What are “transitions”?
A transition is a word or phrase that notes movement from one unit of writing to another. A transition provides clear, logical, steps from one point to another. Transitions can be used in sentences, paragraphs or large blocks of text. The topic sentence of one paragraph should allude to the final sentence of the previous paragraph:
- Presenting all sides of an event or topic will help keep the article close to the truth.
- The only truth that exists in a society with government controlled media is that of the government.
Also, the topic sentence could allude to the topic sentence of the previous paragraph:
- Consider aseptic packaging, the synthetic packaging for the “juice boxes” so many children bring to school with their lunch. (The rest of the paragraph is omitted)
- What is true for juice boxes is also true for other forms of synthetic packaging.
Within sentences, certain words are used to transition from one part of the sentence to another. Some examples of these common words are:
- and, also, besides, for example, but, however, in short, after, as, above, below, if, and so
These words are not only used to transition they are also used to show addition, give examples, compare, contrast, summarize, to show time, to show place or direction, and to indicate logical relationships. If blocks of text are too long then a transitional paragraph maybe needed. A transitional paragraph provides a logical step from one part of the block text to the next part:
- Although the great apes have demonstrated significant language skills, one central question remains: Can they be
- taught to use that uniquely human language tool we call grammar, to learn the difference, for instance, between
- "ape bite human” and “human bite ape”? In other words, can an ape create a sentence?
Transitions help keep the reader reading at a steady pace. They prevent the reader from having to make unnecessary pauses after every five sentences.
Works Cited
Faigley, Lester. "Signal relationships with Transitional Terms." The Brief Penguin Handbook. New York:
- Longman-Pearson Education, Inc. 2003: p. 48-49.
---. "Link Across Paragrpahs." The Brief Panguin Handbook. New York: Long-Pearson Education, Inc. 2003: p. 50-51
Hacker, Diana. "Providing Transitions." A Writer's Reference. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's 2003: p. 33-35.