry direction — get the direction wrong and the paragraph argues the opposite of what you meant.

6 itemseach with the pattern it requires

2 worked exampleswith the word doing the work marked

2 common mistakeswith the repair

4 exercisesrecognition first, then production

Start here · the long version

What causing really asks you to decide

Causal language names which way the arrow points between two things, and commits you to a claim about mechanism that the sentence has to be able to support.

Direction, and the claim you did not mean to make

Every verb in this family points an arrow. “Stem from” puts the effect first; “give rise to” puts the cause first. Choosing the wrong one produces a fluent, grammatical sentence that argues the reverse of what you meant, and nothing in the writing looks wrong — which is what makes it the most expensive error in problem–solution and cause–effect essays.

The second and larger problem is claiming a cause where you only have a correlation. Two things moving together is not one producing the other, and “screen time causes poor sleep” asserts a mechanism nobody has established. In an essay with no sources, “is associated with” is not a weaker sentence: it is the accurate one, and the accurate one is what survives a reader who knows the research.

The prepositions are fixed and not guessable. “Stem from”, “give rise to”, “attributable to”, “correlate with”. Each one is short, each one is part of the verb, and each one is the kind of error that makes a sentence read as translated rather than as written.

Which way

“Stem from” = effect first. “Give rise to” = cause first. Fluent English either way, and only one is what you meant.

Cause or correlation

“Causes” claims a mechanism. “Is associated with” claims they move together. Usually only the second is available.

Speed is a claim too

“Trigger” implies a sudden cause. Wrong for slow processes like urbanisation.

Prepositions are part of the verb

“Attributable to”, never “of”. “Correlate with”, never “to”.

What it costs you to skip this

A reversed causal verb makes the paragraph contradict the position stated in your introduction, and it does so invisibly — the response argues against itself and no single sentence looks wrong. An overclaimed cause costs less per occurrence and appears more often: it invites the reader to supply the confounding factor, which they will, while still reading your evidence.

Where it stops applying

A connector cannot create a causal relationship the ideas do not have: if the logic is not there before the word goes in, the word only makes its absence visible. And causal chains have a natural length — three links in one sentence is usually one too many, and the last one is normally the one you cannot defend.

Examples · why precise words score better

The same idea, twice

Lexical Resource is one of the four criteria, and it is not a count of long words. What it rewards is whether your word choice adds information — and the fastest way to see that is to watch one sentence become precise. Nothing was added below except accuracy.

Vague

Bad city planning makes traffic problems happen.

Causing

Precise

Poorly integrated transport planning gives rise to chronic congestion on arterial routes.

“Makes … happen” is the construction you use when you do not know the verb. “Give rise to” is the verb, and it takes a noun directly. “Chronic congestion” and “arterial routes” then say which traffic problem, on which roads — which is what precision means here.

What the precise version earns
precision · collocation · register. No page here promises anyone a score: these are the things the criterion actually looks at, and they are the things you can control.

The language

Each item, and the pattern it demands

Knowing a word and not its pattern is exactly what produces a sentence that reads like a translation. The preposition, the verb form and the article are the part that carries the marks.

stem from / arise from

Safe to use

Verb plus “from” plus a noun. The effect comes first: “the shortage stems from years of underinvestment”.

give rise to

Safe to use

Takes a noun directly, no preposition: “gives rise to congestion”. The cause comes first — the opposite direction to “stem from”.

be associated with

Safe to use

Passive plus “with” plus a noun. Claims things move together and nothing about which causes which. The honest choice when you do not know.

be attributable to

Watch the pattern

Passive plus “to” plus a noun. Reports somebody’s explanation of a cause, not the cause itself. Note “attributable”, never “attributed of”.

trigger

Watch the pattern

Takes a noun directly. Implies a sudden cause with a rapid effect, so it is wrong for slow processes like urbanisation.

due to

Costs you marks

In careful writing it follows a noun and a form of “be”: “the delay was due to funding”. Opening a sentence with it is common and still marked — use “because of” or “owing to”.

Watch two · then do three

See the word doing its job in a real sentence

Worked example · stems from

The shortage of affordable housing stems from two decades of under-building rather than from recent migration.

Why it works: The effect leads and the cause follows, which lets the sentence rule out a second cause in the same breath. Note the “from” on both sides of “rather than”.

Worked example · gives rise to … in turn

Poorly integrated transport planning gives rise to congestion, which in turn raises the cost of moving goods.

Why it works: A chain of two steps, with the direction stated once and then continued. “In turn” is what stops the second effect reading as a second cause.

What goes wrong

The mistakes this function produces

Most are collocation errors, not grammar errors — which is why no spell-checker will ever flag them.

The rise in obesity is attributed of a more sedentary lifestyle.

The preposition is “to”, not “of”, and the adjective form is usually the better choice: “is attributable to”.

Repaired: The rise in obesity is attributable to a more sedentary lifestyle.

Due to the population grew quickly, services came under strain.

“Due to” cannot introduce a clause. It follows a noun and a form of “be”; to open a sentence about a cause, the word is “because” or “as”.

Repaired: Because the population grew quickly, services came under strain.

Now you try · with the scaffolding on

Build it one step at a time

State the relationship at the strength the evidence supports — which may not be causal.

The material

Two facts: rents rose sharply in the city centre, and the number of families with children living there fell.

Step 1Decide what you actually know

Do you know one caused the other, or only that they moved together? Be honest before choosing a verb.

Your version0 words · minimum 8

8 more words before you can compare. Writing it yourself first is the whole exercise.

Step 2Choose the verb that reports exactly that

Step 3Write it, and then write the causal version too

Exercises · step 1, recognition

Before you learn the words, learn the job

A word list memorised before you can see what it is for is a word list that gets used in the wrong place.

Step 1 · the job

Which sentence reports that honestly?

The situation: Two things move together in the data, but nobody has shown which one drives the other.

All three are grammatical English. Only one of them does the job this function exists for.

Exercises · step 2, production

Choose the item that does the job and takes the right pattern

Every wrong option is wrong for its own reason, and it says so. Nothing here is scored automatically.

The housing shortage ______ two decades of under-building.

Choose an option first

Two variables move together and no study has established which drives the other. Which verb is honest?

Choose an option first

The delay in the project was ______ a shortfall in central funding.

Choose an option first

The other functions

Seven more jobs for words to do

Hedging

It lowers the temperature of a claim, so you only have to defend what you actually said.

6 items · 3 exercises Asserting

It raises the temperature of a claim, so the reader knows which points you are prepared to stand behind.

6 items · 3 exercises Attributing

It makes clear whose claim each sentence is — yours, the prompt’s, or somebody else’s.

6 items · 3 exercises Quantifying

It says how many or how much, at a level of precision you can actually defend.

6 items · 3 exercises Evaluating

It says whether something is good or bad, and in what specific respect.

6 items · 3 exercises Proposing

It names what should be done, precisely enough that a reader could picture it happening.

6 items · 3 exercises Register

It keeps every sentence at the formality the task expects.

6 items · 3 exercises