Why transitional words and phrases are important in writing?

When it comes to writing academic papers and essay writing, communication of your ideas is vital. In order to enable a reader to go through the document successfully with a complete and thorough understanding of each point and idea conveyed in the document, the writer has to utilize transitional words and phrases. The responsibility of conveying the exact thoughts to a reader lies on the shoulders of the writer and transitional words and phrases play a very important role in the same.

Transitions act as bridges that string together the ideas conveyed in a document by establishing a connection between sentences and paragraphs. In simple words, transitional words and phrases enable a reader to move from one idea to the next idea. They aid and assist the reader in establishing a connection or a link between the conveyed ideas.

Imagine seeing a movie where the first scene is of the lead actor killing the villain and the very next scene is the entry of the villain. This would make no sense at all. You will be utterly confused and brain-wrecked as there is no connection between the two scenes and it is more like a jarring mental leap. Another example can be of a person who changes the subject all of a sudden while having a conversation. Without concluding the current topic of conversation, he/she abruptly moves on to the other topic. It is clear that you will be completely confused in this scenario and may feel annoyed or irritated. Same goes with writing a document as well. In the case of essay writing and academic papers, each paragraph conveys and represents a different idea. Therefore, as and when a paragraph or an idea finishes, the other idea must have a connection with the previous one and the introduction of the same must be smooth. Here is where transitional words and phrases play an extremely important role.

Many words can serve as transitions. Certain good examples are first, second, then, later, afterward, suddenly, at this point, a few days later, nevertheless, however, and so on.

Without transitional words and phrases, the reader goes into a state of confusion as the document diverts him/her from the argument that was conveyed initially. Hence, the overall purpose of the writing assignment, whether it is to convince or educate the readers, faces defeat. If you are a student, the use of transitional words and phrases can help you score well in your essay writing task as the reader will be able to make the complete sense of your essay and even acquire the main ideas conveyed in the essay.

Final Words
In the cases when a document, fails to indicate when a new point is under examination, to further validate the overall theme of the essay, the reader fails to identify that a change has taken place and he/she keeps on considering the previous point only. However, when a writer uses transitional words and phrases, things are immediately clear as and when a new point comes up. Therefore, it is extremely vital to utilize transitional words and phrases especially in the case of academic papers and essay writing tasks.

The Importance of Transitional Words and Phrases

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