Abstract for my seminar paper

A Practical Approach to Effective Learning and Teaching of Sentence Transitions

The mere presence of transitions in a piece of writing may not lead to text cohesion and coherence; however, when used correctly and effectively, transitions make clear the relationships both between individual sentences and within the piece of writing as a whole. Previous studies have demonstrated how student writers have employed transitions and how the use of sentence transitions can contribute to quality writing. They observe the three issues of misuse, overuse, and underuse of sentence transitions, pointing out how the erroneous, repetitive, and insufficient use of transitions may mislead the audience. Undoubtedly, the correct use of transitions corresponds to improved writing skills, yet many students at the higher levels still repeatedly use a limited stock of transitions or use them incorrectly.  This paper will delineate how to adapt strategies commonly used in the teaching of content area literacy to the teaching of transitions. Activities such as vocabulary self-collection, categorization, and concept circles can improve students’ recognition and implementation of the correct transitions in the proper contexts.