A Revolutionary Time

Review It

When reading a description of a series of events, the reader can use prior knowledge, text structure signal words, and placing events in chronological order to determine the relationship between the events. Let’s examine another passage about the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain. This example will review the strategies to use when trying to determine the relationship between events.

a factory building with chimneys of smoke

The Industrial Revolution affected every part of life in Great Britain, producing increased employment but also creating pollution and unhealthy working conditions. This image shows the Bridgewater Foundry in Salford, England in 1839, one of the earliest factories to use an almost modern layout, workflow, and material-handling system.
Image credit: Parrot of Doom (original work) & Mauls (derivative work) via Wikimedia Commons Opens a new window

Read the following text. The signal words for a cause-and-effect text structure are highlighted in yellow. After reading the text, review the chronological order of events in order to assist you in determining whether earlier events caused the later ones.

The Industrial Revolution affected every part of life in Great Britain. Rapid industrialization meant increased employment, but it also created pollution and very unhealthy working conditions, especially for child laborers. Most factory workers worked long hours in very harsh conditions for low wages. The Industrial Revolution attracted people to the cities seeking factory work. Because of rapid urbanization, living conditions for most working class families were poor. Because Great Britain’s cities grew so rapidly between the years 1760 to 1850, they had no development plans, sanitary codes or building codes. There was a lack of adequate housing, education and police protection. Most workers lived in dark, dirty one-bedroom homes with entire families crowding into the one bedroom. The streets had no drains so garbage piled up in the streets. Because of these conditions, disease spread rapidly, especially cholera, a disease that comes from contaminated water supplies. Living conditions were so poor that the British government conducted a study and reported that life expectancy for working class people was approximately half compared to the life expectancy of someone living in rural areas.

Review the chronological order of events to determine if they have a cause-and-effect relationship.

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Event 1 : There was rapid industrialization.
Event 2 : There were increased employment opportunities.
Event 3 : More people moved to the cities for work.
Event 4 : Factories increased pollution and unhealthy working conditions.
Event 5 : Cities grew rapidly without development plans, sanitary codes or building codes.
Event 6 : Garbage piled up in the streets.
Event 7 : Diseases spread from contaminated water.
Event 8 : Life expectancy for the urban working class was half compared to those living in rural areas.

The highlighted words provide evidence that the paragraph is about events that resulted from the Industrial Revolution. By placing the events described in the paragraph in chronological order, it assists the reader in determining the relationship between the events by asking the question “did the earlier event cause the latter event?” “Is there a logical connection between the events or did they happen independently from one another?” In this example, there is a logical cause-and-effect relationship. Industrialization created more factory jobs; people moved to the cities for these jobs; and the factories created unhealthy living and working conditions that were made worse by the rapid population increase in cities without development plans or sanitary codes. The poor living conditions and garbage in the street contaminated the drinking water, thereby spreading diseases. The overall result of these conditions was a lower life expectancy for the urban working class. Therefore, it is clear that the events described have a cause-and-effect relationship.

Placing Events in Chronological Order

You can help determine the relationship between events by placing them in chronological or sequential order as described in the text. This gives you an outline of events to look for text structure signal words.