ShmoopTube

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[Coop and Dino singing]

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Megan used to live…here.

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Her dream is to one day live…here. [Megan in a huge living room]

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However, in the meantime, since her parents finally kicked her out of the house and she

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doesn’t yet have a job yet… she lives…here. [Megan in a small apartment]

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Megan is in a transitional phase.

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If she moved straight from her parents’ house to her big beautiful dream house, with

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no money to her name… …well, you might wonder if she’s got ties

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to the mafia. [Megan walks to a table with Mafia members]

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But life tends not to work in such big jumps.

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Instead, there are little steps from one thing to another along the way… and those are [Frog leaps from pad to pad on water]

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transitions.

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We need them in our writing, too.

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Transitions are basically…bridges.

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Or…duct tape. [A roll of duct tape and a large bridge]

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Okay, they’re bridges made of duct tape, holding everything together in a piece of

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writing.

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Specifically, they are words and phrases that [Coop explaining transitions]

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help readers get from sentence to sentence, allowing them to follow the logic of the writer.

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They can connect ideas between, and sometimes within, sentences. [Hand underlines the word therefore and but]

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You’ll usually be able to spot one when you see a word such as and, also, besides,

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furthermore, or in addition.

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Those words are like little bread crumbs that have been left behind to help us along. [Girl dropping bread crumbs in the forest and pigeon eats them]

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Be sure to leave a few for the birds…

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Transitions can also be used to illustrate or explain an idea.

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For example… the words “for example.”

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See what we did there?

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Transitions can show time, place, and direction. [Person looks at their watch and a compass appears]

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After, as, before, next, above, below, and beyond…and the list goes on.

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If you’re ever shopping for transitions, Bed, Bath, Above, Below & Beyond is a great [People cuing outside bed bath above below & beyond]

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place to look.

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So…what else can these nifty little guys do?

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Well, they can compare and contrast.

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Also, in the same way, on the other hand, nevertheless.

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All ways to contrast one thing with another. [Girl holding a can of pepsi]

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Other transitions demonstrate logic, or signal a conclusion.

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If, so, consequently, in short, to conclude, and to sum up.

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They’re helpful little buggers…but you also don’t want to go overboard using them. [People dancing overboard and falling into the ocean]

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Not every paragraph needs one.

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If a line makes sense without it, or if adding a transition wouldn’t seem natural…leave

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it alone.

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Okay…example time. [Fried eggs in a pan]

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Suppose you’re writing a persuasive essay trying to convince meat-eaters to go vegan.

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First of all…good luck with that. [Man eating a burger]

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But…regardless of your chances of success, you want your argument to have a clear, organized

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structure.

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So…you want to start by establishing that animals are living creatures, just like us. [Animals in a field under a rainbow]

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From there, you can talk about our commonly accepted rules of morality, and how they should

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really apply to animals just as much as they do to other human beings. [Police officer talking to a horse]

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Once you’ve made that point, and feel like you’ve got your reader on board with…well,

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feeling guilty about their eating habits… …you can shift to talking about how easy

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it is to go from eating meat to eating vegan meat substitutes. [Man stands up and walks away from his burger]

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Each time, you’re making a statement that supports your main topic…

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…then bolstering those statements with supporting arguments…

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…and tying all those mini-arguments together with transitions. [Man in a toilet cubicle]

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Like… you might compare and contrast by saying:

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“Human beings breathe air, eat, drink, sleep, and experience emotions.

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In the same way, most of the animals whose meat we consume also breathe air, eat, drink,

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sleep, and experience many similar emotions.”

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Then, a bit later on, maybe you want to demonstrate logic, so you say:

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“We deem it immoral to eat other human beings because they are thinking, feeling creatures.

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Consequently, we should refrain from eating animals for the same reason.”

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Finally, you might decide to illustrate how easy it is to switch to a vegan lifestyle

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by saying: “There are many products on the market today [Paragraph of argument on paper]

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that taste very much like the meat products you’re used to.

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For example, there is a soy burger currently available that will fool your mouth into thinking

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it’s ripping into some actual cow carcass.”

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If you’re still having trouble getting the knack of transitions… [Megan reading a book of transitions for dummies]

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…try spending a few months living alone in a studio apartment.

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You’ll be able to learn all about them in your abundant free time. [Megan walks out of her studio apartment]

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Right, Megan?

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Megan isn’t speaking to us right now.

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