You can move a transition and much easier than Mr. Bean is trying to move up this elevator.
Do you know what another sophisticated structure is related to adverb clauses? How could you change this sentence to make it more sophisticated?
Aretha Franklin performed magnificently at the Kennedy Center Honors. Therefore, she received a standing ovation.
In this lesson, we’ll look at transitions and how to move them to make the sentence more sophisticated.
Explanation of Transitions. First, let’s look at what transitions are. Transitions logically connect one sentence to the next sentence. They don’t grammatically connect two sentences. As we discussed with compound sentences (two sentences), the only way to connect two sentences grammatically is with fanboys or with a semicolon (;). We don’t like to use semicolons because they prevent us from using other sophisticated structures like reducing two sentences and other structures so you don’t want to use semicolons often at all.
The traditional position of a transition is at the beginning of the second sentence. After the first sentence, we put a period. Then, we put a transition and a comma after the transition. Let’s look at an example:
Aretha Franklin performed magnificently at the Kennedy Center Honors. Therefore, she received a standing ovation.
There are a lot of transitions in English and all of them have the same grammar. Here is another example:
Women usually like to shop. On the other hand, men usually don’t like to shop.
What’s the transition here? On the other hand. Notice there is a sentence before and after it. There is a period after the first sentence and a comma after the transition. It has the same grammar although the meaning is different. We’ll look in another lesson after the different meanings of all the transitions.
Moving the transition. One of the easiest ways to make a sentence more sophisticated is to move the transition. You can move the transition to most any place it sounds good to you.
Some will move it after the subject.
Aretha Franklin performed magnificently at the Kennedy Center Honors. She, therefore, received a standing ovation. Notice when we move it we use two commas in between the transition.
You can also move it at the end of the second sentence.
Aretha Franklin performed magnificently at the Kennedy Center Honors. She received a standing ovation, therefore.
The most popular place for the transition is in the middle of the second sentence.
Now where is the middle of the second sentence? It looks visually like it is after the verb here.
Aretha Franklin performed magnificently at the Kennedy Center Honors. She received, therefore, a standing ovation.
Let’s do a little practice moving the transition. Since moving the transition to the middle of the second sentence is the most popular, let’s practice moving the transition to the middle of the second sentence.
Here is the traditional position of the transition:
J.K. Rowling is one of the most famous authors of all time. Therefore, she makes news any time that she releases a new book or writes something new on her website.
Let’s move it so what is the middle of this second sentence?
J.K. Rowling is one of the most famous authors of all time. She makes news any time that she releases, therefore, a new book or writes something new on her website.
You don’t have to count the number of words in the second sentence because that takes too long. You can just visually look and tell.
Here is another example:
George Lucas created one of the most film series of all time, Star Wars. Therefore, he has received several honors and awards.
What’s the middle of the second sentence? Just visually look and move it.
George Lucas created one of the most film series of all time, Star Wars. He has received, therefore, several honors and awards.
If you are not sure what’s the middle, just put it and say it out loud. If it sounds good, you’re okay.
Okay, it is your turn.
Can you move the transition in these two examples?
Oprah Winfrey produced one of my favorite movies of all time. Therefore, I have watched it more than once.
The Great Debaters is based on a true story. Therefore, the scenes in the movie are very moving.
If you changed them to the ones below, you're right.
Oprah Winfrey produced one of my favorite movies of all time. I have watched it, therefore, more than once.
The Great Debaters is based on a true story. The scenes in the movie, therefore, are very moving.
If you want to make your writing more sophisticated, please move one of your transitions. For a paper of two pages or fewer, I would do it just once.
In this lesson, we looked at another sophisticated structure, moving a transition. We identified the traditional position, identified other positions and practiced moving the transition.