February 28

ELA B30 Developing Essay Writing Skills – Transitions Between Paragraphs

Some of the basics of developing the typical keyhole essay have been established for you all.Image result for transitions We’re able, then, to focus on more advanced and specific elements of developing your essay writing. In particular, many of you can improve how smoothly a reader flows through your writing, more easily following your line of thinking between the paragraphs. To improve this, you must develop stronger transitions between your paragraphs that guide the reader through the parts of your argument and shows the connections between the paragraph ideas. 

Many of you have developed a strength in writing good topic sentences.

What you must do now is develop the transitions that precede them to link one paragraph idea to the next.

Some essay samples are provided below.
They range in quality of whether they have these transitions between paragraphs. Some are basic/redundant (first, second, third), some miss these transitions entirely and only have topic sentences, while others have developed both the topic sentence and the transition to accompany it. See if you can rate them in order of basic to advanced.

A:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

B:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

C:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

D:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

E:

 

January 19

Using Transitions

Activity for students: The following sentences are about the same topic, transitions, but they do not flow well at all. Rewrite the same paragraph but make it your own and create a smooth flow by including transitions to guide the reader through the ideas. Post your paragraph both as a comment to this one and on your own blog. If you can, highlight in yellow the parts that are transitions.

 

Writing can seem choppy. The sentences don’t seem to fit together. Readers are not engaged by that type of writing. Sentences can be in the same paragraph if they share a topic. Paragraphs should be about more than a shared topic. People use transitions when they speak. It comes naturally. People who read a lot use transitions naturally. Other people struggle with them. It is a skill that has to be practiced. It can be developed. The benefits are huge.