By Virginia “Ginny” Gilroy, MA, Full-time Faculty and Lecturer, General Education
Using transitions between sentences in a paragraph.
Transitional words and phrases signal how the ideas in your paragraph are logically connected. Effective transitions build cohesion by telling readers how ideas are relevant to the main topic.
Because all the text in a paragraph is focused on one main idea, use transitional words that describe the connection. Use words that —
- emphasize the main idea: Above all, a key feature, important to note
- offer additional evidence or support for the main idea: In addition, moreover, furthermore
- connect an idea to an example: for example, to illustrate, specifically
Additionally, it can often be effective to further your examples by offering examples that compare and contrast the main point by using the following transitional words:
- To compare ideas: like, by comparison, similar to, in the same way
- To contrast ideas: however, on the other hand, conversely
