ENG 1101 English Composition I, section OL 0110 Toggle navigation

10/25 “transitionals in essays”

Okay, now we are ready to use the transitionals where they really count:  in essays.   Keep in mind that so far you were asked to try them out in compound sentences, replacing  an ordinary  connector like  “,and” with a transitional like “;furthermore,” or “.  Furthermore,” And you may have wondered why you should bother with all that extra punctuation. The reason is that whenever you write something with multiple paragraphs, like the typical essay or a much longer research paper or some other writing you may have to do elsewhere, it is important for you to create a smooth flow from one paragraph to another and/or to show how your thought processes work.   If, for example, you say something positive in a body paragraph (the internal paragraphs are called body paragraphs—separate from the introductory and concluding parapgaphs) and then go into something seemingly opposite, rather than sound like you are contradicting or uncertain, the use of a transitional like “however” can show that you deliberately switched gears.   It is unwise and not recommended to start a paragraph with a FANBOYS word ( For, And, But, and so forth), but It is good form to start paragraphs with transitional. Now, as we practiced using them between simple sentences, you probably agreed that these transitional look better after a period rather than after a semicolon—though both ways are correct. Considering you probably don’t use too many semicolons anyway and that periods end paragraphs (you cannot end a paragraph with a semicolon) that would imply that your transitionals can start the subsequent paragraphs.   More about that in a few sentences from now…   Please consider transitional like links in a chain.  Also, consider that there is no reason to use a transitional in your introductory paragraph.  This means that in a typical 5-paragraph essay, you would only need 4 transitionals—one to start each paragraph starting with the SECOND paragraph.   Based on a very simple description, you could have your transitionals at the start of paragraphs 2 through the end. Please look at the following, but do not bother reading it since it is just nonsense: Here is some text without a meaning.  This text should show what a printed text will look like at this place. If you read this text, you will get no information. Really? Is there no information? Is there a difference between this text and some nonsense like ‘‘Huardest gefburn’’? Kjift -- not at all! A blind text like this gives you information about the selected font, how the letters are written and an impression of the look.   Transitional, here is some text without a meaning.  This text should show what a printed text will look like at this place. If you read this text, you will get no information. Really? Is there no information? Is there a difference between this text and some nonsense like ‘‘Huardest gefburn’’? Kjift -- not at all! A blind text like this gives you information about the selected font, how the letters are written and an impression of the look.   Transitional, here is some text without a meaning.  This text should show what a printed text will look like at this place. If you read this text, you will get no information. Really? Is there no information? Is there a difference between this text and some nonsense like ‘‘Huardest gefburn’’? Kjift -- not at all! A blind text like this gives you information about the selected font, how the letters are written and an impression of the look.   Transitional, here is some text without a meaning.  This text should show what a printed text will look like at this place. If you read this text, you will get no information. Really? Is there no information? Is there a difference between this text and some nonsense like ‘‘Huardest gefburn’’? Kjift -- not at all! A blind text like this gives you information about the selected font, how the letters are written and an impression of the look.   Transitional, here is some text without a meaning.  This text should show what a printed text will look like at this place. If you read this text, you will get no information. Really? Is there no information? Is there a difference between this text and some nonsense like ‘‘Huardest gefburn’’? Kjift -- not at all! A blind text like this gives you information about the selected font, how the letters are written and an impression of the look.   With the above “example,” you can see the placement of the transitional.  Please note:  the reason we add a comma after the transitional (remember before it was a period) is twofold—to show that the transitional is unnecessary (though desirable) to the sentence structure and to tell a reader to pause to make the sentence sound better.    However, if all your writing used transitional as the start of every paragraph, your writing style would become predictable and monotonous.   Now let’s try the most recent transitional placement pattern that you practiced a few days ago.  Since you can, indeed, put transitional elsewhere in your sentence, do that.   Place some transitional at the start and other transitional INSIDE the sentence. It still creates the necessary link but it does so with a little more finesse.   KEEP IN MIND ALMOST ALL THE TRANSITIONALS NEED TO BE VISUALLY SEPARATED WITH ONE ORTWO COMMAS depending on where the transitional are. Here is some text without a meaning.  This text should show what a printed text will look like at this place. If you read this text, you will get no information. Really? Is there no information? Is there a difference between this text and some nonsense like ‘‘Huardest gefburn’’? Kjift -- not at all! A blind text like this gives you information about the selected font, how the letters are written and an impression of the look.   Transitional, here is some text without a meaning.  This text should show what a printed text will look like at this place. If you read this text, you will get no information. Really? Is there no information? Is there a difference between this text and some nonsense like ‘‘Huardest gefburn’’? Kjift -- not at all! A blind text like this gives you information about the selected font, how the letters are written and an impression of the look.   Here is, transitional, is some text without a meaning.  This text should show what a printed text will look like at this place. If you read this text, you will get no information. Really? Is there no information? Is there a difference between this text and some nonsense like ‘‘Huardest gefburn’’? Kjift -- not at all! A blind text like this gives you information about the selected font, how the letters are written and an impression of the look.   Transitional, here is some text without a meaning.  This text should show what a printed text will look like at this place. If you read this text, you will get no information. Really? Is there no information? Is there a difference between this text and some nonsense like ‘‘Huardest gefburn’’? Kjift -- not at all! A blind text like this gives you information about the selected font, how the letters are written and an impression of the look.   Here is, transitional, some text without a meaning.  This text should show what a printed text will look like at this place. If you read this text, you will get no information. Really? Is there no information? Is there a difference between this text and some nonsense like ‘‘Huardest gefburn’’? Kjift -- not at all! A blind text like this gives you information about the selected font, how the letters are written and an impression of the look.     It is my opinion that students who are still learning can start the last paragraph with such transitional as “in conclusion,” “in summary,” or “finally.”    However many educators feel doing so too obvious. Considering that many students have so many other things to worry about regarding correct writing, you may feel free to use these in my class and just check with other teachers in the future.