As we write, it is important to establish strong transitions between individual ideas. The transition sentence is our bridge between what we just wrote about and what we are going to write about next.
Transitions are important for all your assignments: journals, discussion boards, competencies, and essays alike. While many prompts are set up as lists of questions, it is always best to practice making cohesive paragraphs, rather than a separated list of answers. For more help with structuring your paragraphs and essays, click here to learn about the Written Feedback service.
*Note: the examples below use “I voice” as often, prewriting asks you questions directly. In most academic writing, however, personal pronouns like “I” and “we” will go away. Click here to learn more.
Let’s start with this (abbreviated) example of a discussion prompt:
1. What do you think is the main point of your selected reading? What is the author trying to say?
2. What did you think of the Author's point? Did I agree to disagree with it?
3. A claim is a statement that captures your opinion on a topic. Based on your initial reactions to this piece, what claim could be made about this reading and its author?
Your answers might look like this:
1. I think the main point of “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan was to express her love for her mother. She is trying to get her reader to think about how her mother was mistreated because she spoke broken English.
2. I agree with Tan that it's wrong to mistreat immigrants based on their use or misuse of English.
3. I might claim that Tan is probably biased about the treatment of her mother by Americans, but that she uses clear examples of how she was treated to support her points.
Notice that the response is separated as answers to the prompt questions. Now need to add transition sentences and link these ideas together to create a cohesive piece:
I think the main point of “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan was to express her love for her mother. She is trying to get her reader to think about how her mother was mistreated because she spoke broken English. She is also trying to tell us that that is wrong!
I agree with Tan that it is wrong to mistreat immigrants based on their use or misuse of English. She tells us how the stockbrokers treat her mother on page 22. By providing a specific example, Tan allows us to see this mistreatment for ourselves, proving that her claim is not based only on her emotional response, but on what happened to her. I might claim that Tan is probably biased about the treatment of her mother by Americans, but that she uses clear examples of how she was treated to support her points.
The transition sentences are reemphasized so you can clearly see them. Notice how the version links ideas from each answer together by using words from what comes above and below them. See also how the paragraphs are indented like they would be in a full essay, and how the new response points to a specific section of the reading (page22) to further support the analysis.
You should apply transitions to anything you are writing. Consider the transition sentence and new paragraphs each time your writing shifts in focus, flow, or function.
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