LEO: Literacy Education Online Transition Cues

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 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		New Information
  	ADDITION
  	Actually,	Further,
  	Additionally,	Furthermore,
  	Again,	Incidentally,
  	Also,	Indeed,
  	And	In fact,
  	Besides	Lastly,
  	Equally important,	Moreover,
  	Finally,	Not only this, but this as well
  	First, Second, Third, etc.	What's more,

  ---

• To move readers into specific examples

  Generalization	Transition		Examples
  	EXAMPLES
  	As an illustration,	Namely,
  	Especially,	Notably,
  	For example,	Particularly,
  	For instance,	Specifically,
  	Including	To demonstrate,
  	In particular,	To illustrate,

Cues that lead readers through a sequence

• To move readers from one time-frame to another

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

• To draw readers' attention to a particular location or place

  One place	Transition		Another place
  	PLACE
  	Adjacent,	In the background,
  	Alongside,	In the distance,
  	At the side,	In the front,
  	Here/There	In the foreground
  	In the back,	Nearby,

• To let readers know that a digression is about to begin or end

  Digression	Transition back to		Main point
  Main point	Transition begin		Digression
  	DIGRESSION/RESUMPTION
  	Anyhow,	Incidentally,
  	Anyway,	To change the subject,
  	As I was saying,	To get back to the point,
  	At any rate,	To return to the subject,
  	By the way,	To resume,

Cues that draw readers' attention to cause and effect relationships

• To emphasize a cause or reason

  An effect	Transition move in to		Cause/Reason
  	CAUSE/REASON
  	As	Because
  	Because of	Due to
  	For	For the simple reason that
  	Since

• To stress a result or an effect

  Cause/Reason	Transition move in to		An effect
  	EFFECT/RESULT
  	As a result	So
  	Because of this,	So that
  	For this reason,	Therefore,
  	Consequently,	Thus,

• To clarify the purpose of something

  Something	Transition move in to		Its purpose
  	PURPOSE
  	For fear that	So
  	In the hope that	So that
  	In order to	With this in mind,

Cues that make readers stop and compare what they've just read to what they're about to read

Just read	Transition equal or not equal		About to read
	COMPARISON/CONTRAST
	Although/Although this is true	Meanwhile,
	And yet	Nevertheless,
	At the same time,	Nonetheless,
	But	Nothwithstanding,
	Conversely,	On the contrary,
	For all that,	On the other hand,
	In comparison,	Similarly,
	In contrast,	Still,
	In the same manner/way,	While this is true
	However,	When in fact
	Likewise,	Whereas

Cues that lead readers into statements that clarify or emphasize

• To clarify a point that readers have just read

  Point just read	Transition meaning		Clarification
  	CLARIFICATION
  	In other words,	That is to say
  	In this case,	Under certain circumstances
  	I mean	Up to a point
  	Put another way

• To emphasize a point that readers are about to read

  Point just read	Transition !!!!		Emphatic point
  	EMPHASIS
  	As a matter of fact,	In fact,
  	In any case,	Obviously,
  	In any event,	That is
  	Indeed,	Undoubtedly,

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

• To concede a point that readers are likely to think of

  Point just read	Transition but maybe		Concession
  	CONCLUSION
  	Accordingly,	In short,
  	As a result,	In summary,
  	Consequently,	On the whole,
  	Finally,	So
  	Hence,	Therefore,
  	In brief,	Thus,
  	In conclusion,	To conclude,

• To clarify for readers the writer's reservations

  Point just read	Transition even so		Reservation
  	RESERVATION
  	Admittedly,	Indeed,
  	As a matter of fact,	Nevertheless,
  	Even so,	Notwithstanding,
  	Even though	Regardless
  	Despite this

• To dismiss a point that readers are likely to think of

  Point may be true	Transition BUT		Dismissal
  	DISMISSAL
  	All the same,	In either case,
  	At any rate,	In either event,
  	Either way,	Whatever happens,
  	In any case/event,	Whichever happens,

• To establish a condition or conditions affecting the subject

  The subject is true	Transition IF		This condition is met
  	CONDITION
  	Although	Although this is true,
  	But	Even though,
  	However,	In spite of
  	Nevertheless,	Since

Cues that lead readers into a summary or conclusion

• To repeat a point you've already made

  A point	Transition =		Point stated differently
  	REPETITION
  	As I have noted,	In brief,
  	As indicated above/earlier,	In short,
  	As I stated,	In summary,
  	As mentioned,	On the whole,
  	As noted earlier,

• To summarize what you've already said

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

• To introduce readers to a conclusion or conclusions

  Points made	Transition the end is coming		Conclusion
  	CONCLUSION
  	Accordingly,	In short,
  	As a result,	In summary,
  	Consequently,	On the whole,
  	Finally,	So
  	Hence,	Therefore,
  	In brief,	Thus,
  	In conclusion,	To conclude,

For additional information on strategies which enable readers to connect the ideas in a piece of writing, see Cohesion.