Transition Sentences - What They Are and How to Make Them

Transition sentences are a little tricky to master, but once you learn the "trick", your problems will be over. Transition sentences are the bridge that connects one paragraph to another in a smooth and orderly fashion so that your reader won't feel jolted as they climb the stairs of the story.

Transitions are most commonly used in the first sentence of every new paragraph (although they can be used as the last sentence in a paragraph). By the time you finish reading this article, you will understand how to create your own smooth "bridge "or "stairsteps" with ease.

Look at this illustration in To Make a Difference. The scene describes tough, city kids from slum areas who are attending Sunday School. There is a phrase in the first sentence of the second paragraph that ties these two paragraphs together. See if you can find it before I tell you what it is:

"The rebels folded their arms across their chests in defiance and slouched in the metal chairs. Their body language said, I refuse to fit into your boring, round hole! I'm only here to get away from home for two hours.

By a show of hands, these 13 young people, ages 12 to 14, testified to suffering 41 collective hard knocks in life. Five had personally witnessed a shooting.... "

Did you see the connecting phrase? It is "... these 13 young people.... " That one little phrase refers back to the previous paragraph and goes on to carry the story forward. Every paragraph must do this, and it isn't hard. You can connect paragraphs with one word, a short phrase, or a whole sentence, as long as part of it reaches back to the paragraph before it.

Here is a group of words that introduces good transition sentences. You should make a note of them: in addition to, specifically, beyond, for instance, moreover, as a result, to illustrate, on the contrary, if, meanwhile, nevertheless, therefore, otherwise, formerly, besides, instead of, to sum up, beyond, for instance, moreover, as a result, to illustrate, on the contrary, consequently, then, but, therefore, however, moreover

Please note, however, that these are not the only words that can connect sentences. Let's look at another example. See if you can find the transition:

"The shotgun was gone, and the hunt was on. Jack was hunting Venus - or was it her husband? Dad was hunting Jack... Darkness fell, and still no word. Mom sent me to bed early, but I peeked when Dad came in very late and haggard.
As I lay in bed, I thought of simpler days when Jack and I dodged in and out of doorways, laughing, and shooting rubberband guns at one another."

In that example we jump from a living room scene to the bedroom. How did we do that? There isn't even a sentence that shows the girl walking from one room to the other. I'll tell you the transition secret: it lies in the tiny word "as". "As I lay in bed" carries the scene forward, and the girl's thoughts relate back to earlier days of her childhood.

Look through stories and pick out the transition sentence in every paragraph, then go through your own work and put your new knowledge to work. More writing tips below.