Cause and Consequence

Eight words for the way one thing leads to the next.

Meet each word one at a time, then take the quiz to lock them in.

1. 1 trajectory noun
2. 2 increment noun
3. 3 perpetuate verb
4. 4 facilitate verb
5. 5 conducive adjective
6. 6 susceptible adjective
7. 7 decisively adverb
8. 8 cumulatively adverb

Nelson's word

noun

Trajectory. A noun, and a precise one, which is why I like it. I file it under the curved path an object or a process follows over time. A thrown ball has a trajectory, an arc that rises and falls; a career has one too, a shape you can trace across years. The word does not describe a single point; it describes the whole path, where a thing has been and where it is headed. When a report says a nation's trajectory turned upward, picture the entire curve, not the moment. State it precisely: a trajectory is the shape of a path through time, and knowing it lets you predict where the path goes next.

The analysts charted the company's trajectory across five uneven years.

Nelson's word

noun

Increment. A noun, and I file it under a small, regular increase in amount or degree. It is one step on a longer climb: the raise added each year, the single degree a thermometer rises, the fixed amount a counter ticks upward. The key word is small, and the second key word is regular, because an increment is not a leap; it is one measured step, repeated. A hundred tiny increments, laid end to end, become a large change nobody noticed arriving. When a document reports growth by yearly increments, it means the total climbed one steady step at a time. Learn it, and you can name change that is real but quiet.

The savings grew by a modest increment each month.

Vinny's word

verb

Perpetuate! To take a thing, an idea, a habit, a legend, and keep it ALIVE, running on and on with no end in sight! When old stories perpetuate a legend, they hand it forward, generation to generation, so it never dies. That is the verb, and it is mine. Watch the middle of the word, perpetu, the same root you hear in perpetual, meaning never-ending. To perpetuate is to make something perpetual by your own action. Be careful, hero: you can perpetuate a fine tradition, but you can also perpetuate a mistake or an unfair rule, keeping alive a thing that should have ended. The verb is neutral; only what you keep going decides whether it is a rescue or a wrong.

Old stories perpetuate the legend long after the facts fade.

Vinny's word

verb

Facilitate! To clear the path, grease the wheels, and make a hard process run EASY! When clear signs facilitate the traffic, they do not drive the cars; they smooth the way so the cars flow without snarling. That is the verb, and it is mine. Listen to the root, facil, the same one hiding in facile and in the everyday word easy's cousin. To facilitate is not to do the whole job yourself; it is to remove the friction so the job goes smoother for everyone. A good host facilitates a conversation; a good tool facilitates the work. Learn it, and you can name the quiet hero who does not star in the action but makes the action possible.

Clear road signs facilitate the traffic through the crowded junction.

Jake's word

adjective

Conducive. An adjective, and mine, describing a condition that tends to bring about a particular result. A quiet room is conducive to study; warm rain is conducive to growth; kindness is conducive to trust. Notice it almost always leans on the little word to, pointing at the result it helps produce. It does not force the result; it favors it, tilts the ground toward it. Its Frown is a condition that hinders, that works against the result instead of toward it. Could we be more specific than saying the setting was good for reading? We could say it was conducive to reading, which tells the reader the setting actively helped. From the root duc, to lead, conducive is a condition that quietly leads toward an outcome. Magnifique.

A quiet room is conducive to careful, patient study.

Jake's word

adjective

Susceptible. An adjective, mine, describing a thing that is easily affected or influenced by something, that takes the hit readily rather than shrugging it off. Young saplings are susceptible to frost; a tired mind is susceptible to doubt; an untreated wound is susceptible to infection. Like conducive, it often reaches for the little word to, naming what the thing is open to. Its Frown is immune, the thing that shrugs the influence off entirely and is not affected at all. Could we be more specific than saying the crop was in danger? We could say it was susceptible to disease, which names exactly what it was open to. It describes weakness in the face of an influence, an opening the world can reach through.

Young saplings are susceptible to the first hard frost.

Benny's word

adverb

Decisively. An adverb, and it is mine, the way the noun belongs to Nelson. It describes an action done in a firm, conclusive way, a way that settles the matter and leaves no doubt hanging. When the captain acts decisively, there is no waffling, no second guessing; the choice is made and the outcome is sealed. Here is your coaching point: decisively tells the reader that one action ended the question for good. Its Frown is hesitantly, the action full of pausing and doubt. Do not settle for saying the team won; make it sharper, and say the team won decisively, so the reader feels the matter was closed. One firm action, and the consequence is fixed. You can write that.

The captain acted decisively and steered the ship clear of the reef.

Benny's word

adverb

Cumulatively. An adverb, and mine. It describes an effect that arrives by building up in successive additions, one small piece stacked on the last until the pile is large. When small daily practices pay off cumulatively, no single day changes much, but the days add up, and the total is where the payoff lives. Here is your coaching point, and it is Nelson's increment wearing an adverb's jersey: an increment is one small step, and cumulatively describes the whole stack of steps counting together. Do not just say the savings grew; say they grew cumulatively, and the reader feels every small deposit adding up. Watch the root, cumul, a heap or a pile, the same one in accumulate. Small additions, counted together, become a consequence you can measure.

The small daily practices paid off cumulatively over the whole season.