Dan’s Writing Blog

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Creative writers and journalists sometimes have the problem of smoothly transitioning from one paragraph to the other, especially when they are changing the subject. Learning transition sentences is not hard. By the time you read this article, you will fully understand the trick to it.

When we writers hop from one topic to another without a transition sentence, we “jar” our readers. Transtion sentences can be the last line in a paragraph, but are more commonly the first line in a new paragraph. Think of it as bridge that connects two things.

A reader doesn’t forget a character with warts. The warts help the reader identify the characters in their minds.

Huh? Where did the discusson on transition sentences go? Was that what you were thinking? Now you know what a “jarred reader” feels like. Warts don’t relate to transition sentences at all, but we can make them relate by connecting the topics like this: (repeat)

“While sentence transitions can be in the last line of a paragraph, it is more common to put it in the first line of the following paragraph. They are like a bridge, connecting unlike things.

[transition sentence]

We could compare sentence transitions to ‘warts’ on characters. ‘Just as a ‘wart’ will blend readers minds with the character’s identification, transition sentences will blend readers minds to the change of topics.”

(Notice that we can use more than one transition sentence to help the reader follow our train of thought.)

Here is another example from a camping article. We are picking up near the end now. The subject was preparing for a vacation and using a credit card for gasoline purchases. It will now blend into an after-vacation recap of never paying interest. Try to find the transition words.

“Every $1,000 charged on a Flying J credit card (per month) will earn you a $10 coupon, which you can spend in Flying J.

By combining the above suggested methods with this plan, you will seldom, if ever, run out of vacation money or have to use an ATM machine; further you will never owe interest, never make a physical payment, and never carry a balance.”

What were the transition words? And so, – “By combining… ” and the word “further”. Those three words left the financing program behind and moved forward to an after vacation recap.

Certain words make good transitions. Some of them are: in addition to, besides, further, although, specifically, to sum up, for instance, beyond, again, close, moreover, as a result, accordingly, finally, as a result, during, to compare, consequently, on the contrary, but, meanwhile, if, then, therefore, nevertheless, otherwise, therefore, so, formerly, otherwise.

Now you are equipped to go read a magazine and find all the transition words. Always look for them in the first sentence of the following paragraph. After you have done this a few times, you will understand how to improve your own transitions.