ITIC English: Expressing Reason and Purpose

Reason clauses

In your written and spoken assignments you will often need to answer the question ‘Why?’. When you want to explain why something happens, you can use a reason clause introduced by the conjunctions because, as or since.

As she wanted to practise her spoken English, Carrie regularly took part in the ELC’s Big Mouth Corner.
Mark joined the English Drama Club because he wanted to improve his intonation.

Don’t use so in sentences beginning with since, as or because. Here is a common mistake:

Since he was interested in movies, so David joined the PolyU International Film Society.

You can also use the prepositional phrases because of and on account of to express reason.

We were unable to carry out the experiment on account of a malfunction in the computer.
We were unable to carry out the experiment because the computer malfunctioned.

As you will see in the Vocabulary section below, there are many other ways of indicating reason and cause in English.

Purpose clauses

You use a purpose clause when you want to state the purpose of the action in the independent clause. The most common type of purpose clause is a to-infinitive clause.

Sarah went to the computer lab to print out her research report.

In formal writing, in order to and so as to are often used.

The company conducted a detailed survey in order to gauge its clients’ views.

In formal writing, you can also introduce a purpose clause with so that or in order that. These finite purpose clauses usually contain a modal.

Dr Chan adjusted the overhead projector so that the students would be able to see the chart more clearly.
The lecturer finished his lecture five minutes early so that the students could come and ask him questions.

The difference between so and so that is that so that implies that the cause was deliberately done by someone in order to get a specific result.

There are a number of other ways of expressing purpose in English. These are some of the most common ones:

With a view to, with the intention of, with the object/aim of, for the purpose of

If you use these phrases, make sure that the verb is in the _ing form.

The university introduced two new English courses with a view to enhancing students’ proficiency in the language.

Result clauses

When you want to indicate the result of an action or situation, you can use a result clause. Result clauses are introduced by conjunctions such as so, so... that, or such … that.

The lecture was boring and irrelevant, so some of the students began to fall asleep.
Peter was having problems with mathematics, so he went to see his tutor to ask for advice.
There were so many books on the subject that Cindy didn’t know where to begin.
There was such a lot of material to cover that Ivan found it difficult to keep up with his studies.

There are many other ways of talking about the result of an action or situation. In some situations you may prefer to use and as a result or with the result that.

The lecture was boring and irrelevant, and as a result some of the students began to fall asleep.
The lecture was boring and irrelevant, with the result that some of the students began to fall asleep.

As a result can also be used at the beginning of a new sentence.

The lecture was boring and irrelevant. As a result, some of the students began to fall asleep.

The following words and phrases are used in the same way.

Therefore, Thus, In consequence, Consequently, For this/that reason

Causal relations can be expressed by ing-clauses of result.

The government increased the duty on wine. As a result, there was a fall in demand.
The government increased the duty on wine, resulting in a fall in demand.