Informative and Persuasive – Cause and Effect

Students explore informative and persuasive mentor texts by mapping the cause-and-effect relationships within them, understanding how arguments and information are structured.

Duration 25–35 minutes

Grouping Individual + class discussion

Strategy Exploration

Materials

Informative or persuasive mentor text
Cause and effect graphic organiser

Teacher Instructions

Select an informative or persuasive mentor text that contains clear cause-and-effect relationships.
Read the text with students and model identifying the first cause-and-effect relationship.
Students work through the text identifying further cause-and-effect chains.
Discuss as a class how the author uses these relationships to build their argument or present information.
Students consider how they might use similar cause-and-effect structures in their own writing.

Teaching Tips

This works well with news articles, opinion pieces, and scientific texts.
Encourage students to look for implicit as well as explicit cause-and-effect relationships.
Link this activity to the Skills stage – cause and effect is a key structural technique.

Student Handout

Cause and Effect

Exploration · Activity 2

Explore your mentor text by mapping the cause-and-effect relationships within it.

Title of mentor text

Cause 1

Effect 1

Cause 2

Effect 2

Cause 3

Effect 3

How does the author use cause and effect to build their argument?

How might I use cause and effect in my writing?