We're back for another exciting language video of English for Finance and Economics. Finance, economics, or even business cannot be discussed without understanding cause and effect. Cause is an action of some kind, and effect is the result of that action. At any company, in any country, in any life there are actions taken and decisions made. The causes are the reasons why and the results of those actions or consequences are the effects. For example, let's take rain and wet. Rain is the cause or the action and wet is the result, everything gets wet. Our brains think in terms of cause and effect naturally because we have questioning brains. We see an action and we want to know what the results will be. Every brain is different. Many times in determining causes and effects, it's easiest for me to determine the effect and then work backwards to the causes, or the reasons why something happened. But you may think in a totally opposite way. And that's okay. If I look around and see everything is wet, my effect, I would wonder what caused it. Oh, it must have been the rain. Often a chart commonly called a Fishbone diagram is used to help brainstorm ideas between cause and effect. In your speaking and writing, it doesn't matter whether you mention the causes or effects first. It is your writing and your style. What matters is that you have the right words to do so. Transition words commonly used for cause are since, because, and on account of. Let's look at a few examples of how these words are used. Because the sales department received independent funding, those are my reasons or my cause. They were untouched during the company's budget cuts. Since I started working on the BioDent project, my creativity has expanded. On account of giving employees more work breaks, productivity increased. These cause transition words can also be used in the middle of your cause and effect arrangements. Productivity increased on account of giving more employees more work breaks. The common transition words used for effects are therefore, as a result, consequently, thus, then, thanks to. Let's see how one of the board members presents their cause and effect information. He says, the cost of sales is quite a bit higher than what was budgeted, as a result of unexpected transportation and logistical costs. Here's another example. Thanks to the support of our investors, we now have three well known companies looking to be partners. Guess what? It's your turn. What causes influence the flow of information within your organization? What transition word would you like to use to answer this question? Here's what I wrote. Email threads and replies get hidden in other emails so employees don't see them. Consequently, the flow of information is slowed within our company. We made it! Here are the takeaways from this lesson. Cause is an action of some kind and effect is the result of that action. To explain cause and effect relationships transition words are used. For cause, words like because, since, on account of are common. To describe effects, therefore, as a result, consequently, thus, then, and thanks to are used. For more cause and effects transition words please see the chart within this lesson. Thanks for being here today in English for Finance and Economics.