TransitionsTransitions(a mini-lesson)(a mini-lesson)

Showing the Reader Your Showing the Reader Your OrganizationOrganization

Linking Ideas

• Unless readers can move easily from one thought to another, they will surely find something else to read or turn on the television.

Show the reader where you are going

• You understand the organization of your essay, but your readers don’t.

• Your readers need some stepping stones. Be sure to place them in readily accessible and visible spots.

Transitional Wordso and, o but, o nor, o yet, o or, o (and sometimes) so —

o however, o moreover, o nevertheless, o on the other hand .

A word of caution…

• Don’t just drop transitional expressions into your essay merely because you know these devices connect ideas.

• But, if you can read your entire essay and not find any, then you must wonder what, if anything, is holding your ideas together.

• Practice by inserting a tentative however, nevertheless, consequently .

• Reread the essay later to see if these words provide the glue you needed at those points.

Repetition of Key Words and Phrases

• I call these “paragraph hooks.”• This technique links paragraphs that have

similar thoughts and ideas.• Essentially you take one or two strong, key

words from near the end of one paragraph and place those same words or slight variations of them at the beginning of the next paragraph.

Example