WRITING CENTER "INFORMATION PICK-UP" (S.S.C.C.)

TRANSITIONS:

• A STRATEGY FOR WRITING: COHERENCE

• WHAT ARE TRANSITIONS?

• HOW ARE THEY USED IN WRITING?

• EXAMPLES OF TRANSITIONS:

• A STRATEGY FOR WRITING: COHERENCE

What is "coherence" in writing? Coherence in an essay means that the essay works smoothly as a whole--made up of the working parts of ideas, paragraphs, sentences, and words. Everything is connected into one clearly-written whole by logic, order, transitions, and style.

The following are three strategies that promote a smooth flow of ideas.

ORDER: To put ideas and information into the right places, you need to have an over-arching pattern or framework around which you've built your essay.

Some of these frameworks may include: time order, space order, and order of importance.

One point to remember is that people expect old information first, then more recent information later. People expect a kind of chronology in presentation. This does not mean that you always have to follow such a pattern, only that it is a common one--but one which may be flouted in order to created a certain dramatic or other effect.

REPETITION: Repetition of main words, synonyms, parallel constructions and such may help readers feel that an essay is unified. Repeating words or phrasing well takes finesse. After all, repetition of unnecessary words makes for the problem of wordiness and excess. What then should writers repeat? Themes could be restated for emphasis. Sentences may be constructed so that they follow the same pattern.

•WHAT ARE TRANSITIONS?

TRANSITIONS: Writing is--in a sense--the act of the writer taking the reader's hand and leading him/her over a not-entirely-familiar landscape of thoughts. To move from one idea to another, the writer must then provide "signposts" or directions or clues as to where to turn, step-by-step, idea-to-idea, in a commonsensical way.

• HOW ARE THEY USED IN WRITING?

Transitional words and expressions may be used to show the relationships between phrases, sentences and paragraphs.

• EXAMPLES OF TRANSITIONS:

Some common transition words include the following:

TIME TRANSITION: first, second, then, next, finally, afterward, before, while, when, later, after, initially, often, since, after, soon, as, now, until, previously, while, during, immediately, frequently, rarely, commonly, simultaneously, consecutively

SPACE TRANSITION:: here, there, next to, near, beside, farther, where, over, under, far, above, close to, between, below,

SIMILARITY TRANSITION:: likewise, similarly, as, like, just as, in addition, also, too

ADDITION TRANSITION:: one, also, another, in addition, first of all, second, third, moreover, next, last of all, finally, furthermore

CONTRAST AND CONTRADICTION TRANSITION:: on the other hand, while, whereas, unlike, however, but, yet, nevertheless, although, even though, in contrast, instead, still, despite, conversely, on the contrary, in spite of

CAUSE AND EFFECT TRANSITION:: thus, as a result, therefore, because, result in, leads to, because of, consequently, accordingly, if...then, since, so

EXAMPLE TRANSITION:: for example, for instance, such as, like, as an illustration, once, including, to illustrate, to show this

ADJECTIVE AND RELATIVE PRONOUN CONNECTORS TRANSITION:: this, these, that, those, who, which

Transitions are needed to show CHANGES in

• ideas,

• location,

• time,

• purpose of paragraph,

• and other circumstances.

Just as too many road signs become distracting, excess use of transitions may become troublesome. You don't need transitions everywhere, but intelligent controlled use of these will be helpful to readers.

Sources: Grace Ellis' The Rinehart Reader Companion and John Langan's Ten Steps for Improving College Reading Skills.

(Revised 1998)