אלמנטים מעבר

A transition is not only a word

• Transitional elements are words or other elements — phrases, clauses, sentences or paragraphs — that assist in creating coherence between sentences and paragraphs by showing relationships between ideas.
• The CED's list runs from a single word all the way up to a whole paragraph.
• So a transition can be as large as you need it to be.

A transition can be an entire paragraph; “furthermore” has no exclusive licence for the job.

Size the transition to the distance

• Two closely related sentences need a word.
• Two paragraphs making different moves need a sentence that names the relationship.
• A genuine change of direction in the argument may need a short paragraph of its own.

Show the relationship, do not just mark a seam

• The CED's purpose clause is by showing relationships between ideas.
• Furthermore marks a seam without saying what the relationship is.
• Because the praise is confined to the past, the present-tense lines must do something else shows it.

Cutting a bad transition improves the essay

• A transition that does not name a relationship is doing nothing that a paragraph break was not already doing.
• Deleting it costs nothing and saves a reader's attention.
• Replace it with a clause that names the move, or delete it — never keep it as decoration.

A transition pass

• At each paragraph seam, write in plain words what the relationship is.
• If your transition already says that, keep it. If it does not, replace it with what you wrote.
• Then check the size: a word, a clause, a sentence — matched to the distance travelled.