Hi! Glad you're here.
You know, this is really exciting.
Winter's almost over... The weather's starting to get warm.
I planned to go to the park this Saturday. It's going to rain all day.
Wait... that doesn't make sense.
Oh... I know how we can improve this: transition words.
So, stick around, and let's see how we can use transition words
to make the relationship between these ideas clear.
[♪]
[snap]
[♫]
Hi. Welcome back to Snap Language. I'm Marc Franco.
So, let's go back to those ideas at the start..
Did I want to go to the park *because* it's supposed to rain?
Or did I want to go, *but* it's supposed to rain?
The relationship between these ideas is ambiguous.
I could be saying two very different things.
To make their relationship clear, we can use a "transition"
or "transition words."
In this case, I could say this:
"I wanted to go to the park this weekend, but it's supposed to rain all day."
Ah!.. "but" is a transition word.
It shows there's a relationship of conflict or contradiction between these two ideas.
This also works: "I wanted to go to the park
this weekend; however, it's supposed to rain all day.
How about this?
"Although I wanted to go to the park this weekend, it's supposed to rain all day."
Huh!
I could even say this: "I wanted to go to the park this weekend," period.
Then I introduce the conflicting idea: "Nevertheless, it's supposed to rain all day."
All these sentences express the same thing.
Why are there so many ways of expressing the same thing, though?
We had a video about this recently: word choice.
Let's say you're writing a long paragraph,
and you want to express opposition between several ideas.
You don't want to repeat yourself saying "but... but... but" everywhere.
No problem. You can choose from among many transitions words
that express the same thing and avoid repetition.
So, transition words show the relationship between ideas,
but aren't there *many* possible relationships?
Yes! And there's a transition word for each of these relationships.
You can go to many websites (like this one), and you can see a long list of them.
Let's connect these ideas
using transition words that show their relationships.
"When we see photos of outer space, we are struck by its beauty."
"Space is a deadly place for humans."
"A person cannot survive more than a few seconds in the vacuum of space."
Cosmic radiation damages DNA, affects the central nervous system,
and causes cancer.
"Space travel for long periods of time is impossible at the moment
because astronauts would not survive the trip."
Ugh... this is confusing. Let's see...
The first statement is very positive, but the second statement
is actually negative, so there's a contradiction.
Easy... we just saw this type of relationship.
The next idea...
Oh! It's an example of how deadly space can be for humans.
How about... this?..
Good!
The next idea... well... that's another example of
how deadly space is; you're just adding this to the first.
The relationship is addition...
Good!
Now it's clear we have an example, then another example is added here.
The last idea... well, this idea shows the consequence of all
of the above information.
So... how about... this?
Perfect.
Do you see how these transition words work?
You get ideas that are related and use transition words to
connect the ideas and show what the relationship is between them.
Transition words are very useful in writing.
They help make your ideas flow between sentences
and between paragraphs.
Let's say that the next paragraph was
"Scientists have come up with creative ideas to protect astronauts in space..."
and so forth...
Well, the first paragraph says space travel is impossible right now.
This next paragraph is actually saying it's not all bad news.
We can use a transition here to connect the paragraphs.
This shows the contrast between all of the first paragraph
and the second paragraph.
Now, when you read, it's very important to
pay attention to transition words very closely.
This way you understand not only the ideas themselves
but how these ideas are connected.
There's a lot more about transitions, but let's make this an overview video.
Look at the descriptions below the video for additional materials.
Don't forget to like the video (if you did)
and subscribe to our channel.
And until he next time,
thank you for stopping by and watching this video.
[Transition words in reading and writing] [♫]
[♪]