Writing Process, Part 3:

Paragraphs and Transitions

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PARAGRAPH STRUCTURES
& TRANSITIONS
• organising your ideas: nine methods of
developing in the body of an essay
• creating essay coherence through use of
– repetition
– parallelism
– previewing
• coherence
1: the state of cohering or sticking together
2. logical and orderly and consistent relation of parts

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 Organizing Ideas in an Essay
• 9 paragraph patterns or development methods; can be
used for entire essays or for multi-paragraph sections:
1. description
2. Narration—story
3. narration—process analysis
4. comparison & contrast
5. definition
6. examples and illustrations
7. cause and effect
8. classification and division
9. analogy (a form of comparison)
• Choose a paragraph or section structure consistent
with your essay’s purpose.

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 1. Description
• uses words evocatively to create a picture of
a place, person or event
• can also create a mood or idea
– “The wind is still whipping across Toronto’s
Nathan Phillips Square when a clock tower strikes
six and I wake up to find that most of my
cardboard shelter had blown away in the night.”

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 2. Narration—Story
• telling all or part of a story
• using chronological order
• “I have just returned from leading the 1996
Holocaust and Hope Educators’ Study Tour to
Germany, Poland and Israel….I continue to be
overwhelmed by images and emotions of the
trip….’

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 3. Narration—Process
Analysis
• analyses and explains
– how something works
– how to do or make something (instructions)
• steps are presented in sequence
– A post-election study of a failed campaign with
narration in chronological order of the Party
leader’s unsuccessful speeches.

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 4. Comparison & Contrast
• comparison examines similarity & difference
• contrast examines difference only
• simple comparisons:
– comparison of services for Toronto’s homeless
persons, in working-class (Parkdale) and affluent
(Rosedale) neighbourhoods.
• two methods of development:
– block-by-block - deals first with one subject then
with another
– point-by-point method - elements of the two items
are dealt with at the same time
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Example: Compare UBC and BCIT
Science Degree Programs
• Block-by-block
– UBC
• entrance requirements
• lab component
• access to specific degree programs (e.g., Nursing,
Radiation Therapy, Biotechnology, Prosthetics &
Orthotics)
– BCIT
• entrance requirements
• lab component
• access to specific degree programs

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 Compare UBC and BCIT
Science Degree Programs, cont.
• Point-by-point
– Entrance requirements
• UBC
• BCIT
– Lab / clinical component
• UBC
• BCIT
– Access to specific degree programs
• UBC
• BCIT

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 5. Definition
• makes clear how you’ll use a term in an
essay, especially key terms:
• can prompt a reader to look at a subject in a
new way by explanation, meditation or use of
new terms:
– “homelessness”
– “fake news”
– “cultural appropriation”

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 6. Examples—Illustrations
• support generalisations presented in
topics sentences, or lead up to the
generalisations
– examples and illustrations in the essays
you chose to summarise

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 7. Cause and Effect
• shows relationship between ideas and
between events
• topic sentence can present the cause or the
effect
– Cause-to-effect: “COVID-19 lockdown causes evictions
which puts people on the streets”
– Effect-to-cause: “There is significant increase in people
living in tent cities in Vancouver, corresponding to the
problems of rent and mortgage payments since the COVID-
19 lockdown.

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8. Classification & Division
• groups ideas, people, facts, etc. according to
some system of classification.
• division and classification help writer and
reader understand an entity or idea by
separating it into elements.
– E.g. categorisation of people involved in bullying
incidents, according to their responses to the
incident

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 9. Analogy
• explains a difficult concept by comparison
with one familiar to the audience
– Christopher Edward's “vicious greenhouse …
glass prison”
• an extended metaphor; aphorism, proverb,
and parable are relatives.
– “Thousands of couples are riding the infertility merry-
go-round, many unable to get off…”;

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 How to Build Essay
Coherence
• link ideas clearly by reviewing entire essay
and individual paragraphs
• determine how ideas flow from one paragraph
to the next
• maintain consistency of tone, verb tense,
point of view
• use repetition, previewing, parallelism, and
clear transitions

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 Using Repetition
• Strategically repeat key words and
phrases
– categories: victim, perpetrators, bystanders,
activists
– “Day sevenof the response of those in the
“affluent” shelter to beverages served them:
coffee and juice

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 Using Previewing
• tells the reader what to expect
• previewing is normally announced
– in the opening para. of a short essay
– at the end of a para. in a long essay, as a
transition to the next section.
• can be combined with a full or tentative thesis
statement

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 Using Parallel
Grammatical Structures
• links related ideas & information within a
paragraph
– And so we have a starting point with our students: for
learning about and helping to heal the victim and the
survivor; for becoming activists, risk-takers, critical thinkers,
role models; for refusing to be perpetrators of, or bystanders
to, evil or abuse of any kind. We have a starting point for
teaching our students how to become humane, so that they
will create a world where the impossible could not be
possible again.

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 TRANSITIONS
• words or phrases that link ideas, sentences,
paragraphs
• can significantly improve essay coherence
• bridge the reader from one idea to the next
• important to use in writing essays even if
informative headings are provided for essay
sections
• Good transitions don’t just happen. Effective
writers work on them carefully.

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 Transitions can show…
• time - after, as, next, eventually…
• direction or place - above, below, nearby
• addition - additionally, also, at the same time, first,
second, moreover, lastly
• comparison - also, similarly, in the same way
• contrast - but, however, yet, despite
• examples - for instance, in fact, for example
• concession - of course, certainly, even though
• summary/conclusion - in short, finally, in
conclusion

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 Using Transitions
• be precise but vary terms in an essay
• variation can also be combined with structural
repetition in use of a phrase:
– contrast: “But as they grow….”
– addition: “And as they grow….”
– logical relationship: “So now our daughters are truly
frightened….”

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