MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

TRANSITIONS!

First, begin by looking at this OWL PURDUE exhibit on useful transition words and phrases.  Back to paragraphs:  

• look at the last sentence of each paragraph; 
• then look at the first sentence in the next paragraph.

Do you see connection between content, including a reasonable pivot to new information?  The paragraphs, although they stand alone in topic and content, should CONNECT or TRANSITION with the surrounding paragraphs.  

Paragraph check: Ask

• What is the paragraph doing in the document?  What type of paragraph serves this purpose? For example, a narrative paragraph can tell a brief story or present a case or example.  An illustrative paragraph – cousin to descriptive paragraphs - paints a picture.
  
• Is the paragraph cohesive?  Does the content “hang” together?  Do the sentence choices achieve cohesion?  Look at the transition words and phrases in the OWL link above.  You can use them to achieve cohesion and flow between sentences. This focus is called local coherence, which is key to achieving flow.
  

Finally, paragraphs do not truly stand alone in most documents. Paragraphs combine to provide coherent content in a document for a reader.  Ask this:  do the paragraphs fit and support the arrangement or structure of the document?  Focus on transitions between paragraphs, which help with cohesion in the document.  Local coherence (within a paragraph) + global coherence (between paragraphs and within a document) create overall flow.

Cheap! Way To achieve cohesion between paragraphs try "chaining" by transitions. Place the  topic of the next paragraph in the last sentence of the preceding paragraph. The first sentence of the new paragraph must include that topic also. Doing this knits or binds the paragraphs to each other.  Here is how a math person would say this: 

Let ParaA be the preceding paragraph. 

Let ParaB be the following paragraph.  

Let T be the topic that should appear in both paragraphs.  

We will limit our discussion now to two sentences: 

•  
  • the last sentence of ParaA and the 
  • first sentence of ParaB. 

In reality, ParaA and ParaB exist in a document with an arrangement of many paragraphs.

ParaA relates to ParaB through the last sentence of ParaA AND SIMULTANEOUSLY through the first sentence of ParaB. The relating elements is a topic, T;  T can be a repeated word or a phrase.  Some variation on T makes for good style.  

Tight transitions pivot on repetition of key word or short phrase. Loose transitions allow a topic substitution or phrase (selected with care for reader knowledge/background).

Food for thought: You also can use the transition space to punt or jump to another subtopic in the memo. Phrases:

Having reminded you of the central emergency of climate change, let's turn now to...

Now that you have more details on the emerging problem of ocean plastic, we can look at...

Recall that this memo is a short back-of-the-envelope analysis for our purposes. We can reconsider these frames more carefully but would face the incommensurability problem.

define with punt referral link to Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy?

block quote of short definition from above

pivot to why we need to acknowledge the reasonableness of the other position

Climate change and the fate of ocean plastic resist direct comparison.  This is why the other cup choice is reasonable, given a different frame. Consequently....

Good morning. 

I am available online today between 9-9:50, 10-10:50 and 11-11:50. Here is your GoogleMeet code (same for all Fridays this semester).

Hint: do you see the block quote sample at the end of this post? 

What is your one ring source that can rule them all?  The celery-green flow chart! You should also review the pats three week, especial Weeks 9 and 8 (reverse chron order).  Have you gathered up all the free phrases, sentences starters, rough paragraphs, topic sentences, transition ideas into your working document?  PLEASE DO SO. This will make your busy life easier. 

Please do NOT forget your Eli Review Writing Task due tonight.  Show up. Post something.  Do this so you can give and receive feedback.  You can help your peer editing partners even if you are not completely with suggested 4-6 paragraphs that are pretty easy to write. This way, your presence helps others propel the writing forward.

And for you?  You can draft off each other in a cycling or aerodnynamic way. In this short 2017 web article from Cycling Tips is this quote:

So how much energy can you save from drafting? Interestingly, there seems to be little consensus among researchers that have investigated this topic. Studies have shown drag reductions of between 27% and 50% for riders that are drafting, with the exact reduction depending on a number of variables — the size and on-the-bike position of the rider in front, likewise with the rider drafting, the distance from the wheel in front, the direction and strength of the wind, and more.

de Vroet, Matthew