Causal Pattern

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If your speech is explaining a cause-and-effect relationship, a causal pattern will help your audience understand the link between particular events and their outcomes. There are two ways to organize main points when you use this pattern. First, if several major causes exist for the situation or phenomenon you are discussing, each main point can cover one of the causes. For example, in a speech about causes of fashion trends,7 a speaker could use the following main points:

  1. Major news events influence fashion choices.
  2. Styles displayed in popular culture become fashionable.
  3. Economic conditions affect clothing trends.
  4. Technological innovation creates new fashion options.
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Second, if there is a chain of events between cause and effect, each main point can become one link in the chain from cause to effect. So to explain why e-commerce has grown in significance, you might use the following chain of causation:

  1. Internet use grew rapidly in the 1990s.
  2. Businesses took advantage of this new channel of communication by marketing products online.
  3. Consumers have increasingly chosen to shop online because of the convenience.