Transitions

Moving From One Idea to Another

• Transitioning from one sentence to another can be achieved in three different ways.

– 1. Transitional Words– 2. Synonyms– 3. Transitional Sentences

Example

• Take the following two sentences:

Horses are awesome.

Dogs are very cool.

• When these ideas are next to each other in a body paragraph, you risk losing your audience.

For example:

Horses are awesome. Dogs are very cool.

Here, your audience doesn’t understand what horses and dogs have to do with each other. The sentences are “jumpy” or have an “awkward transition.”

1. Transitional Words

• Use transitional words to join two ideas:

• Horses are awesome. Moreover, dogs are very cool.

• Here, the transition “moreover” tells us that the next idea can be thought of as another example of the first.

Some transitions:IN ADDITION

moreoverin additionalso

RESULTSthushencethereforeaccordinglythereuponas a resultas a consequence

consequently

AN EXAMPLEfor instanceto illustratefor examplenamelyspecifically

Some more…AN EXPLANATION

in other wordssimply statedin fact

A SUMMARY OR CONCLUSIONin closingto concludeto summarizein briefin shortin summaryto sum upin essence

TIMEfirstnextsecondthen

meanwhileat length

COMPARISONlikewisein the same wayin comparisonsimilarly

A CONTRAST OR ALTERNATIVEhowevernonethelessstillin contrastotherwiseon the other handnotwithstandingconversely

Conjunctions

• Conjunctions are a special type of transition.

• There are 7: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

• You can remember them with the acronym “FAN BOYS”

– F = for– A= and– N = nor

Using conjunctions• Conjunctions are used to join two ideas together, generally in the

same sentence.

• It is becoming common to begin sentences with conjunctions, but technically, it is grammatically incorrect.

• If you’re tempted to begin a sentence with a conjunction, try an alternative transition with the same meaning.

• Example:– Horses are nice. And dogs are cool.

Vs. – Horses are nice. Additionally, dogs are cool.

If your sentence begins with…

• For

• And

• Nor

• But

• So

• Yet

Use…

• --For example, For instance

• Indeed, In addition, Moreover, Furthermore

• ---------------

• However, Nevertheless, On the other hand

• Therefore, Thus, Consequently, As a result,

• Even so, However, Nevertheless, On the other hand, otherwise

2. Synonyms

Use synonyms to repeat key words Example:

People are evil. They do bad things. In the above example, the synonym of evil (bad) allows a nice transition from one sentence to the next.

3. Transitional SentencesUse sentences to transition between paragraphs Example:

PARAGRAPH ABOUT DOGS People consider dogs to be very intelligent, but science has shown horses are even more intelligent.

PARAGRAPH ABOUT HORSES

4. Transitional ParagraphsUse paragraphs to transition between groups of paragraphs (or essays) Example:

ESSAY ABOUT DOGS PARAGRAPH ABOUT DOGS AND HORSES

ESSAY ABOUT HORSES

• In the previous example, the first part of the sentence (People consider dogs to be very intelligent) reflects the previous paragraph and the second part of the sentence (science has shown horses are even more intelligent) reflects the coming paragraph.

• Use this method as your concluding sentence in a body paragraph as a way to transition to the next paragraph.