THE HUNTER COLLEGE READING/WRITING CENTER
THE WRITING PROCESS
Organization: Identifying Transitional Devices in Paragraphs
(Exercise E)

     Transitional devices make writing coherent, linking idea to
idea and sentence to sentence. The paragraph below illustrates the
use of three common transitional devices:

1. Repetition of key words and phrases

2. Summarizing words which point to an antecedent

3. Conjunctive adverbs--commonly known as transitional words such
as furthermore, moreover, also, besides, finally, then, therefore,
etc,--that describe the relation of the ideas in two clauses 

     or 

   Adverbial clauses and phrases--modify verbs, adjectives, other
adverbs, and whole groups of words and usually tell how, why, when,
where, under what conditions, or with what result. 


     List as many examples of each kind of transitional device as
you can find in the following passage.


     Everyone seems to feel that he was born an expert in the
judgement of artistic work. We do not feel this way about a
hydraulic work, an electronic work, a legalistic work, or a
mathematical, logical, or psychological work. For these, we call
upon the experts. They have studied long and hard. We respect them
for this. We do not, however, respect the long, hard study of the
artist. We feel no shame, moreover, for this lack of respect. I
don't know anything about art, we say, but I know what I like. We
forget, when we say this, that we share this knowledge with lower
animals. Any sow, knowing what she likes, can gurgle an oozy grunt
in a rain wallow. But can a sow make it rain?


1. Repetition of key words and phrases



2. Summarizing words, pointing to an antecedent



3. Conjunctive adverbs or adverbial constructions


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