Using Transitional Elements
IntroducedMost transitions carry no information
- Furthermore tells a reader almost nothing: here is another sentence.
- Even in the cases where the effect is smallest tells them what relationship is coming.
- A transition should carry the relationship, not merely mark a boundary.
“Furthermore” is the transition equivalent of “And then another thing happened.”
What transitions are for
- Transitional elements are words or other elements — phrases, clauses, sentences, or paragraphs — that assist in creating coherence.
- They can also introduce evidence or indicate its relationship to other ideas or evidence.
- So a transition has two possible jobs, and the second is the one that earns marks.
Beyond creating coherence, a transition can...
That second job is the one that earns marks.
A transition can be a whole paragraph
- The CED explicitly allows a transitional element to be a paragraph.
- In a long argument, a short paragraph whose only job is to turn the reasoning is legitimate.
- It is often the most elegant way to move from conceding to pressing your case.
A transitional element can be a whole paragraph.
The CED explicitly includes paragraphs among transitional elements.
A transition can paper over a gap rather than build a bridge. If deleting also or furthermore makes two sentences look unconnected, they were unconnected — the transition was hiding the problem, not solving it.
Does this transition carry a relationship?
Sort each transition by what it does.
To test a transition, ____ it and read the two sentences together.
If nothing is lost, it was decoration; if the link looks wrong, it was hiding a gap.
Diagnosing your own transitions
- Delete a transition and read the two sentences together.
- If nothing is lost, the transition was decoration.
- If the connection now looks wrong, the transition was papering over a gap that was always there.
Select all the transitions that carry a relationship.
Furthermore announces another sentence and nothing more.
Match each transition type to the relationship it signals.
Choose the transition from the relationship you actually need to signal.
Transitions that do work
- Concession: the strongest objection to this is, this is true as far as it goes.
- Limitation: even where, in the cases that, to the extent that.
- Consequence: which means, so the comparison the objection needs, the effect of this is.
"Furthermore, students report dissatisfaction." Delete furthermore and the sentence stands alone with no link to what came before. Replaced: "The same measure that records the saving also records the dissatisfaction it produced" — now the transition carries the relationship.
Transitional elements create coherence and can introduce evidence or indicate its relationship to other ideas. They may be words, clauses, sentences or whole paragraphs. Test one by deleting it: if nothing is lost it was decoration; if the link now looks wrong it was papering over a gap.