Ripples From One Stone
One stone, three rings — first-order, second-order, and the one nobody intended.
Click to zoom
Distance from the stone is one question. Whether you aimed at the ripple is another.
Name consequences precisely enough to distinguish a direct outcome from a secondary or unintended one.
Preview · progress not saved — Chapter 1 is free
Three questions separate these eight nouns: was it intended, did it arrive at once, and how far down the chain is it?
When something follows from something else, three things are worth knowing about it:
Was it intended? outcome ←→ side effect · byproduct
When did it arrive? impact ←→ repercussion
How far down? consequence ←→ knock-on effect
A Band 6 essay answers none of them, because result answers none of them. A Band 7 essay picks the noun that answers the one that matters.
One stone, three rings — first-order, second-order, and the one nobody intended.
Distance from the stone is one question. Whether you aimed at the ripple is another.
Eight described situations, eight nouns. The differences are intention, timing and order.
Terms
Definitions
Three decisions separating direct results from downstream ones.
One
What happened: a new bus lane speeds up buses, as intended. Because more people then walk to bus stops, local shops see more customers.
Candidates: side effect / knock-on effect
The expert chooses:
Because:
Two
What happened: a policy raised unemployment. The writer is describing the event itself.
Candidates: implication / consequence
The expert chooses:
Because:
Three
What happened: the damage did not appear for fifteen years, and when it came it was serious.
Candidates: impact / repercussion
The expert chooses:
Because:
Six gaps across a Task 2 paragraph, including one implication trap.
The effects of remote working
When large employers moved to remote working, the intended was straightforward: lower office costs and shorter commutes for staff.
The immediate on city-centre businesses was severe, with sandwich shops and cafés losing most of their weekday trade within months.
One unintended was a marked improvement in air quality, since far fewer people were driving into the centre each morning.
Because fewer workers travelled, public transport revenue fell — and the resulting cuts to evening bus services produced a for people who had never worked in an office at all.
Some economists warn of longer-term for the housing market, which may not become visible for another decade.
Whatever happens, these findings have serious how cities are planned — a question of interpretation rather than of events.
The change had an enormous impact the daily routine of millions.
Name a direct, a delayed and an unintended consequence, and check each noun matches its type.
Policy: a city introduces free public transport for everyone under 25.
Use a different noun from this sprint in each — and make sure the noun matches the type you were asked for.
Three sentences. A different consequence noun in each.
If your noun does not signal 'unintended', the reader will not know it was.