Transitions

What do transitions do?

Transitions -

• bring coherence to a papers and show connections between sentences (or paragraphs).
• help the flow of a paper, instead of choppy papers that jump from one idea to the next.
• only clarify connections between thoughts- they do not create connections.
• As a writer, you should choose tranitions that fit your meaning.

 

What are they?

Transitions -

• are segues between ideas, narratives, paragraphs, thoughts, topics, main points. Have you ever had a conversation with someone who suddenly started talking about something that seemed random? They haven't made their transitional segue!
• are like fade-in and fade-out in movies. Directors cannot just cut from one scene to another without some sort of transition between scenes.
• are like a bridge between your paragraphs, so imagine that your reader cannot cross from paragraph to paragraph without some sort of bridge between them.

 

How do you make transitions?

          One way to make a transition between paragraphs would be to use a key word, concept, or idea from the previous paragraph in the first sentence of the next paragraph.

          Another way is to use transitional phrases to signal to your reader that you are about to make a link or connection between ideas. This makes your paper easier to follow:

To Show :                                           Use words like :

COMPARISON	AGAIN, LIKEWISE, SIMILARLY, ALSO, IN THE SAME WAY THAT...
CONTRAST	HOWEVER, ALTHOUGH, IN CONTRAST TO, INSTEAD, IN SPITE OF, NEVERTHELESS, NONETHELESS, ON THE OTHER HAND, YET, STILL, THOUGH, REGARDLESS, DESPITE, BUT, EVEN THOUGH
CAUSE AND EFFECT	AS A RESULT, CONSEQUENTLY, HENCE, SO, THEREFORE, THUS, ACCORDINGLY, BECAUSE
TIME	AT LAST, SINCE, SO FAR, UNTIL, WHEN, THEREAFTER, THEN, BEFORE, AFTER A WHILE, AS LONG AS, AS SOON AS, EARLIER, IMMEDIATELY, IN THE MEANTIME, IN THE PAST, LATELY, LATER, NOW
SEQUENCE	FIRST, SECOND, THIRD, FURTHERMORE, FINALLY, BESIDES, NEXT, LAST, AGAIN
EXAMPLES	FOR EXAMPLE, FOR INSTANCE, INDEED, IN FACE, OF COURSE, SPECIFICALLY, SUCH AS, TO ILLUSTRATE
SUMMARY	IN SHORT, AS A RESULT, IN OTHER WORDS, THEREFORE, TO SUMMARIZE, AS HAS BEEN NOTED, AS I HAVE SAID, AS WE HAVE SEEN, AS MENTIONED EARLIER, THEREFORE, ON THE WHOLE
CONCESSION	IT MAY SEEM THAT, OF COURSE, ALTHOUGH IT IS TRUE THAT, ADMITTEDLY, NATURALLY
PLACE	FARTHER ON, CLOSER TO, BEYOND, BELOW, ABOVE, NEARBY, HERE, THERE