Do Now

• How do you organize a paper? • What must a paper have in it?• What things help you to put your information

in a way that makes sense?

Transitions: The Glue

• Transitions, or transitional words and phrases, help glue our information together.

• Transitions help you convey information clearly and concisely regardless of your purpose (i.e. persuasion, education, information etc.).

• Transitions can be single words, quick phrases, or entire sentences.

Idea + Idea

• Think of the plus sign as a transition (+=transition).

• Your transition works to put two ideas together.

• Sometimes it works to alert your audience, so that they know what to expect.

• LOOK OUT!

If you have ever been told that your papers are…

• Choppy• Jumpy• Abrupt• Lacking flow• Or, Unorganized• YOU NEED TO WORK ON TRANSITIONS

How Transitions Work

• In order to have a transition effectively you must consider the following:– The order in which you have chosen to present

the parts of your argument.– The relationships you want to create between

these parts.

Examples

• Let’s say you want to show the relationship between these two sentences:– The river was gradually changing its course. – The cliff continued to erode.• Is the cliff causing the erosion or not? Adding a

transitional can help the reader know the answer

Examples Cont.

• The river was gradually changing its course; therefore the cliff continued to erode.

• Different transitional modifiers imply different meanings; how does the meaning change in each of the following?

Examples Cont.

• The river was gradually changing its course. In addition, the cliff continued to erode.

• The river was gradually changing its course; however, the cliff continued to erode.

Closure

• Complete the activities in the Transitional Words and Phrases packet.