Use transitional expressions in essays to connect ideas from paragraph to paragraph.  In good paragraphs, writers use transitional words in the first sentence and/or in the last sentence. This makes the paragraphs fit together well. If the essay is well arranged, then transitions will emphasize (or highlight) the organization.

Transitions with conjunctive adverbs and transitional phrases

Just like in sentence transitions, we can use conjunctive adverbs and transitional phrases.

Here are some common conjunctive adverbs:

  • also
  • anyway
  • besides
  • certainly
  • instead
  • meanwhile
  • next
  • now
  • finally
  • furthermore
  • however
  • indeed
  • otherwise
  • still
  • then
  • therefore

You can find more of these in structure 3-1. Many of the transitions we use for sentence also work for paragraphs.

Here are some common transitional phrases:

  • in addition
  • for example
  • for instance
  • of course
  • in other words
  • as a matter of fact

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