Making effective paragraph transitions - 2

[Joe Carillo]

As discussed in Part 1 of this series, the choice of paragraph transition device is largely determined by any of these seven major expository tasks that the next paragraph is intended to do: (1) amplify a point or adding to it; (2) establish a causal relationship; (3) establish a temporal relationship; (4) present an example; (5) make an analogy; (6) provide an alternative; or (7) concede a point.

Most of the 64 or so familiar transition words or phrases for linking sentences, like “besides,” “similarly,” “above all,” and “as a consequence,” can also effectively bridge a succeeding paragraph to the one preceding it. These transition hooks have a built-in and overt logic in them that can apply to a very wide range of situations. As we progress to the more complex types of expositions, however, we will need less obtrusive and more elegant ways of linking paragraphs with one another.

Part II –Translation devices for bridging paragraphs

There are two general categories of transition hooks for bridging paragraphs: (1) Explicit or extrinsic paragraph transitions, and (2) implicit or intrinsic transitions.

1. Explicit or extrinsic paragraph transition hooks

Transition hooks of this type are very handy and give paragraphs very strong logical interlocks, providing a clear and strong logical connection between them. Typical of such hooks are “although” and “despite,” “for example” and “for instance,” “alternatively” and “besides that,” and “however” and “though.”

The transition sentence to a succeeding paragraph starts with the hook word or phrase, as in the following example:

“Evelyn was such a marvel in her English that she held both her professor and her classmates in awe with her eloquence in delivering lines from Shakespeare’s sonnets.

“Although Evelyn was exceptionally good in English, she proved to be less than average in mathematics no matter how hard she tried. In fact, she needed intensive tutoring just to get a passing grade in calculus.”

Another use of an explicit paragraph transition hook:

“The prestigious law firm interviewed the board exam topnotcher and was so impressed   by his intelligence and sharpness that they offered him a very attractive salary.

“Besides that, they dangled a brand-new car and the promise of being a partner in the law firm in two years depending on actual performance. The law firm’s principals were terribly disappointed though when he replied by e-mail five days later that he had accepted a two-year scholarship and a teaching position from a leading university in the United States.”

However, we must keep in mind that when overused, the prefabricated logic of explicit transition hooks can become very distracting, annoying, and unsightly. Thus, for academic essays and formal dissertations, the usual suggested limit is no more than one explicit transition hook for every paragraph and no more than three such hooks for every page.

2. Implicit or intrinsic transition hooks

On the other hand, implicit transitions make use of the natural progression or “flow” of the ideas themselves to link paragraphs logically. Rather than use the usual transitional phrases and conjunctive adverbs, they employ a semantic play on key words or ideas in the body of the exposition itself. Such implicit paragraph transitions usually do the following:

(1) Repeat a key word or phrase used in the preceding paragraph and make it the takeoff point for the succeeding paragraph; or

(2) Use a synonym or words similar to that key word or phrase to do the transitional job. An example of this type of paragraph transition was presented in Part I of this series.

Among the implicit transitional devices, the most basic are the pronouns “this,” “that,” “these,” “those,” and “it.” They can effectively bridge succeeding paragraphs with previous ones while minimizing the distracting overuse of the same nouns in the exposition.

We will entirely devote Part III of this series to show how well these five pronouns work in effecting unobtrusive and smooth paragraph transitions.
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This reprises and updates the author’s 2006 series in his English Plain and Simple columns on making effective paragraph transitions.
 
This essay, 2128th of the series, appears in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the December 8, 2022 digital edition of The Manila Times, ©2022 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

Read this essay in The Manila Times:
Making effective paragraph transitions - 2

(Next week: Making effective paragraph transitions - 3)         December 15, 2022

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