transitions in life essay

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190 Good Transition Words for Essays

August 23, 2023

Essay writing consists of two primary procedures: coming up with the content we want to include and structuring that content. These procedures might take place in either order or they could occur simultaneously. When writing an essay it is important to think about the ways that content and structure complement one another. The best essays join these two elements in thoughtful ways. Transition words for essays (including for college essays) are some of our most primary tools when it comes to structuring a piece of writing.

When beginning an essay it is often recommended to begin with a messy first draft. The purpose of this draft is to get everything out on the page. You should put down as many ideas and trajectories as you can without worrying too much about phrasing or whether they will make it into the final draft. The key here is to be loose—to get ahead of our self-editors and expel everything we can from our minds.

List of Good Transition Words for Essays (Continued)

While this is a good strategy for beginning an essay it will likely leave you unsure how everything fits together. This is where transition words come in. As you will see in this list (which is necessarily incomplete) the range of transition words for essays is vast. Each transition word implies a different relation, often in subtle ways. After accumulating content, the next step is to figure out how the elements fit together towards an overall goal (this could be but is not necessarily an “argument”). Consulting this list of transition words for essays can provide a shortcut for determining how one piece might lead into another. Along with transition words, rhetorical devices and literary devices are other tools to consider during this stage of essay writing.

Transition Words for College Essays

While this list will be a useful tool for all types of essay writing it will be particularly helpful when it comes to finding the right transition words for college essays . The goal of a college essay is to give a strong overall sense of its author in the tight space of 650 words. As you might imagine, it’s not easy to encompass a life or convey a complex personality in such a space. When writing a college essay you are working with a huge amount of potential content. Students often want to squeeze in as much as they can. To this end, transition words for college essays are essential tools to have at our disposal.

Here is our list of transition words for college essays and other essays. It is organized by the different types of transition words/phrases and their functions. While this organization should be convenient, keep in mind that there’s plenty of overlap. Many of these words can function in multiple ways.

1) Additive Transitions

These words function in an additive manner, accumulating content to build upon what has already been stated. They can be used to construct an argument or establish a scene through the accumulation of details.

• Additionally
• In addition to
• Furthermore
• Not to mention
• In all honesty
• To tell the truth
• Not only…but also
• As a matter of fact
• To say nothing of
• What’s more
• Alternatively
• To go a step further

 2) Comparative Transitions (Similarity)

  These transition words draw a parallel or bring out a similarity between images or ideas. They can be used not only in a straightforward sense but also to establish relations of similarity between objects or ideas that might appear to be dissonant.

• In the same way
• In a similar vein
• Along the lines of
• In the key of

 3) Comparative Transitions (Difference)

  While also functioning comparatively, the following words demonstrate difference between ideas or images. These transition words are useful when it comes to establishing contrasting points of view, an important component of any argument.

• On the other hand
• On the contrary
• In contrast to
• In contradiction
• Nevertheless
• Nonetheless
• In any event
• In any case
• In either event

4) Sequential Transitions

  The following are particularly effective transition words for college essays. They will allow you to order ideas chronologically or in a sequence, providing a sense of continuity over time. This is particularly useful when an essay leans into something more creative or involves telling a story.

• Subsequently
• At the same time
• Concurrently
• In the beginning
• At the start
• At the outset
• Off the bat

5) Spatial Transitions

Rather than organizing ideas or images in regards to sequence, these transitions indicate spatial relationships. They are particularly useful when it comes to painting a scene and/or describing objects, but they can also be used metaphorically. Consider, for example, how you might use the transition, “standing in […’s] shadow.”

• Standing in […’s] shadow
• In front of
• In the middle
• In the center
• To the left
• To the right
• On the side
• Adjacent to
• Around the bend
• On the outskirts
• In the distance
• On the horizon
• In the foreground
• In the background
• Underground
• Through the grapevine

 6) Causal Transitions

These transition words for essays indicate cause and effect relationships between ideas. They will be particularly useful when you are structuring a logical argument, i.e. using logos as a mode of persuasion . Causal transitions are an important element of academic, legal and scientific writing.

• Accordingly
• Resultingly
• As a result
• Consequently
• In consequence
• As a consequence
• For this reason
• So much that
• Granting that
• That being the case
• Under those circumstances
• With this in mind
• For the purpose of
• For all intents and purposes
• In the event that
• In the event of
• In light of
• On the condition that
• To the extent that

7) Examples/Illustration/Supporting Transition

  These transition words for college essays can be used to introduce supporting evidence, emphasis, examples, and clarification. There is some overlap here with additive transitions and causal transitions. These transitions are also useful when it comes to building an argument. At the same time, they can signal a shift into a different linguistic register.

• For example
• For instance
• In other words
• As an illustration
• To illustrate
• To put it differently
• To put it another way
• That is to say
• As the evidence illustrates
• It’s important to realize
• It’s important to understand
• It must be remembered
• To demonstrate
• For clarity’s sake
• To emphasize
• To put it plainly
• To enumerate
• To speak metaphorically

8) Conclusory Transitions

These transition words for essays serve to bring an idea or story to a close. They offer a clear way of signaling the conclusion of a particular train of thought. They might be followed by a summary or a restatement of an essay’s argument. In this way they also provide emphasis, setting the reader up for what is about to come.

• In conclusion
• To summarize
• To put it succinctly
• To this end
• At the end of the day
• In the final analysis
• By and large
• On second thought
• On first glance
• That’s all to say
• On the whole
• All things considered
• Generally speaking

List of Good Transition Words for Essays (Final Thoughts)

Even when elements appear to be disparate on first glance, transition words are a great tool for giving your essay a smooth flow. They can also create surprising juxtapositions, relationships, and equivalences. The way a reader will understand a transition word depends on the context in which they encounter it.

Individual words and phrases can be used in a wide variety of ways, ranging from the literal to the figurative to the colloquial or idiomatic. “Through the grapevine” is an example of the colloquial or idiomatic. When we encounter this phrase we don’t interpret it literally (as hearing something “through” a grapevine) but rather as hearing news secondhand. There are, of course, a vast number of idioms that are not included in this list but can also function as transitional phrases.

This list of transition words for college essays (and really any form of writing you might be working on) is a resource that you can return to again and again in your life as a writer. Over years of writing we tend to fall into patterns when it comes to the transition words we use. Mixing things up can be exciting both as a writer and for your readers. Even if you don’t choose to stray from your trusted transitions, considering the alternatives (and why they don’t work for you) can offer a deeper understanding of what you are trying to say.

List of Good Transition Words for Essays (An Exercise)

As an exercise in self-understanding, you may want to try highlighting all of the transition words in a piece of your own writing. You can then compare this to the transition words in a piece of writing that you admire. Are they using similar transitions or others? Are they using them more or less often? What do you like or dislike about them? We all use transition words differently, creating different tonal effects. Keeping an eye out for them, not only as a writer but also as a reader, will help you develop your own aesthetic.

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Emmett Lewis

Emmett holds a BA in Philosophy from Vassar College and is currently completing an MFA in Writing at Columbia University. Previously, he served as a writing instructor within the Columbia Artists/Teachers community as well as a Creative Writing Teaching Fellow at Columbia, where he taught poetry workshops. In addition, Emmett is a member of the Poetry Board at the Columbia Journal , and his work has been published in HAD , Otoliths , and Some Kind of Opening , among others.

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10 Ways to Make It Through Your Life’s Transitions

Change can be good if you approach it with these 10 research-based tips..

Posted March 14, 2017 | Reviewed by Devon Frye

You’re happy with the status quo, so change is the last thing you want in your life. However, life doesn’t always comply with our wishes, and now you’re faced with a major transition.

One of the toughest transitions you might ever have to make, for instance, involves moving your place of residence. The longer you’ve lived somewhere, the harder that move can be. You also find that there are times when you have to go with the flow with family, friends, and employers. Your adult child wants to get married, your best friend’s mother died, you abruptly lose your job, or your boss gives you a completely new set of responsibilities. Dealing with these changes can be tough, but the 10 tips below, based on research involving life-span studies of stressful events, can get you through even the toughest of them.

Let’s begin with some background. The basic premise of most stress and coping literature is that there’s no such thing as an inherently difficult life transition. Life events are as stressful, or not, as you make them. It’s all in the mind-set you apply. A second premise, derived primarily from the life course literature, assumes that the factors that sway the events in life reflect the many forces out there that can lead to change. There are no inherent life changes other than the basic alterations that occur due to biology and the programming of our genes . The life changes involved in transitions occur because of social, historical, and other outside influences. Some of these are predictable, such as graduating from high school at about age 18, and some are completely random, such as having a tree fall on your roof during a storm.

It’s good to know about these perspectives on life transitions, because they show us that there’s nothing inherently bad about change. When changes occur, they reflect a variety of factors, and how you interpret them will determine their impact on you. You’ve no doubt seen on the news, or perhaps in your own neighborhood, people who’ve gone through a traumatic change, such as a tornado, hurricane, flood, or fire, and must cope with the damage it’s done to their lives. Somehow, although they’ve suffered incredible loss, they emerge ready to clean up and move on with their lives.

Of all of life’s changes, one that emerges as the most memorable turns out to be moving one’s home. It’s the type of event that, years later, people are prone to remember as having overarching significance. Called the relocation bump by the University of New Hampshire’s Karalyn Enz and colleagues (2016), this distinctive memory stays with people throughout their lives. In the Enz et. al. study, of 149 adults age 65 and older who cited a residential move between the ages of 40 and 60, that move became the centerpiece of their recalled major life events.

The New Hampshire team knew about the so-called reminiscence bump , that peak of memories occurring during the transitional ages from adolescence to young adulthood. Based on this phenomenon, life-span researchers maintained that it was the age people were at the time of this transition that determined the period’s prominence in memory. The study of older adults recalling their memories of relocation suggests that it wasn’t age but the “life changes accompanying transitions” that “may organize autobiographical memories across the entire adult life span” (p. 938). In other words, moving creates a distinctive marking point in your memory that organizes the way you think back on your life.

Let’s look now at how you can translate the “relocation bump” along with the stress and coping and life course perspectives into these 10 ways to manage transitions:

• Recognize that transitions hold a special place in your life memories. Moving actually is a big thing; it’s something you’ll remember for years, if not decades. Rather than trying to shove it out of your consciousness because it is so inherently arduous, give it the respect it deserves as an organizing principle of your life.
• View stress not as a threat, but as a challenge . Because stress is in the mind of the beholder, as many researchers like to say, you can take an event that you’re afraid will overwhelm you and turn it into an occasion you can rise above and conquer.
• Appreciate the benefits of change . In life-span developmental science, getting stuck in life’s grooves has been shown to be detrimental to your cognitive growth. Changes in routine can serve as stimulation to your stagnant nervous systems and allow you to grow new neural pathways.
• Remember the times you’ve successfully navigated a previous transition . As you face a new challenge, use the knowledge that you’ve managed to cope before to give you strength. Yes, that tree falling on your roof was a traumatic experience and expensive to deal with, but deal with it you did.
• Turn to your support network. Researchers in the stress and coping field know that social support is one of the most significant keys to successfully managing change. Even an online community of people going through similar experiences can give you an emotional boost, as well as some practical tips.
• Prepare, prepare, prepare. Speaking of practical tips, getting things in order before a planned major transition is one of the best ways to guarantee that all will work out when the time comes to make your move. It’s known in the retirement literature that planning ahead, preferably for at least 2 years, will allow you to get through that significant life change without being devastated by the loss of your work role. Similarly, getting your literal “house in order” before a move will ease the physical and psychological strain of relocation.
• Use a transition to reflect on where your life has been, and where it’s going. That relocation bump reflects not just the practical aspects of moving, but the emotional ones as well. Enz and her team found that 40 percent of all moves were rated above the midpoint of the scale on both material and psychological change. Each time you move, you must engage or disengage with items you’ve possessed, many of which have some type of meaning to you. Say you find thrown in a drawer a pencil from a trip you took to a national park with your family: Even if you decide to toss it out, for that moment you’ve jogged a reminiscence of a pleasant time from your past.
• Focus on the positive aspects . It’s possible you’re moving out because you need to downsize, or because you can’t afford the rent. Sure, you’d rather stay, but now that you have to move, what can you think of that’s beneficial? Downsizing can allow you to declutter, and moving even because of financial issues can perhaps put you in a new community where you can make new friends. Look out for the hopeful signs in every transition, and you’re bound to feel better.
• Use role models to inspire you through this transition. Find examples of people who inspire you to navigate a challenging period in life. The many instances of trauma survivors interviewed on the news who manage to maintain their faith and optimism can give you the reassurance that it’s possible to adapt to even the most stressful events.
• Realize that change is inherent to life . Without change, our life courses would be very dull indeed. You may not be seeking change, but when it seeks you, take heart in the fact that no one’s life ever stands completely still. People enter your world and leave it, material possessions come and go, and careers invariably involve turning points. No one ever gets through life without undergoing some type of change, so when it happens, don’t fight it.

Follow me on Twitter @swhitbo for daily updates on psychology, health, and aging.

Copyright Susan Krauss Whitbourne 2017

LinkedIn Image Credit: DewDrops Images/Shutterstock

Enz, K. F., Pillemer, D.B. & Johnson, K.M. (2016) The relocation bump: Memories of middle adulthood are organized around residential moves. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 145 , 935-940.

Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D. , is a Professor Emerita of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her latest book is The Search for Fulfillment.

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From Old to New: Making the Most of Life’s Transitions

2013 could easily be known as the Year of Change for me. I got married, became a step-mom, moved to a new town, attended a new church, lost a parent, and began working from home. In other words, transition marked every area of my life.

Our family also experienced all of the normal changes that happen in a year. Each new season brought new activities as others ended. School ended; school began. We planned vacations; we prepared for Christmas. Baseball, basketball, soccer, choir, youth group: each began and ended in its time.

And as we moved from one activity, from one event, from one life-altering moment to the next, it wasn’t just the change itself that was significant, but what the change was accomplishing in us, how we transitioned from old to new.

“Change is the stuff of life. But transitioning well is the art of life,” writes Karen Swallow Prior in her essay for The High Calling called, “ In Life as in Writing: Transitions Bring Cohesion to the Whole .”

Prior’s essay is just one of a collection exploring this theme of transitioning from old to new, a timely topic as we turn the pages of our calendars and anticipate what’s next.

Some changes are ones we seek, like moving to a new town or taking on a new job. The most important element to making a successful transition is connecting the old and new together, Prior says: “The key is putting what has already transpired into proper relationship with the new demands as part of a coherent whole.”

Other changes are ones we make. In an interview with pastor, author, business leader, humanitarian, and filmmaker T.D. Jakes, Nancy Lovell explores his life and work, his recent book, and the idea of pushing for transitions the world needs, the ones only we can make.

“What motivated me to write [ Instinct ],” Jakes says in “ Blurring the Lines: Talking Life and Work with T.D. Jakes , “is that while I reference my own life, I’ve been privileged to be around people who shattered ceilings and broke barriers. Regardless of background, or culture or ideology, they followed their instinct. They didn’t allow the rules to incarcerate them to what could be done.”

But how does a person of faith balance humility with the power needed to be so disruptive? Lovell asked.

“It’s possible to have the power to affect change and still be humble that you’re allowed to have it,” Jakes responded. “My illustration of power and humility cohabitating is Jesus Christ himself. You can’t find anyone with more influence and power than Christ and you find him at the feet of his disciples washing feet. He didn’t have to forsake one to produce the other, and neither do we.”

Finally, in Laura Brown’s essay, “ Unwanted Transitions: Finding Normal after Loss ,” we explore the painful process of accepting difficult change that no one would ever choose. “What I am noticing so far, in this grief that is still new, in this world without Dad,” she writes, “is the loss of what he knew. All the things about which there’s no one to ask.”

We aren’t the only ones thinking about change, either. Outside The High Calling, several other articles address this important idea of thriving in transition.

In the December 24, 2013, Bloomberg Business Week article “ Forget Resolutions: Make Real Changes for You and Your Career in 2014 ,” author Karen Cates says making real change begins with asking the right questions. “Instead of asking, ‘What do I want to be when I grow up?’ try this: ‘Who do I want to be? How do I want to feel when I wake up in the morning?’” she writes. “By shifting the focus onto being instead of getting, you multiply the potential paths you can take to get there.”

When it comes to implementing change that affects others, giving them as much control as possible within the transition will help them thrive. That’s the message of the December 1, 2013, article in the The Washington Post called, “ How to Create Change in the Workplace ” by Joyce E.A. Russell.

“Employees may actually be positive to a change, but if the change is imposed on them, their reaction is often more obstinate,” she writes. “Leaders have to help employees feel a sense of ownership in the change process and outcomes.”

For young professionals attempting to thrive in the transition from school to the workplace, Justin Louie’s June 10, 2013, article on TalentEgg.ca offers some great advice. “The absolute worst thing you can do after graduation is nothing,” he writes in “ 3 Steps to Transition From School To The Workplace .”

Not graduating until Spring? “In order to increase your chances of having a job upon graduation, you should start looking for work at least four months before your graduation date, since it can sometimes take this long to find work and get through the application process,” Louis suggests.

Finally, Mark Roberts’ daily reflection, “ God Don't Never Change ” reminds us that through all the transitions we encounter, there is one certainty. His name is God. Subscribe today to receive the daily reflections in your inbox each day, including Saturday’s wrap-up to our theme. And to read more from our High Calling community about what it means to thrive in transition, visit us on Friday, January 10, 2014, for a summary of the best in community posts.

Charity Singleton Craig is a content editor for The High Calling and a contributing writer for Tweetspeak Poetry. She grew up on an Indiana farm and now lives with her husband and step-sons across the street from another Hoosier corn field.

Image by Jordan Richmond . Used with permission. Sourced via Flickr .

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IResearchNet

Life Transitions

Life transitions may be defined as significant changes within the life course. According to the life course perspective, lives are composed of multiple, interrelated developmental trajectories. For example, a life course includes personal relationship trajectories, an educational trajectory, an employment trajectory, and physical health trajectories, among others. These trajectories are marked or accentuated by significant life transitions, with transitions in one trajectory often necessitating or involving transitions in another. The transition to adulthood may involve a residential transition from the family of origin to independent residence, graduation from high school and enrollment in some form of higher education or entry into the workforce, and significant relationship transitions as individuals move away from old friends and form new connections. The implications of life transitions, from a counseling perspective, vary dramatically by historical period, socioeconomic status, gender, race and ethnicity, as well as by individual factors such as personality, coping styles, social support networks, and other resources.

Life Course Transitions

A traditional developmental perspective describes developmental tasks to be completed at each stage or transition in life. For instance, a Western developmental perspective might define the transition to adulthood as involving further establishment of personal identity, and increasing social and economic independence from parents. A life course perspective acknowledges the developmental uniqueness of transitions, but emphasizes the embedding of transitions within social contexts and historic and temporal processes. Thus, the meaning of a given transition, and individuals’ ease in traversing it, depends on the social contexts within which it occurs. Similarly, the effects of social contexts on individuals depend on the stage or transition in the life course during which they occur. For example, research on the psychological and socioeconomic effects of military experiences during World War II found that effects depended on whether entry into the military occurred in early or later adulthood. For those entering the military right out of high school and before they had invested heavily in their careers, military service often resulted in positive socioeconomic outcomes in later adulthood, as it provided training and work experiences, educational, health, and financial benefits, as well as a much improved economy upon returning home. In contrast, for those entering the military in their early 30s, military experience represented a major interruption of careers and family lives, resulting in significant setbacks upon returning home.

An important distinction is whether transitions occur at normative times and in normative sequences. Life course theory posits that life transitions are age graded, meaning that they typically occur within a given age range, and in a normative sequence. Transitions that occur at unusual ages (i.e., “off time”), or out of sequence, may be particularly difficult. The loss of a parent, for example, although never insignificant, has been found to have very different consequences if it occurs early in life (e.g., during childhood) or at a more normative age in later midlife. In addition to the timing of transitions, their duration is also of consequence. Research on the effects of poverty for children, for example, finds that short spells of poverty are less detrimental than prolonged exposures to economic hardship.

Contrary to developmental perspectives that emphasize continuity and the linear unfolding of human development over time, life course theory emphasizes discontinuity and nonlinearity. For example, research into the effects of job loss and other economic strains during the Great Depression found that economic conditions interacted with personality characteristics. Men with a propensity for aggression became even more aggressive in response to these challenges, and this accentuation of personal characteristics continued across the life course. Perhaps more interesting, however, are how later life transitions may represent turning points within the life course. Research on deviance across the life course has observed an apparent paradox. When viewed retrospectively, nearly all criminals are observed to have had delinquent pasts. When viewed prospectively (i.e., forward in time), in contrast, few juvenile delinquents go on to commit crimes as adults. One reason for the change is that most delinquents are drawn away from deviance through later positive life transitions, such as obtaining stable jobs or entering good marriages. In part, this growing out of delinquency is consistent with a pattern known as adolescent limited delinquency. Other research on turning points emphasizes the social psychological and symbolic nature of changes in identities that enable one to take advantage of these potential resources in adulthood.

Life course theory also emphasizes that individuals’ transition experiences are inextricably linked to the lives of their significant others (e.g., spouses, partners, children, extended family members, friends, and other social networks). Thus, the effect of a transition is often moderated by the nature and extent of these social connections. For instance, research has found that undesirable economic transitions, such as loss of a job or loss of a family farm, affect parents, but also “spillover” to have detrimental consequences for children. Some research on gender differences in stress has found women to be more exposed to undesirable life events through their more extensive social support networks.

The Stress Process and Transitions

The stress process model offers additional insights into the potential effects of life transitions. Most broadly, the stress model predicts that undesirable life events (e.g., job loss, death of spouse) produce stress and may result in diminished psychological or physical well-being. Even desirable transitional events, such as the birth of a child or receiving a job promotion, require adaptations that may produce stress. The type or nature of a given life event is critical to understanding its potential consequences. An important distinction within the stress literature is whether a given life event or transition is acute or part of a more chronic pattern of stressors. By definition, acute stressors are of short duration. They also tend to be more randomly distributed within the population, and to have more limited and short-term consequences. Chronic stressors tend to be associated with socioeconomic and other (race and ethnicity, gender) disadvantages, and represent recurrent problems that may accumulate over the life course and result in serious outcomes (e.g., increased morbidity or mortality). For example, chronic stressors (e.g., unemployment, food insecurity, exposure to environmental hazards) and poor quality social services (e.g., schools, health care) associated with low socioeconomic and minority status are thought to produce a premature weathering of the body and increased risks of morbidity and mortality. Life events that are out of individuals’ control, are unexpected, and/or threaten salient personal identities are also found to be more stressful. For example, research has found job or economic-oriented life events to be more detrimental to men’s well-being than to women’s, as they threaten men’s identities as family economic providers. Women, in contrast, may be more influenced by undesirable life events within the family.

The stress literature also focuses attention on personal and social resources that individuals may draw upon to buffer the effects of transitional life events on well-being. Personal resources often associated with positive outcomes include self-esteem and self-efficacy. An individual’s repertoire of coping strategies may also moderate the consequences of life transitions. Persons with more active coping or problem-solving styles are often better able to deal with stressors than those who respond passively or by ignoring the problem. Research also finds that the way individuals appraise the causes of life events (i.e., causal attributions) influences outcomes. For instance, life events that can be attributable to external causes (e.g., job loss during the Great Depression) are less likely to result in negative psychological outcomes than those that are attributed to individual deficiencies. Studies of job losses have found that the more people are able to make lateral social comparisons to others in similar situations, and/or positive social comparisons to those worse off, the better they are able to cope with their own stressors. Research similarly finds that the degree to which the external community attributes life events to the person, versus external causes, influences the amount of social stigma people experience. The material and economic resources at individuals’ disposal are of obvious potential benefit for dealing with stressful life transitions. Relating closely to the life course concept of linked lives is the concept of social support. Perceived and actual social support (e.g., from spouses, external family, and social networks) is found to both directly influence well-being and to buffer against the negative effects of undesirable life events.

The life course and social stress literatures offer insights into understanding those who are best able to adapt to life transitions and other undesirable events. A variety of studies identify variables associated with resilient individuals (i.e., those able to beat the odds), including individual or social-psychological characteristics such as planfulness, self-efficacy, self-esteem, and intelligence; and social and socioeconomic resources such as community involvement, social support, human and financial capital, and high-quality public institutions and services. These perspectives also highlight the importance of considering how individuals and families actively adapt to their environments and transitional demands. In the study of families living in poor and/or dangerous neighborhoods, researchers have found that successful parents employ a variety of tactics to minimize youth’s exposure to community risks. Examples include “lock-ins,” early curfews, family chaperonage, restrictions on places children are allowed to go, and tight control over relationships with peers. Such practices might be characterized as too restrictive or “authoritarian” within lower-risk contexts, but within stressful environments, they appear to be positively adaptive.

Childhood Transitions

One of the first major transitions in life is the transition from home to formal schooling. Rather than a discrete transition, however, entry into formal schooling may include transitions from home to day care, from day care to prekindergarten (pre-K) programs, and from pre-K programs to kindergarten. Transitions from kindergarten to first grade, and subsequent grade transitions, must also be considered because of their unique developmental and social circumstances. Given associations between later academic difficulties and performance during the first several years of schooling, research and policymakers have focused on factors associated with school readiness, and interventions such as the Head Start program and other pre-K experiences. In addition to cognitive readiness, a student’s social and behavioral competencies are also critical. Entry into elementary school involves a considerable change in social context, as kindergartens and first grades are typically larger than preschool or day care arrangements, and involve a more rigid set of behavioral regulations. Most research indicates that positive relationships between children and adults (both teachers and parents) are critical to fostering readiness.

Other research has focused on the yearly transitions from school back to families and neighborhoods during summer breaks. Though children start the school year with varying abilities, research has shown that all children make gains at about the same rate over the school year. However, research has shown that educational inequality increases during the summer. It is believed that the relative lack of resources available within the families and communities of poor and minority children explain these growing disparities over the summer.

A particularly significant maturational transition during adolescence is puberty. Early pubertal development is potentially problematic for both males and females, as it is associated with early sexual activity and increased delinquency. Among boys, early pubertal development predicts both violent and nonviolent delinquency, likely due to its association with greater access to older peers. Early pubertal development among females is also associated with earlier sexual activity and greater exposure to intimate partner violence. Moreover, greater exposure to intimate partner violence may explain changing gender differences in psychological well-being during this period. Prior to puberty, males tend to have higher depression than females. This gender difference switches during puberty, with females developing higher rates of depression. This disparity is found to persist across much of adulthood. A related important issue for females is perceived body image. Negative perceived body image during adolescence has also been found to account for the higher depression and lower self-esteem of females relative to males.

Transitions from elementary school to middle school and from middle school to high school have also been found to be challenging. Many studies have observed setbacks during these transitions in psychological well-being and academic competence, including diminished perceptions of ability and loss of intrinsic motivations for learning. These transitions are thought to be difficult for several reasons, including ongoing pubertal development, the need to renegotiate peer relations within more diverse (e.g., in terms of ages and social statuses) student bodies, and the increasing competitiveness and stratification of schooling.

Transitions associated with family moves during childhood and adolescence may present challenges due to their disruption of friendship and other social networks. Research has found, however, that supportive parents may buffer youth against the negative effects of family mobility. The effects of family migration also vary as a function of social class and the impetus for moves. Moves associated with upward social mobility are likely to be less detrimental than are those associated with job losses, or that are necessitated by other undesirable life events. Though people’s stability in their community is generally found to be associated with positive outcomes, inability to move away from poor and dangerous neighborhoods may be associated with restricted access to resources and ongoing experiences of discrimination.

The Transition to Adulthood

Perhaps most examined is the transition to adulthood, which typically involves the multiple transitions of moving away from the family of origin, transitions to higher education and/or employment, and the formation of new family and other significant relationships. Transitions to higher education are now quite widespread, with nearly 70% of high school graduates continuing on to college as of 2005. Not surprisingly, this transition varies significantly across subgroups of the population, with women outpacing men, and Asian and White young adults more likely to be enrolled than African Americans and Latinos/as. Of increasing importance in the transition to higher education are community colleges and other 2-year institutions. Community colleges are particularly appealing to those who have traditionally been unable to pursue higher education, whether due to limited economic resources, poorer academic performance, or other risk factors. Graduate and professional degree programs have also increased in importance, further extending the transition to adulthood and delaying, for many, transitions to marriage and childbearing.

For disadvantaged youth, the transition to adulthood is becoming more perilous. Exposure to violence in poor neighborhoods and schools has been identified as a significant risk factor for poor psychological, social, and behavioral development (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder, aggression, depression). Exposure to violence undermines youth’s sense of control, frustrates learning, and may lead to a foreshortened adolescence. Exposure to street and intimate partner violence has been linked to a variety of “early exits” to adulthood, including dropping out of high school, running away from home, teen pregnancy, and suicidal thoughts. Another significant risk within the lives of disadvantaged young men is incarceration. Increasingly punitive federal and state policies and increased funding for police and penitentiary facilities over the past several decades have resulted in a tremendous growth of the incarcerated population. Most affected by this change are low-education minority men, for whom incarceration is now a nearly expected stage in the life course. For example, nearly 60% of African American males without a high school diploma will have spent some time in prison by their early 30s. For those who have been convicted of criminal offenses, the transition back into the community has also become more difficult due to increased surveillance and monitoring within the parole system, and to limitations placed on their rights to public services, employment and, in some cases, citizenship. The “collateral consequences” of incarceration to relationships between incarcerated men and their spouses and partners, children, and communities are beginning to receive increased research and policy attention. Though not widespread, comprehensive reunification and fatherhood programs within prisons and the community offer some promise for easing this transition.

Family transitions during early adulthood are becoming both more delayed and diverse. Numerous trends have affected family transitions over the past half century, including delayed age of marriage, increased rates of nonmarital fertility and single parent households, and increased cohabitation. Also contributing to fewer married households were rising divorce rates during the 1960s and ’70s, which leveled off and have declined somewhat since the early 1980s. Current projections of the likelihood of experiencing the transition to divorce vary based on assumptions about future demographic conditions. Nonetheless, between 43% and 50% of first marriages are likely to end in divorce within 15 years. These divorce rates vary considerably across subgroups, with women marrying at young ages considerably more likely to divorce than those marrying at later ages. Cohabitation prior to marriage is now the norm, but is also less likely to lead to marriage than in the past, particularly among low-income and minority couples. One very positive trend in recent years is a decline in teenage fertility, particularly among African American youth.

Policymakers have increasingly paid attention to these trends due to the mounting evidence that living in married couple families (i.e., versus single parent families) is associated with a wide range of socioeconomic, psychological, and physical health outcomes. Welfare reform, child support enforcement, and more recent marriage promotion and father involvement initiatives have each sought to change incentives related to marriage and nonmarital fertility. Critics, however, counter that marriage promotion among disadvantaged couples may not make economic sense due to the poor economic prospects of men, and may expose women and children to abuse and other risk factors in the lives of disadvantaged men. Other researchers point out that divorce may result in positive outcomes when it alleviates chronic stress or abuse within the family. As more fathers live apart from their children, researchers have sought to identify factors associated with positive outcomes for children. Fathers able to retain emotional closeness to their children and who actively engage in authoritative parenting have been found to be most successful.

The transition to parenthood is a life-changing process. Previous research finds, particularly in the case of a first birth, that the transition to parenthood frequently produces stress for the individual parents and the couple’s relationships. As with other transitions, the nature and degree of consequences depends on personal characteristics, individual and family adaptations, timing, and other contextual resources upon which parents may draw.

Midlife Transitions and Beyond

Perhaps the best-known concept associated with middle adulthood is the midlife crisis. The term usually refers to men’s lives and disappointments associated with transitions at work or within the family. Although surveys suggest that many adults expect to go through a midlife crisis at some time, it is perhaps more constructive to discuss the multiple transitions that men and women may face during an increasingly prolonged middle adulthood. Midlife has become both longer and more varied, due to improvements in health care and increased longevity, as well as changes in the nature of careers.

The notion of a single career, pursued within a single company, is a thing of the past, and was a construct that applied mostly to middle- and upper-class White men rather than all workers. It has been replaced for many by careers marked by employment for multiple companies, of mid-career “retooling” (going back to school), and significant career changes. Some have characterized this change as going from linear career trajectories to “negotiated” careers. Longitudinal studies of contemporary careers have identified several common career sequences, including the traditional stable, long-term tenure at a single firm, an upwardly mobile path with multiple transitions between jobs, intermittent careers with multiple entries and exits, and a stable part-time work trajectory. Men are more likely to follow the stable full-time and upwardly mobile paths, whereas women, especially those who are responsible for child or elder care, are more likely to pursue the intermittent and stable part-time routes.

Another common transition, particularly for women who have cut short their educations or careers due to family demands, is to go back to school and/ or reenter the labor force. For those going back to school, being a nontraditional student can be both challenging and rewarding. In addition to concerns about fitting in with predominantly younger student peers, many educational institutions are not organized to accommodate the schedules of older students. Older students are more likely to experience role conflicts or strains associated with juggling both educational and family responsibilities. More positively, however, other research points to the psychological benefits of holding multiple productive roles.

When children are economically independent enough to move out of the parental home, parents may transition into what is commonly called the empty nest phase. Far from a crisis, research has actually found that parents are happiest during this empty nest stage. For many, however, this empty nest phase is increasingly delayed or interrupted, as adult children may delay leaving home in order to pursue higher education, save up to buy their own house, or move back home following divorce or other unexpected life events. Within disadvantaged communities, and particularly in the case of single mother families, it is quite common to have multiple-generation households in which grandparents move in to provide social and economic support. The many productive roles that grandparents play within multiple generation households are receiving increased attention within both the research and policymaking communities. An adult’s parents may also move into the household due to their own deteriorating health or for economic well-being. If the children are not yet out of the house, this situation is described as a “sandwich,” in which adults are doubly burdened by caring for children and their dependent parents. Research into the effects of such multigenerational caregiving on depression suggests that the burden is higher for women, however, other research finds that having multiple productive roles confers positive psychological benefits as well.

Just as careers are becoming more varied, so too is the transition to retirement. Rather than a single transition point, retirement is better conceived of as an ongoing process. Work retirement may be gradual or intermittent, with transitions from full-time to part-time work, from private sector to self-employment, or the starting of second or third careers. For some, the transition begins many years prior to actually leaving the job, with the initiation of financial and lifestyle planning for retirement. The degree of planning for retirement, however, varies considerably by social class and other statuses. Those with unstable work histories, those at risk for job loss, and those with declining health are not able to plan for and retire on their own terms. As is true of work transitions in general, retirement is a transition that often affects more than one person. An individual’s retirement decision making is thus influenced by the career and health transitions of spouses or partners and perhaps other family members.

Due to increases in longevity, researchers are increasingly interested in factors associated with successful aging. Though definitions of successful aging (or aging well) vary considerably, most entail the absence of physical disabilities and a sense of life satisfaction. Much like the concept of resilience, being adaptive in the face of change and continued social engagement, including volunteering activities and participation in other productive roles, has been found to be associated with effective maintenance of psychological and physical health.

As life expectancies continue to rise, transitions to caregiving roles increase in both likelihood and duration. Interventions that provide information and respite to caregivers of persons with dementia or other Alzheimer’s-related symptoms are receiving increased research attention. The transition to widowhood and its duration is also of increasing importance, particularly for women who have considerably longer life expectancies than do men. Though widowhood often triggers distress and poorer physical health, these associations may be buffered by social support from family, friends, and social networks, positive health habits, and the widows’ continued participation in informal community activities.

Finally, researchers have begun to analyze the transition to death, and conceptualize positive transitions in terms of dying well. This is usually defined in terms of minimizing unnecessary pain and psychological distress, facilitating contact between the individual and his or her most significant others, as well as satisfaction of surviving family members with the experience. The quality of physicians’ care of patients, and patient and family members’ efficacy and control over decision making, are contributing factors to a relatively positive experience. In the case of sudden deaths, however, many of these ideal factors may not be possible, and thus concern focuses on the psychological adjustment of survivors.

References:

• Aneshensel, C. S., & Phelan, J. C. (Eds.). (2006). Handbook of the sociology of mental health. New York: Springer.
• Elder, G. H., Jr. (1974). Children of the Great Depression: Social change in life experience. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Goodman, J., Schlossberg, N. K., & Anderson, M. L. (2006). Counseling adults in transition: Linking practice with theory (3rd ed.). New York: Springer.
• Moen, P. (Ed.). (2003). It’s about time: Couples and careers. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.
• Mortimer, J., & Shanahan, M. (Eds.). (2003). Handbook of the life course. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
• Pillemer, K., Moen, P., Wethington, E., & Glasgow, N. (Eds.). (2000). Social integration in the second half of life. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Counseling Psychology
• Personality Development

Connecting Ideas Through Transitions

Writing that Establishes Relationships and Connections between Ideas

Introduction Common Kinds of Relationships Writers Establish between Ideas Cohesion Coherence Transition Words and Phrases

Introduction

According to poet and science writer Diane Ackerman, “one of the brain’s deepest needs [is] to fill the world with pathways and our lives with a design.” We naturally look for how things are related. In writing, this means that readers tend to assume that two side-by-side sentences or adjacent paragraphs relate to each other. If the pathways and design of your writing aren’t clear to readers, readers will either get confused or frustrated or try to mistakenly intuit their own connections. Both responses can be disastrous.

Good writing provides clear passages through all of your ideas so that readers don’t get lost or start to blaze their own conceptual trail. These connections between ideas occur at the sentence, paragraph, section, and (for longer works) even chapter level. As a writer, it is your responsibility to make sure that your readers follow this progression, that they understand how you arrive at your various ideas and how those ideas relate to each other. In this page, we explore how to make your connections between ideas understandable by using common relationship categories to compose sentences that are cohesive, paragraphs that are coherent, and transitions that clearly order and introduce ideas.

Common Kinds of Relationships Writers Establish between Ideas

Writers are always working to establish clear relationships between and within all of their ideas. Consider how Derek Thompson moves naturally between one concept to another in this short passage from his The Atlantic feature about the future of jobs entitled “A World Without Work”:

[1] One common objection to the idea that technology will permanently displace huge numbers of workers is that new gadgets, like self-checkout kiosks at drugstores, have failed to fully displace their human counterparts, like cashiers. [2] But employers typically take years to embrace new machines at the expense of workers. [3] The robotics revolution began in factories in the 1960s and ’70s, but manufacturing employment kept rising until 1980, and then collapsed during the subsequent recessions.

In the first sentence, Thompson begins with an idea that is familiar to readers at three different levels. The argument that machines haven’t replaced all retail employees and therefore won’t do so in the future is common to anyone who has thought much about workplace technology. This idea is also specifically familiar to the individuals who have been reading Thompson’s article. Finally, Thompson makes this idea even more familiar by connecting it to an example that his readers are familiar with: the effects of self-checkout kiosks. In his second sentence, Thompson uses the transition word “but” to establish a contrastive relationship; what he is about to say in some way opposes what he just said. He concludes this passage with a sentence providing chronologically organized evidence for the idea he raised through that contrast. In this example, he very quickly leads us from the 1960s to the late 20 th century and is able to cover a lot of ground clearly because he starts with happened earlier and concludes with what has happened more recently.

In just these three sentences, we can see Thompson establishing different kinds of relationships between concepts. He is:

• guiding us from familiar ideas into unfamiliar ones,
• comparing two unlike things,
• providing examples for his claims, and
• presenting information chronologically.

Familiarity, contrast, example, and chronology are four common ways that topics can be related, but there are several others. The following lists identifies key relationships that we tend to find naturally in the world around us when we ask questions like, “Why did that happen?” and, “How do these two things fit together?” If you can obviously situate any your ideas within these well-known structures, then readers will be able to more quickly understand the connections you are establishing between your ideas. In the list that follows we identify these common relationship categories, explain them, and provide examples of sentences that establish these kinds of relationships. (All off these sample sentences are about research in Lake Mendota—the body of water just north of the UW-Madison campus.)

Familiarity– Connecting what readers know to what they don’t known.

Learning often involves drawing from existing knowledge in order develop new knowledge. As a result, this is one of the most important relationships you can establish in your writing. Start with what your readers know (either because you can assume a common knowledge or because you’ve already told them about this earlier in your paper or even in the preceding sentence) in order to then take them to something they don’t know.

Example: When you dive into a lake for a quick swim, you’re actually entering a diverse limnology laboratory—the research field for the ecologists who study inland waters.

Causation– Connecting the instigator(s) to the consequence(s)

We are very familiar with thinking about ideas and processes in relationship to cause and effect. You can use the prevalence of this relationship to your advantage by relating your ideas to causation.

Example: In the mid-19 th century, the white sand beaches that used to line Lake Mendota were engulfed by the additional four feet of water that the Tenney Locks brought into the lake (Van Eyck).

Chronology– Connecting what issues in regard to when they occur.

This is particularly useful if you are describing a sequence of events or the steps of a process.

Example: In 1882, E.A. Birge was gathering data about the prevalence of blue-green algae in Lake Mendota (Van Eyck). By 1897, he was publishing about plankton (Birge). Even when he became president of UW-Madison several years later, his interest in freshwater lakes never waned (“Past presidents and chancellors”).

Combinations

Lists–connecting numerous elements..

You can think of this as a “this + this + this” model. You are saying that a collection of concepts or elements contribute equally or simultaneously to something. Within lists, it’s still important that you are being strategic about which elements you are identifying, describing, or analyzing first, second, and third.

Example: Across its studied history, Lake Mendota has been negatively affected by blue-green algae, Eurasian milfoil, spiny water fleas, and zebra mussels, among others (Van Enyck).

Part/Whole— Connecting numerous elements that make up something bigger.

This is a “this + this + this = that” model. You are showing how discrete elements form something else through their connections.

Example: Across generations, the damage Lake Mendota has sustained as a result of the unnaturally prolific prevalence of blue-green algae, Eurasian milfoil, spiny water fleas, and zebra mussels has irreparably altered these waters.

Contrast– Connecting two things by focusing on their differences.

This establishes a relationship of dis-similarity. It helps readers understand what something is by comparing it with something that it is not.

Example: But whereas boosting the population of walleye and northern perch in Lake Mendota effectively reduced the prevalence of Eurasian milfoil, scientists haven’t been able to develop a plan to respond to the damaging spiny water fleas (Van Eyck).

Example– Connecting a general idea to a particular instance of this idea.

Arguments are made more understandable and persuasive when you develop your overall claims in relationship to specific evidence that verifies or exemplifies those claims. Which examples will be the most persuasive (e.g., statistical data, historical precedent, anecdotes, etc.) will depend on the knowledge, interests, disposition, and expectations of your reader.

Example: “These new challenges demand new solutions, some behavioral (such as cleaning boats from lake to lake) and some research-driven (for example, identifying a natural predator for the invasive species)” (Van Eyck).

Importance– Connecting what is critical to what is more inconsequential.

This can also be thought of as connecting what is big to what is small. You may also choose to reverse these relationships by starting with what matters least or what is smallest and building to what is the most important or what is the most prominent. Just make sure that you are helping your reader understand which end of the spectrum you are starting with.

Example: Boaters were inconvenienced by the Eurasian milfoil clogging their propellers, but the plants’ real harm was dealt to the lake’s native flora and, consequently, its fish (Van Eyck).

Location– Connecting elements according to where they are placed in relationship to each other.

Even if you aren’t writing about geographical entities, you can still clarify how various ideas are positioned in relationship to each other.

Example: Whether or not the lake is pretty is peripheral to the issue of whether or not its natural ecosystems are in balance.

Similarity– Connecting two things by suggesting that they are in some way alike.

This highlights commonalities to show readers how elements or ideas are serving the same function.

Example: Just as invasive water flora (i.e., Eurasian milfoil) disrupted Lake Mendota’s ecosystem in the 1970s, in 2009 scientists discovered that the lake was being damaged by invasive water fauna (i.e., spiny water fleas) (Van Eyck).

While the examples provided above for each of these relationships is a sentence or short series of sentences where relationships are established through sequencing and transition words, you should also develop these kinds of common connections between ideas on a large scale through grammatical parallelism, paragraph placement, and your progression from one section to another.

Also, as can be seen in these examples, sometimes multiple different relationships are functioning simultaneously. For instance, consider again the example for the “Importance” item:

The ideas in this sentence work within the following relationship categories:

• Importance—Connecting what is more inconsequential (i.e., how boaters are bothered by Eurasian milfoil) to what is most critical (i.e., how the lake’s ecosystem is disrupted by Eurasian milfoil),
• Contrast—Connecting two things (i.e., boaters’ concerns and the lake’s wellbeing) by focusing on their differences,
• Causation—Connecting an instigator (i.e., Eurasian milfoil) to consequences (i.e., native plants’ destruction and, secondarily, the native animals’ destruction).

This collection of interwoven relational connections doesn’t mean that these ideas are jumbled; this is just an indication of how relationships can become interconnected.

Since clearly working within these relationship categories can be useful for organizing your key concepts as well as guiding readers through the structure of entire papers or particular paragraphs as well as sentences, different kinds of connections can be similarly layered across the whole structure of a paper. For example, if you are composing an argument about why it’s so hard for meteorologists to pin-point the severity and location of tornadoes, the overarching relationship of your ideas might be part/whole because you’re interested in how a range of factors contribute to a difficult prediction process. However, within your paragraphs, you might have to use chronological and causation relationships to describe the physical processes by which tornadoes are formed. And from sentence to sentence, you’ll need to make sure that you are starting with what’s familiar to your readers before moving into what’s new.

Joseph Williams and Joseph Bizup, in their handbook Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace , identify the process of moving from what is known to what is unknown as “cohesion.” “Sentences are cohesive ,” they write, “when the last few words of one sentence set up the information that appears in the first few words of the next” (67). They relate this careful sequencing to the issue of “flow”—readers find that ideas follow each other naturally when one sentence begins where the previous sentence left off.

Consider another annotated example passage from Derek Thompson’s economic analysis of the effects of automation and technology on jobs. This paragraph comes after one about how horses (once primary forces for industrial production) were made obsolete by transportation technology.

[1] Humans can do much more than trot, carry, and pull. [2] But the skills required in most offices hardly elicit our full range of intelligence. [3] Most jobs are still boring, repetitive, and easily learned. [4] The most-common occupations in the United States are retail salesperson, cashier, food and beverage server, and office clerk. [5] Together, these four jobs employ 15.4 million people—nearly 10 percent of the labor force, or more workers than there are in Texas and Massachusetts combined. [6] Each is highly susceptible to automation, according to the Oxford study.

Thompson’s most obvious application of Williams and Bizup’s concept of cohesion happens at the end sentence 4 and the beginning of sentence 5 where he first lists four professions (salesperson, cashier, server, and clerk) then begins the next sentence with, “these four jobs.”

But even on a conceptual level, Thompson is continuously moving from old information to new information. Consider this analysis of the conceptual shifts within each of these six sentences where Thompson’s ideas have been stripped down and his key concepts have been highlighted in different colors:

[1] Humans have more skills than horses. [2] Humans’ full range of skills aren’t always utilized by many office jobs . [3] Many jobs don’t push us to our full potential. [4] Here are the most common jobs . [5] These jobs employ many people. [6] These jobs could be eliminated through automation .

Thompson begins this paragraph by connecting a new idea (i.e., humans’ present occupational relationship to technology) to an old idea from the previous paragraph (i.e., horse’s past relationship to technology). After introducing the human subject, he then uses it to bring in his next topic: workplace skills. Then, through skills he brings in the issue of jobs, and jobs eventually lead him to the issue of automation. This sequence holds together like a line of conceptual dominoes.

Connecting new ideas to old is a practice that you should implement across sentences, paragraphs, and even whole sections of your writing. However, be careful. If this practice becomes heavy-handed or overdone, your writing can become patronizing to your readers. Make sure that you are clearly and comprehensively connecting ideas and not just sequencing subjects.

In Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace , Joseph Williams and Joseph Bizup also write about the importance of coherence. While “cohesion” and “coherence” sound similar, they are two different things. “Cohesion” is about ideas that connect to each other “the way two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle do,” whereas “coherence” “is when all the sentences in a piece of writing add up to a larger whole” (69). Sometimes this is also called “unity.” Coherence is achieved when the things you are writing about all clearly contribute to the same overarching topic. For example, let’s return to the domino example from above. The movement from humans to skills to jobs to automation works because Thompson’s larger article establishes a thematic connection between all of these topics: work changes in response to technological developments. Thompson is even able to start this paragraph with an otherwise unexpected reference to horses because in the previous paragraph he has shown his readers how horses also relate to this theme of work changing in response to technological development. Within your writing, it’s important to make sure that all of your smaller ideas are related to and pointed towards the same goal.

Williams and Bizup suggest one way of making sure that your writing is coherent or unified is to pay attention to what each of your sentences is about—its subject (the noun or pronoun that guides a sentence) and topic (the idea that is the focus of that sentence). In most sentences, your subject and topic should be the same thing. Also, most of the time your topic should be short and direct, and each paragraph should be primarily dedicated to one topic. As an example, consider again this paragraph from the Thompson article about human skills, jobs, and automation. The subjects/topics of each sentence have been highlighted.

1] Humans can do much more than trot, carry, and pull. [2] But the skills required in most offices hardly elicit our full range of intelligence. [3] Most jobs are still boring, repetitive, and easily learned. [4] The most-common occupations in the United States are retail salesperson, cashier, food and beverage server, and office clerk. [5] Together, these four jobs employ 15.4 million people—nearly 10 percent of the labor force, or more workers than there are in Texas and Massachusetts combined. [6] Each is highly susceptible to automation, according to the Oxford study.

Note that after setting up this paragraph in a way that connects back to the previous paragraph’s focus on horses, Thompson settles into the issue of jobs as his clear and primary focus. The final four sentences have some version of “jobs” as their subject and topic. This consistency allows him to develop coherent ideas about this one issue.

For more information about writing intentionally structured and unified paragraphs, check out our resource on paragraphing. Additionally, if you are trying to discern whether or not your paragraphs are functioning coherently across your entire paper, we recommend the practice of reverse outlining. You can find out more about this technique here.

Transition Words and Phrases

The best way to clearly communicate the logical pathways that connect your ideas is to make sure that you move smoothly from old information to new information (cohesion) and that your readers always understand how your primary topics contribute to the big picture of your overall argument (coherence). While we’ve considered ways that whole sentences and paragraphs can do this work, sometimes even individual words can help you establish clear, cohesive, and coherent relationships between your ideas. In writing these are often called “transition words.”

The following is a list of useful transition words and phrases. Following the list of common relationship categories provided above, these words are organized according to the kinds of relationships they frequently develop. Of course, establishing clear relationships between ideas requires much more than just dropping one of these into the start of a sentence, but used sparingly and carefully based on the logical associations they establish, these words can provide usefully obvious indications to your readers of the kind of connections you are trying to develop between your ideas.

Causation– Connecting instigator(s) to consequence(s).

accordingly as a result and so because

consequently for that reason hence on account of

since therefore thus

after afterwards always at length during earlier following immediately in the meantime

later never next now once simultaneously so far sometimes

soon subsequently then this time until now when whenever while

Combinations Lists– Connecting numerous events. Part/Whole– Connecting numerous elements that make up something bigger.

additionally again also and, or, not as a result besides even more

finally first, firstly further furthermore in addition in the first place in the second place

last, lastly moreover next second, secondly, etc. too

after all although and yet at the same time but

however in contrast nevertheless nonetheless notwithstanding

on the contrary on the other hand otherwise though yet

as an illustration e.g., (from a Latin abbreviation for “for example”)

for example for instance specifically that is

to demonstrate to illustrate

chiefly critically

foundationally most importantly

of less importance primarily

above adjacent to below beyond

centrally here nearby neighboring on

opposite to peripherally there wherever

Similarity– Connecting to things by suggesting that they are in some way alike.

by the same token in like manner

in similar fashion here in the same way

likewise wherever

Other kinds of transitional words and phrases Clarification

i.e., (from a Latin abbreviation for “that is”) in other words

that is that is to say to clarify to explain

to put it another way to rephrase it

granted it is true

naturally of course

finally lastly

in conclusion in the end

to conclude

Intensification

in fact indeed no

of course surely to repeat

undoubtedly without doubt yes

for this purpose in order that

so that to that end

to this end

in brief in sum

in summary in short

to sum up to summarize

Works Cited

Ackerman, Diane. “I Sing the Body’s Pattern Recognition Machine.” The New York Times , 15 June 2004. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/15/science/essay-i-sing-the-body-s-pattern-recognition-machine.html . Accessed 6 June 2018.

Birge, Edward Asahel. Plankton Studies on Lake Mendota . Harvard University Library of the Museum of Comparative Zoolog., 1897.

“Past presidents and chancellors.” Office of the Chancellor , University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2016. https://chancellor.wisc.edu/past-presidents-and-chancellors/ . Accessed 16 June 2018.

Thompson, Derek. “A World Without Work.” The Atlantic , July/August 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/07/world-without-work/395294/. Accessed 14 June 2018.

Van Eyck, Masarah. “Lake Mendota: a scientific biography.” L&S News , College of Letters and Sciences University of Wisconsin-Madison, 29 Aug. 2016. http://ls.wisc.edu/news/lake-mendota-a-scientific-biography . Accessed 15 June 2018.

Williams, Joseph M. and Joseph Bizup. Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace . 12 th ed., Pearson, 2017.

Improving Your Writing Style

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Clear, Concise Sentences

Use the active voice

Put the action in the verb

Tidy up wordy phrases

Reduce wordy verbs

Reduce prepositional phrases

Reduce expletive constructions

Avoid using vague nouns

Avoid unneccessarily inflated words

Avoid noun strings

Transitional Words and Phrases

Using Transitional Words and Phrases

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• Transition Words & Phrases | List & Examples

Transition Words & Phrases | List & Examples

Published on May 29, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on August 23, 2023.

Transition words and phrases (also called linking words, connecting words, or transitional words) are used to link together different ideas in your text. They help the reader to follow your arguments by expressing the relationships between different sentences or parts of a sentence.

The proposed solution to the problem did not work. Therefore , we attempted a second solution. However , this solution was also unsuccessful.

For clear writing, it’s essential to understand the meaning of transition words and use them correctly.

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Table of contents

When and how to use transition words, types and examples of transition words, common mistakes with transition words, other interesting articles.

Transition words commonly appear at the start of a new sentence or clause (followed by a comma ), serving to express how this clause relates to the previous one.

Transition words can also appear in the middle of a clause. It’s important to place them correctly to convey the meaning you intend.

Example text with and without transition words

The text below describes all the events it needs to, but it does not use any transition words to connect them. Because of this, it’s not clear exactly how these different events are related or what point the author is making by telling us about them.

If we add some transition words at appropriate moments, the text reads more smoothly and the relationship among the events described becomes clearer.

Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Consequently , France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. The Soviet Union initially worked with Germany in order to partition Poland. However , Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.

Don’t overuse transition words

While transition words are essential to clear writing, it’s possible to use too many of them. Consider the following example, in which the overuse of linking words slows down the text and makes it feel repetitive.

In this case the best way to fix the problem is to simplify the text so that fewer linking words are needed.

The key to using transition words effectively is striking the right balance. It is difficult to follow the logic of a text with no transition words, but a text where every sentence begins with a transition word can feel over-explained.

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There are four main types of transition word: additive, adversative, causal, and sequential. Within each category, words are divided into several more specific functions.

Remember that transition words with similar meanings are not necessarily interchangeable. It’s important to understand the meaning of all the transition words you use. If unsure, consult a dictionary to find the precise definition.

Additive transition words

Additive transition words introduce new information or examples. They can be used to expand upon, compare with, or clarify the preceding text.

Adversative transition words

Adversative transition words always signal a contrast of some kind. They can be used to introduce information that disagrees or contrasts with the preceding text.

Causal transition words

Causal transition words are used to describe cause and effect. They can be used to express purpose, consequence, and condition.

Sequential transition words

Sequential transition words indicate a sequence, whether it’s the order in which events occurred chronologically or the order you’re presenting them in your text. They can be used for signposting in academic texts.

Transition words are often used incorrectly. Make sure you understand the proper usage of transition words and phrases, and remember that words with similar meanings don’t necessarily work the same way grammatically.

Misused transition words can make your writing unclear or illogical. Your audience will be easily lost if you misrepresent the connections between your sentences and ideas.

Confused use of therefore

“Therefore” and similar cause-and-effect words are used to state that something is the result of, or follows logically from, the previous. Make sure not to use these words in a way that implies illogical connections.

• We asked participants to rate their satisfaction with their work from 1 to 10. Therefore , the average satisfaction among participants was 7.5.

The use of “therefore” in this example is illogical: it suggests that the result of 7.5 follows logically from the question being asked, when in fact many other results were possible. To fix this, we simply remove the word “therefore.”

• We asked participants to rate their satisfaction with their work from 1 to 10. The average satisfaction among participants was 7.5.

Starting a sentence with also , and , or so

While the words “also,” “and,” and “so” are used in academic writing, they are considered too informal when used at the start of a sentence.

• Also , a second round of testing was carried out.

To fix this issue, we can either move the transition word to a different point in the sentence or use a more formal alternative.

• A second round of testing was also carried out.
• Additionally , a second round of testing was carried out.

Transition words creating sentence fragments

Words like “although” and “because” are called subordinating conjunctions . This means that they introduce clauses which cannot stand on their own. A clause introduced by one of these words should always follow or be followed by another clause in the same sentence.

The second sentence in this example is a fragment, because it consists only of the “although” clause.

• Smith (2015) argues that the period should be reassessed. Although other researchers disagree.

We can fix this in two different ways. One option is to combine the two sentences into one using a comma. The other option is to use a different transition word that does not create this problem, like “however.”

• Smith (2015) argues that the period should be reassessed, although other researchers disagree.
• Smith (2015) argues that the period should be reassessed. However , other researchers disagree.

And vs. as well as

Students often use the phrase “ as well as ” in place of “and,” but its usage is slightly different. Using “and” suggests that the things you’re listing are of equal importance, while “as well as” introduces additional information that is less important.

• Chapter 1 discusses some background information on Woolf, as well as presenting my analysis of To the Lighthouse .

In this example, the analysis is more important than the background information. To fix this mistake, we can use “and,” or we can change the order of the sentence so that the most important information comes first. Note that we add a comma before “as well as” but not before “and.”

• Chapter 1 discusses some background information on Woolf and presents my analysis of To the Lighthouse .
• Chapter 1 presents my analysis of To the Lighthouse , as well as discussing some background information on Woolf.

Note that in fixed phrases like “both x and y ,” you must use “and,” not “as well as.”

• Both my results as well as my interpretations are presented below.
• Both my results and my interpretations are presented below.

Use of and/or

The combination of transition words “and/or” should generally be avoided in academic writing. It makes your text look messy and is usually unnecessary to your meaning.

First consider whether you really do mean “and/or” and not just “and” or “or.” If you are certain that you need both, it’s best to separate them to make your meaning as clear as possible.

• Participants were asked whether they used the bus and/or the train.
• Participants were asked whether they used the bus, the train, or both.

Archaic transition words

Words like “hereby,” “therewith,” and most others formed by the combination of “here,” “there,” or “where” with a preposition are typically avoided in modern academic writing. Using them makes your writing feel old-fashioned and strained and can sometimes obscure your meaning.

• Poverty is best understood as a disease. Hereby , we not only see that it is hereditary, but acknowledge its devastating effects on a person’s health.

These words should usually be replaced with a more explicit phrasing expressing how the current statement relates to the preceding one.

• Poverty is best understood as a disease. Understanding it as such , we not only see that it is hereditary, but also acknowledge its devastating effects on a person’s health.

Using a paraphrasing tool for clear writing

With the use of certain tools, you can make your writing clear. One of these tools is a paraphrasing tool . One thing the tool does is help your sentences make more sense. It has different modes where it checks how your text can be improved. For example, automatically adding transition words where needed.

If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or writing rules make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Writing > How to effectively write and use transitions in an essay

How to effectively write and use transitions in an essay

The key to an effective argumentative essay —and to any successful piece of writing—is the ability to transition between paragraphs and ideas smoothly. Bouncing between various ideas can confuse the reader. Learn how you can link your arguments together through effective paragraph transitions.

The importance of outlining your essay

Don’t go blind into your argument. Just like a building, a strong essay begins with a strong foundation and structure. A typical five-paragraph essay will have the following:

• Introduction: The introduction paragraph is where you should show the reader what you aim to write about. This is where you set the tone of your argument: are you writing formally or informally, taking a positive or negative stance, or refuting a specific issue or person? Your thesis statement will go at the end of your introduction paragraph.
• Argument 1: The next three paragraphs are where you expand on your argument. Begin with a topic sentence that serves as an overview of your intended position, before you introduce statistics, quotes, and other forms of research.
• Argument 2: A general rule is that you should introduce broader points to your argument before going into detail. Linking these paragraphs together will be vital to forming a cohesive argument.
• Argument 3: Bring your readers to your viewpoint with persuasion, based on your research: whether it’s through quotes from experts, or logical reasoning, this is where your passion in your argument can shine.
• Conclusion: Here, you summarize the points that you’ve just made. Remind the reader of your thesis statement from your introduction, and concisely sum up the arguments you’ve made in previous paragraphs. If you are asking the reader to act, here is where you bring up a call to action.

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The five-paragraph essay is a time-tested form of rhetoric. However, the way you link these paragraphs can make or break the effectiveness of your argument.

How to use paragraph transitions

Creating a transition between the paragraphs of your essay will bring out the relation between the points you’re making. Transitions can also provide your readers with a direction on where your argument is headed, so that they might better understand the rhetorical path that you are leading them on.

After you identify the subject and angle of your paragraphs, consider the relationships between these points: do they tell a narrative, or are they linked by chronological or another order? Both can be used to format your argument, as long as the path toward your thesis statement is clear.

What is the link between the points of research that you have found? Are the statistics connected, or do they contrast? Both can be effective points and counterpoints to form a transition. What are the central ideas of your points of argument?

Effective transition words to use

No matter if you’re comparing or contrasting your argumentative paragraphs, you can always begin a sentence with words or phrases that flow into each other.

These words can link arguments together:

Consequently, these words draw contrasts between ideas:

Microsoft’s thesaurus and grammar tools can help you expand your vocabulary with synonyms and grammatical checks that will lend credence to your writing. For more tips on forming an ideal essay, check out these tips from Microsoft 365 on how to improve your writing skills.

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Exploring Transitional Life Events Through Thematic Analysis Report

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Methodology, results/analysis, conclusion: evaluation of results.

Thematic analysis is a crucial asset for organizing and analyzing qualitative data into thematical patterns. The particular themes identified within the research constitute a set of recurrent ideas, topics, and statements consistent and displayed in one piece of data or across several data points (Kerawalla, 2015). This thematic analysis will examine the interview with Frank Land held in the Oral History of British Science archive of the British Library (2010). Such a method will help identify the underlying themes discussed within the interview to analyze them from a psychological perspective. Most importantly, the thematic analysis method is a helpful tool for identifying the themes that Frank Land draws on to discuss the transitional moments in his life.

A research design for this study is a thematic analysis of the interview with Frank Land. It is a qualitative research method that helps identify, analyze, organize, describe, and report themes revealed across the target data set. It is a commonly used technique to organize data meaningfully before implementing other types of data analysis.

Participants

The research involves two participants, the interviewer and Frank Land himself.

The study requires the use of supporting materials to develop thematic analysis and further examination of the main themes found in the interview. The most helpful content implies the study materials that illustrate the in-depth definition of the analysis and its crucial components. As a rule, an interview reveals the broad areas of transformative life events, including Life chapters, key events, significant people, stresses and problems, personal ideology, and life themes (Crafter, 2015, Week 25 ). Additionally, it is essential to conduct external research when discussing the main themes to provide more detailed insights into the issues from the psychological perspective.

However, thematic analysis requires specific preceding steps before conducting the research itself. More particularly, the first primary step is to prepare the data for analysis. This involves transcribing data, which significantly helps further move on to thematically analyzing the data. Given the interview type of data obtained for the research, the principal measures imply working with the coding process (Kerawalla, 2015). Interview coding refers to familiarization and coding, code development, and transition to the themes’ discussion and analysis. While reading through the interview several times, it is crucial to highlight the key moments that signify specific themes of the conversation. After that, each code has to be briefly described and categorized into a specific theme or subtheme. As a result, the coding procedure helps identify the group of central themes in the interview and attain all the relevant information for further analysis.

Ethical considerations

Psychological research and related decisions cannot exist without ethical considerations. More specifically, the ethical approach to research covers the changed opinions about issues, the treatment of research participants, the presentation and discussion of research results, as well as the drawbacks and benefits of ethical codes. The treatment of research participants is an essential aspect of empirical research (Rentfrow, 2015). As such, in order to understand whether this research is ethical, regardless of the degree of subjectivity, there is a set of common-sense questions that need to be answered to determine this. To sum up, this thematic analysis is ethical because:

• The research does not harm the participants;
• Their confidentiality is protected by avoiding any biographical facts and details but discussing only the general society-oriented topics;
• The research provides key benefits and interesting insights for enhancing the study of social psychology;
• It is a well-thought-out design aiming for valid results and thoughts for further psychological research;
• The alternative low-risk options include excluding the participants’ names, filling in a form, or a street survey.

Reflexivity

The main research question has considerably impacted the coding process as it required one to focus more on the interviewee’s life events and transitional moments throughout his lifespan. The strong statements reported by Land and phrases that make one think about the complex turn of events of his life guided my choice of quotes for inclusion in the report. I have emphasized the role of ethics in the use of pre-existing data as it is a crucial aspect in psychological research; it has to drive the benefits only. The transparency of my interpretations was checked with the existing psychological research and information discovered in peer-reviewed studies on the specific themes that align with the research topics.

Concerning the qualitative type of research, data involves collecting and analyzing non-numerical data from the interview audio clip, which helps examine and learn the concepts, opinions, and experiences. The in-depth insights contribute to generating new ideas for psychological research (Gibson, 2015). The thematic analysis defined three underlying themes that Frank Land discussed in the interview. They include change as a cultural-historical phenomenon, religious consciousness in cultural formation, and experience of racial segregation. These themes were identified with the help of the coding process, which structured the most critical point of the interview and categorized them into themes.

The first issue of the cultural-historical phenomenon and consequent change in human life can be traced to the beginning of the interview, where Land talked about the change of government in Germany and forced family emigration. Land talked about the “destruction of the Jewish community” and how his family “found themselves in a strange country” (The British Library Board, 2010, Fig. 1). In addition, the central issue was Land’s self-identity through his name, which served as a barrier to new opportunities in life and carrier: “with that name you’ll never get a job.” He had no other decision than “change his identity card” and “change his name” from “Landsberger to Land” (Fig. 2). These codes explore the cultural, historical, and social context that affects one’s life and challenges a person’s assumptions about stability and change through personal development (Crafter, 2015). Land’s experience of the war, evacuation, changed environment, and changed identity, as well as the shift in cultural perspectives, is inevitably linked to his identity development over his lifespan.

The second theme discloses religious consciousness in cultural formation, which was observed by Land from his parent’s perspective. He defined his family as “Jewish consciousness,” which was enhanced by “the rise of Hitler” because it made the Landsbergers “more conscious of being Jewish” (Fig. 3). Despite the disbelief in any religion, although with a “Christian view of things,” “it was knocked out during evacuation,” which implies the historical impact on one’s religious considerations and choices (Fig. 3). Religious consciousness has a particular impact on different elements of culture, which forms one’s religious, and moral imperatives linked to the spiritual basis of the culture (Bobyreva, Zheltuhina, Dmitrieva, and Busygina, 2018). The final third theme reveals Frank’s experience of racial segregation in his hometown as he recalled his childhood memories: restricted “Jews Only” seats in a public garden and “suddenly you had the segregation” (Fig. 4). According to Montero, Vargas, and Vásquez (2021), segregation harms psychological well-being. It was a critical lack of collective identity, which could have positively influenced Land’s transitional moments in life.

Theme 1: Change as a Cultural-Historical Phenomenon

Individuals undergo a broad scope of life changes, whether minor or gradual alterations that lead to a modified version of an individual’s sense of self. Schaffer noted a self-system represents the multifaceted theory, wherein people develop as “who they are and how they fit into society” according to a sense of continuing identity central to personal awareness (Crafter. 2015). Self-awareness begins in childhood, and one can note that Land’s early years caused a traumatic experience in life. Therefore, there is a basic adherence to continuity of self in the course of time and place, which was continually changing throughout Lands’ childhood years.

To be more specific, the negative emotions perceived by the child might influence a constant struggle oneself to develop consistency between the desired self and the one attributed by other people. As a result, the child struggles by trying to fit into the normative expectations established by society’s cultural and historical expectations. Crafter (2015) has noted how Vygotsky and his socio-cultural theory explain the study of social, cultural, and historical processes in psychology. He believed that psychological phenomena are “mediated by interactions with tools or artifacts” (Crafter, 2015, p. 213). Based on Land’s interview, such tools were presented by his cultural identity, name, origin, and even language. They defined his social interactions in the future. With this said, theoretical ideas suggested by Vygotsky reveal how cultures, social contexts, and even history play a crucial role in shaping identities in Land’s transitional moments in life.

Theme 2: Religious Consciousness in Cultural Formation

In the second theme, one can trace the inherent role of the significant people in the interviewee’s life, such as family. Given that culture represents a global system of personal beliefs and values, religion plays a pivotal role in establishing the cultural imperatives oneself. Religious consciousness is built upon “two basic layers,” religious philosophy and religious psychology (Bobyreva et al., 2018, p. 2). According to the interview with Land, the role of religion in his life and family was very vague. Despite being close to atheistic and non-religious views, his family became Jewish consciousness in the crisis time of Nazi Germany.

Additionally, he was forced to attend the Christian church on Sundays, mixed with Jewish beliefs. The research conducted by Sharma and Ryan (2018) provides crucial insights into the psychological aspect of religion. The human capacity for consciousness and reason is regarded as a remarkable gift that one can have. It is applied to “successive phases of the flux” of the individual’s inner life (Sharma and Ryan, 2018, p.112). Moreover, human beings have to experience the pain of their limitations to mature to a higher state of consciousness, which happened to Land’s family during the war. His family’s anti-religious attitudes can be explained by the western approach to materialism in understanding the connection to the divine. Becoming religious also defines the person’s individuation process, impeded by the external cultural restrictions and transformations in Land’s life.

Theme 3: Racial Segregation

Culture, education, religion, and social structure directly impact the level of self-worth. However, it was a damaging process in Frank Land’s story, as segregation was the most significant and detrimental event. In the psychological theory, segregation is associated with the human tendency towards categorization. It is a fundamental psychological function that is important for “routine activity” (Enos and Celaya, 2018, p. 28). Concerning social categories, such as one’s ethnicity or race, categorization promotes stereotyping and, thus, segregation of the groups. Based on Enos and Celaya’s (2018) hypotheses, Land experienced the increased perceived differences between groups and group-based discriminatory behavior and attitudes, which impacted his opportunities in the future. With this said, segregation also enhances the salience of social categories.

The thematic analysis indicated the fundamental psychological and socio-cultural aspects of the life of Frank Land, which were further examined from the theoretical approach. With regard to the research question, Land draws on the most vital life concerns, including internal and external changes in his life and sense of self, religious consciousness, and racial segregation. Altogether, they considerably impacted and shaped Land’s self-identity through cultural-historical factors and his cultural formation. The transitional stages shaped Land’s future perception of self and the potential success of adherence to social groups and norms. With the help of external research data, each of these themes was analyzed in-depth to better understand Land’s transitional moments in life and their impact on his self-development. The research question guided the primary focus of choosing the correct data to analyze for this study and provide practical implications.

Bobyreva, E., Zheltuhina, M., Dmitrieva, O., & Busygina, M. (2018). Role and place of religious consciousness in culture formation. SHS Web of Conferences, 50 , 01035. Web.

Crafter, S. (2015). Can people really change? Changing self-identity and ‘other’ relationships across the lifespan. In R. Capdevila, J. Dixon, and G. Briggs (Eds.), Investigating psychology 2: From biological to developmental (pp. 201–237). Open University Press.

Crafter, S. (2015). Week 25 study guide. DE200 Investigating psychology 2 . The Open University.

Enos, R. D., & Celaya, C. (2018). The effect of segregation on intergroup relations. Journal of Experimental Political Science, 5 (01), 26–38. Web.

Gibson, S. (2015). Week 2 study guide. DE200 Investigating psychology 2 . The Open University.

Kerawalla, L. (2015). Addressing qualitative data through thematic analysis. In R. Capdevila, J. Dixon, and G. Briggs (Eds.), Investigating psychology 2: From biological to developmental (pp. 222–258). Open University Press.

Montero, R., Vargas, M., and Vásquez, D. (2021). Segregation and life satisfaction. Frontiers in Psychology, 11 (604194), 1–11. Web.

Rentfrow, J. (2015). Week 20 study guide. DE200 Investigating psychology 2 . The Open University.

Sharma, M., & Ryan, J. F. (2018). A journey of awakening: The emergence of consciousness. MOJ Yoga & Physical Therapy , 3(4), 110‒114.

The British Library Board (2010). National life stories. An oral history of British science. Frank Land interviewed by Thomas Lean . C1379/17. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2022, June 27). Exploring Transitional Life Events Through Thematic Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/exploring-transitional-life-events-through-thematic-analysis/

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70+ Transition words for essays with examples

Transition words for essays.

Ever stared at a blank page, your thoughts swirling like a disorganized storm? Crafting a compelling essay often hinges on smooth transitions between ideas. Fear not, fellow writer! Here’s your guide to essential transition words , those linguistic gems that bridge the gaps in your essay and create a clear, logical flow.

List of Transition words for essays

• Additionally
• Furthermore
• In addition
• In the same way
• In other words
• That is to say
• For example
• For instance
• Specifically
• To illustrate
• In particular
• Without a doubt
• Essentially
• In conclusion
• To conclude
• On the whole
• Consequently
• Accordingly
• As a result
• For this reason
• Because of this
• Due to this
• In light of this
• Considering that
• Seeing that
• As a matter of fact
• Nonetheless
• Nevertheless
• Even though
• In spite of
• On the contrary

Transition words for essays with examples

Here are examples of sentences using each of the transition words for cause:

• Additionally : “She enjoys playing the piano. Additionally, she is proficient in playing the guitar.”
• Furthermore : “The research indicated a positive correlation between exercise and mental health. Furthermore, it suggested that regular physical activity reduces stress levels.”
• Moreover : “The company reported an increase in sales for the third quarter. Moreover, profits also saw a significant rise.”
• In addition : “He enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking and camping. In addition, he is passionate about photography.”
• Also : “He enjoys playing tennis. Also, he participates in swimming competitions.”
• Likewise : “She volunteered at the local shelter. Likewise, her brother also dedicated his time to community service.”
• Similarly : “The team implemented new strategies to improve productivity. Similarly, other departments adopted similar approaches.”
• In the same way : “She excels in academics. In the same way, her siblings also achieve high grades.”
• Equally : “Both candidates possess strong leadership skills. Equally, they demonstrate excellent communication abilities.”
• Besides : “She enjoys reading novels. Besides, she also enjoys writing short stories.”
• In other words : “The product received mixed reviews due to its functionality issues. In other words, customers experienced difficulties with its performance.”
• That is to say : “She loves traveling to exotic destinations. That is to say, she prefers exploring off-the-beaten-path locations.”
• Namely : “The research focused on several key areas, namely, customer satisfaction, product quality, and market trends.”
• For example : “Many countries have implemented strict environmental policies. For example, Denmark has achieved significant progress in renewable energy.”
• For instance : “Some popular social media platforms, for instance, Facebook and Instagram, have millions of active users.”
• Specifically : “The training program focuses specifically on enhancing leadership skills and fostering teamwork.”
• To illustrate : “To illustrate the concept further, let’s consider a real-life example.”
• In particular : “The company aims to expand its operations globally. In particular, it plans to target emerging markets in Asia.”
• In fact : “Contrary to popular belief, exercise is not only beneficial for physical health but also for mental well-being. In fact, it has been shown to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.”
• Indeed : “The company’s efforts to promote diversity have yielded positive results. Indeed, diversity has been linked to increased innovation and creativity.”
• Actually : “Contrary to what many people believe, the situation is actually quite different.”
• Truly : “She was truly dedicated to her work and always gave her best effort.”
• Certainly : “The results of the study certainly support the hypothesis.”
• Of course : “Of course, you are welcome to join us for dinner.”
• Without a doubt : “Without a doubt, she is one of the most talented musicians I’ve ever met.”
• In essence : “The policy change, in essence, aims to improve customer satisfaction.”
• Essentially : “The project, essentially, involves redesigning the user interface.”
• In summary : “In summary, the findings suggest a need for further research in this area.”
• In conclusion : “In conclusion, it is evident that climate change poses significant challenges.”
• To sum up : “To sum up, the main points of the argument are as follows.”
• In brief : “In brief, the report highlights key areas for improvement.”
• To conclude : “To conclude, let’s consider the implications of these findings.”
• Overall : “Overall, the project was a success.”
• All in all : “All in all, it was a memorable experience.”
• On the whole : “On the whole, the feedback has been positive.”
• Therefore : “The traffic was heavy; therefore, they arrived late to the meeting.”
• Thus : “The factory implemented new safety measures; thus, the number of accidents decreased.”
• Hence : “The flight was canceled; hence, they had to make alternative travel arrangements.”
• Consequently : “He missed the deadline; consequently, he faced disciplinary action.”
• Accordingly : “The instructions were unclear; accordingly, many participants made mistakes.”
• As a result : “The market demand increased; as a result, prices rose.”
• For this reason : “She forgot her umbrella; for this reason, she got wet in the rain.”
• Because of this : “He missed the train because of this, he couldn’t attend the meeting.”
• Due to this : “Due to this unforeseen circumstance, the event had to be postponed.”
• In light of this : “In light of this new information, we need to reconsider our strategy.”
• Since : “Since it was raining heavily, they decided to stay indoors.”
• Because : “He didn’t study for the exam because he was feeling unwell.”
• For : “He received a promotion for his outstanding performance.”
• As : “As the temperature dropped, people bundled up in warm clothing.”
• Owing to : “Owing to his persistent efforts, he achieved success.”
• Given that : “Given that she had prior experience, she was appointed as the team leader.”
• Considering that : “Considering that it was his first attempt, he performed exceptionally well.”
• Seeing that : “Seeing that the store was closing soon, they hurried to finish their shopping.”
• In view of : “In view of the current situation, we need to take immediate action.”
• As a matter of fact : “As a matter of fact, he was the first to arrive at the party.”
• Regardless : “He continued with the project regardless of the challenges he faced.”
• Nonetheless : “The weather was unfavorable; nonetheless, they decided to go ahead with the outdoor event.”
• Nevertheless : “The plan faced criticism; nevertheless, it was implemented successfully.”
• However : “She forgot her passport; however, she managed to board the flight with a temporary permit.”
• Although : “Although it was raining, they decided to go for a walk.”
• Though : “Though she was tired, she continued working late into the night.”
• Even though : “Even though he was warned about the risks, he proceeded with the plan.”
• Despite : “Despite the challenges, they remained committed to their goal.”
• In spite of : “In spite of the obstacles, they persevered and succeeded.”
• On the contrary : “The results were contrary to expectations; on the contrary, they were favorable.”
• Conversely : “He expected to feel relieved; conversely, he felt even more anxious.”
• But : “The weather was sunny, but they decided to cancel the picnic due to other commitments.”
• Yet : “He had a busy schedule, yet he managed to find time for his hobbies.”
• Whereas : “She preferred coffee, whereas her sister preferred tea.”

By mastering the art of transition words, you’ll transform your essay from a disjointed collection of ideas into a powerful and persuasive piece of writing. So, the next time you sit down to write, remember these transition words and watch your essay flow majestically!

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Transitional Words

Transitional words are like bridges between parts of your essay. They are cues that help the reader interpret your ideas. Transitional words or phrases help carry your thoughts forward from one sentence to another and one paragraph to another. Finally, transitional words link sentences and paragraphs together smoothly so that there are no abrupt jumps or breaks between ideas.

Here is a list of common transitional words and the categories to which they belong.

and, again, and then, besides, equally important, finally, further, furthermore, nor, too, next, lastly, what's more, moreover, in addition, first (second, etc.)

To Compare:

whereas, but, yet, on the other hand, however, nevertheless, on the contrary, by comparison, where, compared to, up against, balanced against, vis a vis, but, although, conversely, meanwhile, after all, in contrast, although this may be true

because, for, since, for the same reason, obviously, evidently, furthermore, moreover, besides, indeed, in fact, in addition, in any case, that is

To Show Exception:

yet, still, however, nevertheless, in spite of, despite, of course, once in a while, sometimes

To Show Time:

immediately, thereafter, soon, after a few hours, finally, then, later, previously, formerly, first (second, etc.), next, and then

in brief, as I have said, as I have noted, as has been noted

To Emphasize:

definitely, extremely, obviously, in fact, indeed, in any case, absolutely, positively, naturally, surprisingly, always, forever, perennially, eternally, never, emphatically, unquestionably, without a doubt, certainly, undeniably, without reservation

To Show Sequence:

first, second, third, and so forth, next, then, following this, at this time, now, at this point, after, afterward, subsequently, finally, consequently, previously, before this, simultaneously, concurrently, thus, therefore, hence, next, and then, soon

To Give an Example:

for example, for instance, in this case, in another case, on this occasion, in this situation, take the case of, to demonstrate, to illustrate, as an illustration

To Summarize or Conclude:

in brief, on the whole, summing up, to conclude, in conclusion, as I have shown, as I have said, hence, therefore, accordingly, thus, as a result, consequently

Transitions

What this handout is about.

In this crazy, mixed-up world of ours, transitions glue our ideas and our essays together. This handout will introduce you to some useful transitional expressions and help you employ them effectively.

The function and importance of transitions

In both academic writing and professional writing, your goal is to convey information clearly and concisely, if not to convert the reader to your way of thinking. Transitions help you to achieve these goals by establishing logical connections between sentences, paragraphs, and sections of your papers. In other words, transitions tell readers what to do with the information you present to them. Whether single words, quick phrases, or full sentences, they function as signs that tell readers how to think about, organize, and react to old and new ideas as they read through what you have written.

Transitions signal relationships between ideas—relationships such as: “Another example coming up—stay alert!” or “Here’s an exception to my previous statement” or “Although this idea appears to be true, here’s the real story.” Basically, transitions provide the reader with directions for how to piece together your ideas into a logically coherent argument. Transitions are not just verbal decorations that embellish your paper by making it sound or read better. They are words with particular meanings that tell the reader to think and react in a particular way to your ideas. In providing the reader with these important cues, transitions help readers understand the logic of how your ideas fit together.

Signs that you might need to work on your transitions

How can you tell whether you need to work on your transitions? Here are some possible clues:

• 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.
• You are working on a group paper; the draft you are working on was created by pasting pieces of several people’s writing together.

Organization

Since the clarity and effectiveness of your transitions will depend greatly on how well you have organized your paper, you may want to evaluate your paper’s organization before you work on transitions. In the margins of your draft, summarize in a word or short phrase what each paragraph is about or how it fits into your analysis as a whole. This exercise should help you to see the order of and connection between your ideas more clearly.

If after doing this exercise you find that you still have difficulty linking your ideas together in a coherent fashion, your problem may not be with transitions but with organization. For help in this area (and a more thorough explanation of the “reverse outlining” technique described in the previous paragraph), please see the Writing Center’s handout on organization .

How transitions work

The organization of your written work includes two elements: (1) the order in which you have chosen to present the different parts of your discussion or argument, and (2) the relationships you construct between these parts. Transitions cannot substitute for good organization, but they can make your organization clearer and easier to follow. Take a look at the following example:

El Pais , a Latin American country, has a new democratic government after having been a dictatorship for many years. Assume that you want to argue that El Pais is not as democratic as the conventional view would have us believe.

One way to effectively organize your argument would be to present the conventional view and then to provide the reader with your critical response to this view. So, in Paragraph A you would enumerate all the reasons that someone might consider El Pais highly democratic, while in Paragraph B you would refute these points. The transition that would establish the logical connection between these two key elements of your argument would indicate to the reader that the information in paragraph B contradicts the information in paragraph A. As a result, you might organize your argument, including the transition that links paragraph A with paragraph B, in the following manner:

Paragraph A: points that support the view that El Pais’s new government is very democratic.

Transition: Despite the previous arguments, there are many reasons to think that El Pais’s new government is not as democratic as typically believed.

Paragraph B: points that contradict the view that El Pais’s new government is very democratic.

In this case, the transition words “Despite the previous arguments,” suggest that the reader should not believe paragraph A and instead should consider the writer’s reasons for viewing El Pais’s democracy as suspect.

As the example suggests, transitions can help reinforce the underlying logic of your paper’s organization by providing the reader with essential information regarding the relationship between your ideas. In this way, transitions act as the glue that binds the components of your argument or discussion into a unified, coherent, and persuasive whole.

Types of transitions

Now that you have a general idea of how to go about developing effective transitions in your writing, let us briefly discuss the types of transitions your writing will use.

The types of transitions available to you are as diverse as the circumstances in which you need to use them. A transition can be a single word, a phrase, a sentence, or an entire paragraph. In each case, it functions the same way: First, the transition either directly summarizes the content of a preceding sentence, paragraph, or section or implies such a summary (by reminding the reader of what has come before). Then, it helps the reader anticipate or comprehend the new information that you wish to present.

• Transitions between sections: Particularly in longer works, it may be necessary to include transitional paragraphs that summarize for the reader the information just covered and specify the relevance of this information to the discussion in the following section.
• Transitions between paragraphs: If you have done a good job of arranging paragraphs so that the content of one leads logically to the next, the transition will highlight a relationship that already exists by summarizing the previous paragraph and suggesting something of the content of the paragraph that follows. A transition between paragraphs can be a word or two (however, for example, similarly), a phrase, or a sentence. Transitions can be at the end of the first paragraph, at the beginning of the second paragraph, or in both places.
• Transitions within paragraphs: As with transitions between sections and paragraphs, transitions within paragraphs act as cues by helping readers to anticipate what is coming before they read it. Within paragraphs, transitions tend to be single words or short phrases.

Transitional expressions

Effectively constructing each transition often depends upon your ability to identify words or phrases that will indicate for the reader the kind of logical relationships you want to convey. The table below should make it easier for you to find these words or phrases. Whenever you have trouble finding a word, phrase, or sentence to serve as an effective transition, refer to the information in the table for assistance. Look in the left column of the table for the kind of logical relationship you are trying to express. Then look in the right column of the table for examples of words or phrases that express this logical relationship.

Keep in mind that each of these words or phrases may have a slightly different meaning. Consult a dictionary or writer’s handbook if you are unsure of the exact meaning of a word or phrase.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Going Through a Big Life Transition? A Top Yale Psychologist Says This Is the Best Way to Take Care of Yourself

The latest research and yale's laurie santos agree that the best way to cope with challenging times is the opposite of what you might expect..

Divorce, retirement , becoming a parent or an empty nester, moving to a new city , or transitioning into or out of entrepreneurship. These big life transitions can be necessary or even exciting, but they're also always hard.

What's the best way to take care of yourself when you're in the awkward first stages of figuring out who you're going to be in your new life? There are lots of good answers to this question, of course. A few of them probably came to mind immediately.

Regular sleep , social connection , physical movement , and all the other staples of basic self-care are even more important when your life has recently been upended. You probably know that already. But according to psychology, they're not actually the easiest and most effective way to take care of yourself when you're going through a big change.  

The best way to ease yourself through big changes and boost just about every measure of well-being isn't doing anything for yourself at all. At least one big name in the field and new research both confirm your best move is actually to focus on taking care of others through small acts of kindness . 

How to improve seven measures of well-being

First, let's start with the latest science. If you went to college, think back to your freshman year . Forget movies like Animal House --  if you moved away from home for school and you're willing to take an honest look back, I would bet a bunch of money that your first year was as challenging as it was exciting. 

I absolutely loved my time as an undergrad. I left a tiny town for New York City and had my mind blown by the sheer size of the big, wide world. I met a handful of amazing people who became lifelong friends (and eventually my husband), and dug deeply into my passion for stories and the written word. 

I was also deeply homesick and wildly unsure about the direction of my life. I often felt like an ill-prepared hick who didn't know the rules. Money issues were a constant stress. And the puzzle of figuring out how to turn what I loved to study into financial stability as an adult hung like a shadow over all those fun literature and creative writing courses (yes, I am a nerd). 

This mix of euphoria and terror is super common in big life transitions, which made freshman year of university the perfect Petri dish for neuroscientists looking to examine the effects of kindness on people's ability to cope with a new life reality. 

Tiara Cash, a PhD candidate at Canada's Simon Fraser University, followed 198 freshmen for six weeks, having them indicate each week which of a list of 50 or so common "prosocial" acts (aka small acts of kindness, like sharing your study notes or holding open a door for someone) they had completed. The study participants also regularly took standard psychological tests evaluating seven different measures of well-being, from happiness and resilience to optimism to anxiety and loneliness. 

The findings, which were recently published in ​​ Social and Personality Psychology Compass , aren't hard to sum up. More kindness led to more well-being by all seven measures the researchers used. 

"We measured personal well-being in seven different ways in our study, and I was surprised to see people reported feeling more positive on all of them in the weeks that they did more kind acts,"  Cash told PsyPost .

The same advice applies to every life transition. 

These results probably wouldn't have surprised psychologist Laurie Santos. You may have heard of her as the instructor of Yale's most popular course of all time on the science of happiness. But during Covid, she also dispensed plenty of advice on how to cope with periods of adversity and transition . 

"We assume that self-care looks like a nice bubble bath -- or even hedonistic pursuits, selfish pursuits," she explained to the New York Times . "But the data suggests that the right way to treat ourselves would be to do nice things for other people. We actually get more out of being more open and more social and more other-oriented than spending money on ourselves. It's a bigger increase to your happiness."

What's true of freshman year of college is true of other major life transitions too. And your gestures don't have to be grand to have an impact. In college, you can share your notes or your ramen. As a fully fledged adult, you can just text a friend that you're thinking of them or even surprise them with a goofy meme or that bar of chocolate they like . These acts seem small, but they add up to big happiness gains in tough times. 

Of course, when you're facing a dislocation and feeling unmoored, your first impulse might be to take extra good care of yourself. Go for it! A nice bubble bath is certainly not going to hurt anyone. But you'll get the biggest boost to your happiness if you focus most of your energy on kindness and connection rather than indulgences for yourself. 

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Complete List of Transition Words

100 Words and Phrases to Use Between Paragraphs

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• Writing Essays
• Writing Research Papers
• English Grammar
• M.Ed., Education Administration, University of Georgia
• B.A., History, Armstrong State University

Transition words and phrases can help your paper move along, smoothly gliding from one topic to the next. As a result, they come in very handy as you're writing.

Transitions, which connect one idea to the next, may seem challenging at first, but they get easier once you consider the many possible methods for linking paragraphs together—even if they seem to be unrelated.

If you have trouble thinking of a way to connect your paragraphs, consider a few of these 100 top transitions as inspiration. The type of transition words or phrases you use depends on the category of transition you need, as explained below.

Additive Transitions

Probably the most common type, additive transitions are those you use when you want to show that the current point is an addition to the previous one, according to Edusson, a website that provides students with essay-writing tips and advice . Put another way, additive transitions signal to the reader that you are adding to an idea or that your ideas are similar. Follow each transition word or phrase with a comma:

• In the first place
• Furthermore
• Alternatively
• As well (as this)
• What is more
• In addition (to this)
• On the other hand
• Either (neither)
• As a matter of fact
• Besides (this)
• To say nothing of
• Additionally
• Not to mention (this)
• Not only (this) but also (that) as well
• In all honesty
• To tell the truth

Example Additive Transition

An example of additive transitions used in a sentence would be:

" In the first place , no 'burning' in the sense of combustion, as in the burning of wood, occurs in a volcano;  moreover , volcanoes are not necessarily mountains;  furthermore , the activity takes place not always at the summit but more commonly on the sides or flanks..." – Fred Bullard, "Volcanoes in History, in Theory, in Eruption"

In this example and others in this piece, the transition words or phrases are printed in italics to make them easier to find as you peruse the passages.

Adversative Transitions

Adversative transitions are used to signal conflict, contradiction, concession, and dismissal, according to Michigan State University. Examples include:

• In contrast
• But even so
• Nevertheless
• Nonetheless
• (And) still
• In either case
• (Or) at least
• Whichever happens
• Whatever happens
• In either event

Example Adversative Transition

An example of an adversative transition phrase used in a sentence would be:

" On the other hand, professor Smith completely disagreed with the author's argument."

Causal Transitions

Causal transitions—also called cause-and-effect transitions—show how certain circumstances or events were caused by other factors. Using them helps readers follow the logic of arguments and clauses in your paper. Examples include:

• Accordingly
• As a result
• Consequently
• For this reason
• Granting (that)
• On the condition (that)
• In the event that
• As a result (of this)
• Because (of this)
• As a consequence
• In consequence
• So much (so) that
• For the purpose of
• With this intention
• With this in mind
• Under those circumstances
• That being the case

Example Causal Transition

An example of a causal transition used in a sentence would be:

"The study of human chromosomes is in its infancy,  and so  it has only recently become possible to study the effect of environmental factors upon them." –Rachel Carson, "Silent Spring"

Sequential Transitions

Sequential transitions express a numerical sequence, continuation, conclusion , digression , resumption, or summation. Here are some examples:

• In the (first, second, third, etc.) place
• To begin with
• To start with
• Subsequently
• To conclude with
• As a final point
• Last but not least
• To change the topic
• Incidentally
• To get back to the point
• As was previously stated

Example Sequential Transition

An example of a sequential transition would be:

"We should teach that words are not the things to which they refer. We should teach that words are best understood as convenient tools for handling reality... Finally , we should teach widely that new words can and should be invented if the need arises." –Karol Janicki, "Language Misconceived"

How to Practice Using Transition Words

In sum , use transition words and phrases judiciously to keep your paper moving, hold your readers' attention, and retain your audience until the final word. In practice, it's a good idea to rewrite some of the introductory sentences at the beginning and the transition statements at the end of every paragraph once you have completed the first draft of your paper. Practice with some of the words on this list and decide which flows best.

Edusson. " Common Transitions to Use in Cause and Effect Essay ."

Academic Help. " Common Transitions Words and Phrases ."

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Human Resources University of Michigan

Search form, five tips for managing life’s transitions.

Alexander Jendrusina, Ph.D., Counselor with the Faculty and Staff Counseling and Consultation Office, shares tips for managing change and transition.

Transitions can be tough, even when you have time to prepare. For example, as summer ends, you might be thinking about your kids going back to school, the impact of thousands of students returning to campus, or big projects at work. While you can't control everything, you can take steps to make transitions smoother. Here are five ideas to help reduce the stress of change.

1. Be Present 

Planning for a change is essential for being prepared, which means there are times you need to focus on the future. But remember, you can only plan so much. It’s also important to practice being in the here and now.  Try this - savor current experiences, like a family day at the beach, or take a solo hike and immerse yourself in nature. Being present helps you care for yourself and create deeper connections with your loved ones. It can help you to enjoy your experiences by making you more aware of your needs. Whatever you choose to do for yourself, be sure to notice your feelings and do it without judgment. 

2. Practice Self-Compassion 

Be kind to yourself, especially when there is a lot of change in your life. Speak to yourself with the same compassion you would offer a close friend. Think about what you would say or do for them, and then do that for yourself. This might be kind words, setting aside time to relax, or being realistic with your expectations. For example, if you’re starting a new job, remind yourself that it’s okay not to know everything in a new role. Know that change takes time and often has “bumps in the road.”

3. Create and Stick to a Routine that Fits Your Needs

Establishing a routine and sticking to it can make it easier when your daily responsibilities shift. For example, in the fall you may have a new start time at work, or a different school drop-off routine for your kids. Find a routine that works and stick to it. This type of predictability benefits both children and adults. 

4. Remember the Basics 

Take care of your basic needs to function at your best. Ensure you get enough sleep to wake up refreshed, as sleep impacts almost everything we do. Regular exercise benefits both physical and mental health and can serve as a stress outlet. Eat regular meals and stay hydrated to align with your new routine. If you’re pressed for time on work days, try to do some meal preparation on your days off.

5. Seek Support 

Don't hesitate to ask for help when needed. Identify the type of support you need—maybe physical help with tasks at home or emotional support by talking to a friend or family member. Remember you don’t have to handle change alone. Professional help is always an option.

Need More Support? We’re Here for You

If you’d like to learn more about mental health services or are interested in support, counselors are available at no charge to you for confidential services. If you work on an academic campus, reach out to the Faculty and Staff Counseling and Consultation Office (FASCCO) at 734-936-8660 or via email at [email protected] . If you work at Michigan Medicine, reach out to the Office of Counseling and Workplace Resilience (OCWR) by calling 734-763-5409 or sending an email to [email protected] .

Related News

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Put a dent in money stress for better mental health.  

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33 Transition Words and Phrases

Transitional terms give writers the opportunity to prepare readers for a new idea, connecting the previous sentence to the next one.

Many transitional words are nearly synonymous: words that broadly indicate that “this follows logically from the preceding” include accordingly, therefore, and consequently . Words that mean “in addition to” include moreover, besides, and further . Words that mean “contrary to what was just stated” include however, nevertheless , and nonetheless .

as a result : THEREFORE : CONSEQUENTLY

The executive’s flight was delayed and they accordingly arrived late.

in or by way of addition : FURTHERMORE

The mountain has many marked hiking trails; additionally, there are several unmarked trails that lead to the summit.

at a later or succeeding time : SUBSEQUENTLY, THEREAFTER

Afterward, she got a promotion.

even though : ALTHOUGH

She appeared as a guest star on the show, albeit briefly.

in spite of the fact that : even though —used when making a statement that differs from or contrasts with a statement you have just made

They are good friends, although they don't see each other very often.

in addition to what has been said : MOREOVER, FURTHERMORE

I can't go, and besides, I wouldn't go if I could.

as a result : in view of the foregoing : ACCORDINGLY

The words are often confused and are consequently misused.

in a contrasting or opposite way —used to introduce a statement that contrasts with a previous statement or presents a differing interpretation or possibility

Large objects appear to be closer. Conversely, small objects seem farther away.

used to introduce a statement that is somehow different from what has just been said

These problems are not as bad as they were. Even so, there is much more work to be done.

used as a stronger way to say "though" or "although"

I'm planning to go even though it may rain.

in addition : MOREOVER

I had some money to invest, and, further, I realized that the risk was small.

in addition to what precedes : BESIDES —used to introduce a statement that supports or adds to a previous statement

These findings seem plausible. Furthermore, several studies have confirmed them.

because of a preceding fact or premise : for this reason : THEREFORE

He was a newcomer and hence had no close friends here.

from this point on : starting now

She announced that henceforth she would be running the company.

in spite of that : on the other hand —used when you are saying something that is different from or contrasts with a previous statement

I'd like to go; however, I'd better not.

as something more : BESIDES —used for adding information to a statement

The city has the largest population in the country and in addition is a major shipping port.

all things considered : as a matter of fact —used when making a statement that adds to or strengthens a previous statement

He likes to have things his own way; indeed, he can be very stubborn.

for fear that —often used after an expression denoting fear or apprehension

He was concerned lest anyone think that he was guilty.

in addition : ALSO —often used to introduce a statement that adds to and is related to a previous statement

She is an acclaimed painter who is likewise a sculptor.

at or during the same time : in the meantime

You can set the table. Meanwhile, I'll start making dinner.

BESIDES, FURTHER : in addition to what has been said —used to introduce a statement that supports or adds to a previous statement

It probably wouldn't work. Moreover, it would be very expensive to try it.

in spite of that : HOWEVER

It was a predictable, but nevertheless funny, story.

in spite of what has just been said : NEVERTHELESS

The hike was difficult, but fun nonetheless.

without being prevented by (something) : despite—used to say that something happens or is true even though there is something that might prevent it from happening or being true

Notwithstanding their youth and inexperience, the team won the championship.

if not : or else

Finish your dinner. Otherwise, you won't get any dessert.

more correctly speaking —used to introduce a statement that corrects what you have just said

We can take the car, or rather, the van.

in spite of that —used to say that something happens or is true even though there is something that might prevent it from happening or being true

I tried again and still I failed.

by that : by that means

He signed the contract, thereby forfeiting his right to the property.

for that reason : because of that

This tablet is thin and light and therefore very convenient to carry around.

immediately after that

The committee reviewed the documents and thereupon decided to accept the proposal.

because of this or that : HENCE, CONSEQUENTLY

This detergent is highly concentrated and thus you will need to dilute it.

while on the contrary —used to make a statement that describes how two people, groups, etc., are different

Some of these species have flourished, whereas others have struggled.

NEVERTHELESS, HOWEVER —used to introduce a statement that adds something to a previous statement and usually contrasts with it in some way

It was pouring rain out, yet his clothes didn’t seem very wet.

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An Ecological Analysis of Life Transitions and Its Effects

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Introduction

Bronfenbrenner's social ecological model: a framework for understanding life transitions, microsystem and mesosystem.

Exosystem and Macrosystem

Chronosystem and other ecological models.

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Where Tim Walz Stands on the Issues

As governor of Minnesota, he has enacted policies to secure abortion protections, provide free meals for schoolchildren, allow recreational marijuana and set renewable energy goals.

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By Maggie Astor

• Aug. 6, 2024

Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the newly announced running mate to Vice President Kamala Harris, has worked with his state’s Democratic-controlled Legislature to enact an ambitious agenda of liberal policies: free college tuition for low-income students, free meals for schoolchildren, legal recreational marijuana and protections for transgender people.

“You don’t win elections to bank political capital,” Mr. Walz wrote last year about his approach to governing. “You win elections to burn political capital and improve lives.”

Republicans have slammed these policies as big-government liberalism and accused Mr. Walz of taking a hard left turn since he represented a politically divided district in Congress years ago.

Here is an overview of where Mr. Walz stands on some key issues.

Mr. Walz signed a bill last year that guaranteed Minnesotans a “fundamental right to make autonomous decisions” about reproductive health care on issues such as abortion, contraception and fertility treatments.

Abortion was already protected by a Minnesota Supreme Court decision, but the new law guarded against a future court reversing that precedent as the U.S. Supreme Court did with Roe v. Wade, and Mr. Walz said this year that he was also open to an amendment to the state’s Constitution that would codify abortion rights.

Another bill he signed legally shields patients, and their medical providers, if they receive an abortion in Minnesota after traveling from a state where abortion is banned.

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