Transitions

Transitions provide connections or links - bridges - between ideas.

Transitional words are used in paragraphs to connect ideas; transitions are used to show relationship or connection between the ideas being developed in paragraphs that appear in sequence.

Think of each paragraph as developing one idea, an "island of thought."

Help your reader follow from one idea to the next by providing a link, a bridge, between the ideas: A transition.

The organization of your written work includes two elements:

(1) the order in which you have chosen to present the different parts of your discussion or argument, and

(2) the relationships you construct between these parts. Transitions cannot substitute for good organization, but they can make . . . organization clearer and easier to follow.

"Transitions." The Writing Center. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,

2007. Web. 27 June 2010.

<http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/transitions/

The links below provide a detailed explanation as well as specific examples.

Transitions help improve coherence.

Resources

• • Boundless. “Transitions, Signal Phrases, and Pointing Words.” Boundless. Boundless Writing. 09 Nov. 2015. Web. 15 Jan. 2016. https://www.boundless.com/writing/textbooks/boundless-writing-textbook/writing-effective-paragraphs-253/connecting-your-ideas-259/transitions-signal-phrases-and-pointing-words-110-10297/

  • “Signal Words.” Clark College. http://web.clark.edu/martpe/signal%20words.htm

  • “Transitional Words and Phrases.” California State University Northridge. N.d. Web. 15 Jan. 2016. http://www.csun.edu/~hcpas003/transwords.html

  • “Transitional Words and Phrases.” Study Guides and Strategies. http://www.studygs.net/wrtstr6.htm

  • “Transitions.” The Writing Center. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. 2014. Web. 15 Jan. 2016. http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/transitions/

• "Using Transitions." UW Madison Writing Center. University of Wisconsin-

  • Madison, 2009. Web. 26 June 2010.

  • <http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/Transitions.html>.

  • - Weber, Ryan, and Karl Stolley. “Writing Transitions.” Purdue OWL. Purdue University. 2016. Web. 15 Jan. 2016. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/574/