LEO Transition Cues

http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/style/transitioncues.html

LEO: Literacy Education Online

Transitions help readers connect the ideas in a piece of writing; they're the glue that shows how pieces of your text fit together. Often all you'll need is a word or phrase to lead readers through your text. Cues that lead forward compare and contrast lead through a sequence clarify or emphasize lead through cause and effect relationships lead to concessions, reservations, dismissals, or conditions.

lead to conclusions

Cues that lead readers forward from information they've already read to new information.
To move readers into additional information or further development of your ideas. Old Information Transition ADDITION Actually, Additionally, Again, Also, And Besides Equally important, Finally, First, Second, Third, etc. Further, Furthermore, Incidentally, Indeed, In fact, Lastly, Moreover, Not only this, but this as well What's more, New Information

To move readers into specific examples Generalization Transition EXAMPLES Examples

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As an illustration, Especially, For example, For instance, Including In particular,

Namely, Notably, Particularly, Specifically, To demonstrate, To illustrate,

Cues that lead readers through a sequence

To move readers from one time-frame to another One time Transition TIME After a few hours, Afterwards, At last At the same time, Before Before this, Currently, During Eventually, Finally, First, Second, Third, etc. First of all, Formerly Immediately before, Immediately following, Initially, In the end, In the future, In the meantime, In the meanwhile, Last, Last but not least, Lastly, Later, Meanwhile, Next, Soon after, Previously, Simultaneously, Subsequently, Then, Another time

To draw readers' attention to a particular location or place One place Transition PLACE Adjacent, Alongside, At the side, In the background, In the distance, In the front, Another place

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Here/There In the foreground In the back, Nearby,

To let readers know that a digression is about to begin or end Transition Digression back to Transition Main point begin DIGRESSION/RESUMPTION Anyhow, Anyway, Incidentally, To change the subject, Digression Main point

As I was saying, To get back to the point, At any rate, By the way, To return to the subject, To resume,

Cues that draw readers' attention to cause and effect relationships

To emphasize a cause or reason Transition An effect move in to CAUSE/REASON As Because of For Since To stress a result or an effect Transition Cause/Reason move in to EFFECT/RESULT As a result Because of this, So So that An effect Because Due to For the simple reason that Cause/Reason

For this reason, Therefore,

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Consequently, To clarify the purpose of something Transition Something move in to PURPOSE For fear that In the hope that In order to

Thus,

Its purpose

So So that With this in mind,

Cues that make readers stop and compare what they've just read to what they're about to read
Transition Just read equal or not equal COMPARISON/CONTRAST Although/Although this is true And yet At the same time, But Conversely, For all that, In comparison, In contrast, In the same manner/way, However, Likewise, Meanwhile, Nevertheless, Nonetheless, Nothwithstanding, On the contrary, On the other hand, Similarly, Still, While this is true When in fact Whereas About to read

Cues that lead readers into statements that clarify or emphasize

To clarify a point that readers have just read Transition Point just read meaning CLARIFICATION Clarification

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In other words, In this case, I mean Put another way

That is to say Under certain circumstances Up to a point

To emphasize a point that readers are about to read Transition Point just read !!!! EMPHASIS As a matter of fact, In any case, In any event, Indeed, In fact, Obviously, That is Undoubtedly, Emphatic point

Cues that lead readers into concessions, reservations, dismissals, or conditions

To concede a point that readers are likely to think of Transition Point just read but maybe CONCLUSION Accordingly, As a result, In short, In summary, Concession

Consequently, On the whole, Finally, Hence, In brief, So Therefore, Thus,

In conclusion, To conclude, To clarify for readers the writer's reservations Transition Point just read even so RESERVATION Admittedly, Indeed, Reservation

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As a matter of fact, Even so, Even though Despite this

Nevertheless, Notwithstanding, Regardless

To dismiss a point that readers are likely to think of Transition Point may be true BUT DISMISSAL All the same, At any rate, Either way, In either case, In either event, Whatever happens, Dismissal

In any case/event, Whichever happens, To establish a condition or conditions affecting the subject Transition The subject is true IF CONDITION Although But However, Nevertheless, Although this is true, Even though, In spite of Since This condition is met

Cues that lead readers into a summary or conclusion

To repeat a point you've already made Transition A point = REPETITION As I have noted, As indicated above/earlier, As I stated, As mentioned, In brief, In short, In summary, On the whole, Point stated differently

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As noted earlier, To summarize what you've already said Transition Points made nutshell SUMMARY All in all, All together, As I mentioned, As I stated, Briefly, By and large, Finally, Given these facts, In brief, In conclusion, In short, In summary, On the whole, Overall, Since So Summing up, Then, Therefore, To conclude, To put it briefly, To summarize, Summary

To introduce readers to a conclusion or conclusions Transition Points made the end is coming CONCLUSION Accordingly, As a result, In short, In summary, Conclusion

Consequently, On the whole, Finally, Hence, In brief, So Therefore, Thus,

In conclusion, To conclude,

For additional information on strategies which enable readers to connect the ideas in a piece of writing, see Cohesion. 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 The Write Place

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This page was written by Judith Kilborn for the Write Place, St. Cloud State University, Minnesota, and may be copied for educational purposes only. If you copy this document, please include our copyright notice and the name of the writer; if you revise it, please add your name to the list of writers. Last update: 5 October 1999 URL: http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/style/transitioncues.html

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