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In this video cast, our student writer takes a look at one of her paragraphs she has drafted for her essay. She discusses the transitions and transitional words she uses in her paragraph to help connect her ideas within the paragraph and to make a transition to the next paragraph in her essay.
After reviewing the pages on paragraphs in the Online Writing Lab, I knew as I drafted my paragraphs I wanted to be sure to focus on topic sentences that would really guide my focus in my paragraphs. I wanted topic sentences that would really “say” something about my topic, and I needed them to be specific in purpose but broad enough to give me some room to develop my ideas. In the example I have here, (highlighted in green*) I think I have a good start with topic sentences. I make a point about how the climate impacts the culture in Maine, and the topic of climate gives me a lot to write about as I work to give details for my audience.
I also wanted to have effective transitions. I have highlighted in yellow** some of the words I use to transition between sentences, and, at the bottom, I have highlighted in blue*** my effort to provide a transition to my next paragraph, which will focus on how the people have to adapt physically and financially to such long winters.
I will continue to draft the rest of my body paragraphs with lessons from the Excelsior University Online Writing Lab in mind.
*The green highlighted text is the first sentence in the paragraph.
**Yellow highlighted words are and, for example, and, and however.
***The last two sentences at the end of the video are highlighted in blue.