How to Use Paragraph Transitions

WhiteSmoke's Guide to Transitional Words and Expressions

When writing a paragraph or essay, just as proper grammar and spelling are important, paragraph transitions are important. WhiteSmoke Writing Software will help you find useful transition words, whether you are writing in business, medical, or legal styles. It has special features to help with your creative writing, as well.

Transitional words and phrases connect sentences and paragraphs to each other. Paragraph transitions suggest a particular relationship between one idea and the next. Within a paragraph, transitions provide coherence: a sense that the paragraph contains one main argument or idea (see How to Write a Paragraph). Between paragraphs, paragraph transitions help with the flow of writing from beginning to end, as well as the sense of the coherence of the whole essay (see How to Write an Essay). Transitional words and phrases often occur at the beginning of a sentence and, for more formal writing, transitional expressions are set off with a comma. Some transition words (for example, "too" or "as well") more often occur at the end or even in the middle of a sentence, however.

Use WhiteSmoke English Writing Software to improve your writing and your use of good transitions. The WhiteSmoke enhancement tools will suggest transitions to you. A unique artificial intelligence algorithm provides multiple examples from real-world writing. The grammar and spell check software will assure that you write your best English in each and every paragraph you write. The dictionaries will help you be certain that each word you use means just what you want it to. And the thesaurus, a powerful synonym dictionary, will help you vary your transitions as you write, an important aspect of using paragraph transitions.

Consequently, transition words will be easier than ever to use with WhiteSmoke. To help you practice transitional words, here is a transition word list that shows the relationship the transitional words or phrases indicate. As a transition word exercise, revise a paragraph adding the appropriate transition word or phrase.

Relationship    English Transition Words and Phrases

Adding information    also, and, as well, besides, equally important, finally, furthermore, in addition, moreover, then, too
Comparing ideas    in like manner, in the same way, likewise, similarly
Conceding a point    agreed, certainly, granted, obviously, of course, to be sure
Contrasting ideas    at the same time, but, conversely, even so, even though, however, in contrast, nevertheless, nonetheless, on the one hand, on the other hand, still, yet
Providing an example    as an illustration, as can be seen by, for example, for instance, in other words, namely, specifically, to illustrate
Relating time and order of ideas    afterward, before, currently, eventually, finally, first, (second, third, fourth, fifth�), immediately, in the future, in the past, later, less important, meanwhile, most important, next, often, sometimes, soon, subsequently, then, today, when
Resulting from the previous idea    accordingly, as a result, consequently, so, thereby, therefore, thus
Showing relative location    adjacent, at the side, between, here, in the back, in the background, in the distance, in the foreground, in the front, nearby, there, to the side
Summarizing ideas    finally, hence, in brief, in conclusion, in short, in summary, that is, that is to say, to sum up

In summary, use a variety of good transition words within your paragraphs to create coherent paragraphs. Use good paragraph transition words in essays to help your ideas flow throughout the essay, as well. In these ways, transition words serve as a sort of writing glue. Yet, don't use the same transition repeatedly, unless you are doing so for a specific effect.

Finally, WhiteSmoke will help you make the transition to improved writing. Its powerful and unique features provide an online editor for you, wherever and whenever you write. If you use WhiteSmoke, good writing habits will stick with you like glue.

Transition words lesson plan idea: discuss with students the use of transitions to provide coherence and flow (see above). Using the text here, help students identify the transition words used in each paragraph. Then give your students a sample of writing with all of the transitions removed. Ask them to use the transition word examples provided to add transitions to the text.