Accumulated transitions

I won't claim to have any great insights into writing, but I do know that writing involves getting from one sentence to the next.  Preferably, the next sentence stands in some sensible relationship to the one we have just finished (or at least when it doesn't, the prescriptive ethnomethodologist in me points out, it should display a recognition of its non sequitur-hood).  Anyway, one day I started making a list of some of the different transitions that can be used to make evident to a reader what's coming and perhaps also how it is related to what they just read.  I think the original idea was that I could use it to re-animate myself when stuck writing, although I don't know how useful it has been in that regard.  But I do enjoy making lists, and then later I thought why not put it on my webpage and maybe add to it if the mood strikes.  I know there are all kinds of these lists on the web, but they seem to be intended to be used more as thesauri than as sentential-muses.  Plus, since most are intended to be used by students, they are much more stodgy and less intrepid in what transitions they include.

1. Accordingly,

2. Afterwards,

3. Again,

4. All the while,

5. Alternatively,

6. Altogether,

7. Although..., ...

8. Anyway,

9. As a result,

10. As an aside,

11. As an illustration,

12. As I noted earlier,

13. As it is,

14. As long as..., ...

15. As such,

16. At bottom,

17. At length,

18. At long last,

19. At present,

20. At the same time,

21. Balanced against...

22. Besides being...

23. Besides,

24. Beyond that,

25. Briefly,

26. But,

27. Certainly,

28. Compared to...

29. Consequently,

30. Conversely,

31. Despite...

32. Doubtlessly,

33. Earlier,

34. Equally important,

35. Even better,

36. Even though...

37. Ever since,

38. Even so,

39. Finally,

40. For all that,

41. For both [all three],

42. For example,

43. For instance,

44. For that reason,

45. Fundamentally,

46. Further,

47. Furthermore,

48. Granted,

49. Hence,

50. Here,

51. However,

52. Immediately thereafter,

53. In any case,

54. In any event,

55. In brief,

56. In comparison,

57. In contrast,

58. In effect,

59. In fact,

60. In order to...

61. In other words,

62. In short,

63. In the last analysis,

64. In the meantime,

65. In the same manner,

66. In truth,

67. Incidentally,

68. Indeed,

69. It follows that...

70. It goes without saying that...

71. Keep in mind that...

72. Likewise,

73. Meanwhile,

74. More to the point,

75. More succinctly,

76. Moreover,

77. Naturally,

78. Nevertheless,

79. Next,

80. Nonetheless,

81. Nor,

82. Not only... but also

83. Obviously,

84. Of course,

85. On the contrary,

86. On the other hand,

87. On the whole,

88. Once again,

89. Otherwise,

90. Parenthetically,

91. Perhaps surprisingly,

92. Plainly,

93. Previously,

94. Put simply,

95. Putting it differently,

96. Recently,

97. Regardless...

98. Roughly,

99. Shortly,

100. Significantly,

101. Similarly,

102. Somewhat differently,

103. Soon,

104. Specifically,

105. Still,

106. Strictly speaking,

107. Subsequently,

108. Taken together,

109. That is,

110. Then,

111. Then again,

112. Thereafter,

113. Therefore,

114. This time,

115. Thus,

116. To be sure,

117. To demonstrate,

118. To illustrate,

119. To put it another way,

120. To put it bluntly,

121. Toward this end,

122. Unaccountably,

123. Undoubtedly,

124. Un/Fortunately,

125. Un/Luckily,

126. Understandably,

127. Unexpectedly,

128. Unless..., ...

129. Until now,

130. What’s more,

131. Whereas..., ...

132. While true,

133. While..., ...

134. Without going into detail,

135. Without question,

136. Worse,

137. Yet,

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Whatever is original is copyright © 2003 by Jeremy Freese.
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