1. Paragraphs and Transitions
ENGL 121
Howard Community College

2. What is it?
A paragraph is a collection of related sentences dealing with a
single topic.
Purdue University OWL

3. Paragraphs: Basic Rule
Keep One Idea to One Paragraph
Purdue University OWL

4. Elements of a Paragraph
Unity: The entire paragraph should concern itself with a
single focus.
Coherence: Build bridges throughout paragraph
A topic sentence: A topic sentence is a sentence that
indicates in a general way what idea or thesis the paragraph is
going to deal with.
Adequate development: next slide
Transitions: more later
Purdue University OWL

5. Adequate Development of
Paragraph
 Use examples and illustrations
 Cite data (facts, statistics, evidence, details, and others)
 Examine testimony (what other people say such as quotes and
paraphrases)
 Use an anecdote or story
 Define terms in the paragraph
 Compare and contrast
 Evaluate causes and reasons
 Examine effects and consequences
 Analyze the topic
 Describe the topic
 Offer a chronology of an event (time segments)
Purdue University OWL

6. When do I start a new paragraph?
When you begin a new idea or point.
To contrast information or ideas.
When your readers need a pause.
When you are ending your introduction or starting
your conclusion.
Purdue University OWL

7. Transitions
bridges between parts of your paper

8. Don’t try this at home!
Danzitions
Urban Dictionary says… “term was coined from The Soup's
host Joel McHale as a way to describe the awkward
transitions on The Tony Danza show”
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=aBqny_xQ0IE

9. How do transitions help the writer?
 help you carry over a thought from one sentence to another, from
one idea to another, or from one paragraph to another with words
or phrases.
 transitional devices link your sentences and paragraphs together
smoothly

10. How do they help the reader?
They are cues that help the reader to interpret ideas in the
way that you, as a writer, want them to understand.

11. You need transitions if…
Your instructor has written comments like "choppy,"
"jumpy," "abrupt," "flow," "need signposts," or "how is this
related?" on your papers.
Your readers (instructors, friends, or classmates) tell you
that they had trouble following your organization or train of
thought.
You tend to write the way you think—and your brain often
jumps from one idea to another pretty quickly.
You wrote your paper in several discrete "chunks" and then
pasted them together.
 http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/transitions.html

12. Examples
To Compare/Contrast: To Add:
whereas, but, yet, on the and, again, and then,
other hand, however, besides, equally
nevertheless, on the important, finally,
other hand, on the further, furthermore,
contrary, by comparison, nor, too, next, lastly,
where, compared to, up what's more, moreover,
against, balanced against, in addition, first (second,
but, although, etc.)
conversely, meanwhile,
after all, in contrast,
although this may be true

13. Examples
To Give an Example: To Show Exception:
for example, for instance, yet, still, however,
in this case, in another nevertheless, in spite of,
case, on this occasion, in despite, of course, once in
this situation, take the case a while, sometimes
of, to demonstrate, to
illustrate, as an illustration,
to illustrate

14. You try!
Example 1: Example 2:
I have seven pairs of red Going back to college will
shoes. I don’t have any be difficult. I have not
purple shoes. I do not been in school for over 10
need to buy more shoes. years. I am married with
There’s no money in the four children. I will try my
bank. best to balance work,
family, and school.