Most people are used to transitions on the paragraph level. After all, that’s frequently hammered onto us by many writing lessons. However, you should pay some amount of attention to your sentence level transitions too, as these sentence connectors are the defining element that decrees how well each individual paragraph in your piece is going to turn out.
Building coherent thought requires more than spouting separate sentences and letting readers connect the dots. You need your sentence level transitions for that. This is made even more important by the shorter pauses between paragraphs. The shorter the pause, the more important a transition is because there’s little to break flow from one thought to another.
These sentence connections can be either:
Simple. Ideally, connecting words should simple one-word affairs. If a single word fits, then go for it every time. Words such as “although,” “however,” “despite,” “if” and “therefore” make very good simple connectors.
Complex. Sometimes, the connection between sentences is simply more complex than what a single word can manage. In these situations, you can use connectors such as “as you may have noticed,” “in addition” and “a more likely.”
Whichever one you use, make sure that your connectors reflect the necessary flow of ideas between each of the sentences you’re tying up together. Most writing software include a list of suggestion for transitionary words and phrases, in case you have trouble coming up with the right one.
