How Is Writing Organized? Some nonfiction writers use cause and effect to structure, or arrange, their ideas. They use the structure to explain why something happens and how one event leads to another.

Sometimes a single cause has more than one effect. Sometimes two or more causes lead to one effect.

Practice Together

Read and Notice Read the paragraph from “Escaping to Freedom.” Notice how different causes lead to the effect.

Make a Chart You can use a Cause-Effect Organizer to show how events are related. List each cause and effect from the paragraph above.

Cause-Effect Organizer

Try It!

Work with a partner. Choose another passage from “Escaping to Freedom.” Identify the causes and effects. Arrange them in a chart to show how they relate.