essay clear connections in action

Integrating Sources

The paragraph body: supporting your ideas.

Whether the drafting of a paragraph begins with a main idea or whether that idea surfaces in the revision process, once you have that main idea, you’ll want to make sure that the idea has enough support. The job of the paragraph body is to develop and support the topic. Here’s one way that you might think about it:

• Topic sentence: what is the main claim of your paragraph; what is the most important idea that you want your readers to take away from this paragraph? • Support in the form of evidence: how can you prove that your claim or idea is true (or important, or noteworthy, or relevant)? • Support in the form of analysis or evaluation: what discussion can you provide that helps your readers see the connection between the evidence and your claim? • Transition: how can you help your readers move from the idea you’re currently discussing to the next idea presented? (For more specific discussion about transitions, see the following section on “Developing Relationships between Ideas”). For more on methods of development that can help you to develop and organize your ideas within paragraphs, see “Patterns of Organization and Methods of Development” later in this section of this text.

Now that we have a good idea what it means to develop support for the main ideas of your paragraphs, let’s talk about how to make sure that those supporting details are solid and convincing.

Good vs. Weak Support

What questions will your readers have? What will they need to know? What makes for good supporting details? Why might readers consider some evidence to be weak?

If you’re already developing paragraphs, it’s likely that you already have a plan for your essay, at least at the most basic level. You know what your topic is, you might have a working thesis, and you probably have at least a couple of supporting ideas in mind that will further develop and support your thesis.

So imagine you’re developing a paragraph on one of these supporting ideas and you need to make sure that the support that you develop for this idea is solid. Considering some of the points about understanding and appealing to your audience (from the Audience and Purpose and the Prewriting sections of this text) can also be helpful in determining what your readers will consider good support and what they’ll consider to be weak. Here are some tips on what to strive for and what to avoid when it comes to supporting details.

Good support • Is relevant and focused (sticks to the point). • Is well developed. • Provides sufficient detail. • Is vivid and descriptive. • Is well organized. • Is coherent and consistent. • Highlights key terms and ideas.

Weak Support • Lacks a clear connection to the point that it’s meant to support. • Lacks development. • Lacks detail or gives too much detail. • Is vague and imprecise. • Lacks organization. • Seems disjointed (ideas don’t clearly relate to each other). • Lacks emphasis of key terms and ideas.

Breaking, Combining, or Beginning New Paragraphs

Like sentence length, paragraph length varies. There is no single ideal length for “the perfect paragraph.” There are some general guidelines, however. Some writing handbooks or resources suggest that a paragraph should be at least three or four sentences; others suggest that 100 to 200 words is a good target to shoot for. In academic writing, paragraphs tend to be longer, while in less formal or less complex writing, such as in a newspaper, paragraphs tend to be much shorter. Two-thirds to three-fourths of a page is usually a good target length for paragraphs at your current level of college writing. If your readers can’t see a paragraph break on the page, they might wonder if the paragraph is ever going to end or they might lose interest.

The most important thing to keep in mind here is that the amount of space needed to develop one idea will likely be different than the amount of space needed to develop another. So when is a paragraph complete? The answer is, when it’s fully developed. The guidelines above for providing good support should help.

Some signals that it’s time to end a paragraph and start a new one include that • You’re ready to begin developing a new idea. • You want to emphasize a point by setting it apart. • You’re getting ready to continue discussing the same idea but in a different way (e.g. shifting from comparison to contrast). • You notice that your current paragraph is getting too long (more than three-fourths of a page or so), and you think your writers will need a visual break. Some signals that you may want to combine paragraphs include that • You notice that some of your paragraphs appear to be short and choppy. • You have multiple paragraphs on the same topic. • You have undeveloped material that needs to be united under a clear topic.

Finally, paragraph number is a lot like paragraph length. You may have been asked in the past to write a five paragraph essay. There’s nothing inherently wrong with a five-paragraph essay, but just like sentence length and paragraph length, the number of paragraphs in an essay depends upon what’s needed to get the job done. There’s really no way to know that until you start writing. So try not to worry too much about the proper length and number of things. Just start writing and see where the essay and the paragraphs take you. There will be plenty of time to sort out the organization in the revision process. You’re not trying to fit pegs into holes here. You’re letting your ideas unfold. Give yourself—and them—the space to let that happen.

Developing Relationships Between Ideas

So you have a main idea, and you have supporting ideas, but how can you be sure that your readers will understand the relationships between them? How are the ideas tied to each other? One way to emphasize these relationships is through the use of clear transitions between ideas. Like every other part of your essay, transitions have a job to do. They form logical connections between the ideas presented in an essay or paragraph, and they give readers clues that reveal how you want them to think about (process, organize, or use) the topics presented.

Why are Transitions Important?

Transitions signal the order of ideas, highlight relationships, unify concepts, and let readers know what’s coming next or remind them about what’s already been covered. When instructors or peers comment that your writing is choppy, abrupt, or needs to “flow better,” those are some signals that you might need to work on building some better transitions into your writing. If a reader comments that she’s not sure how something relates to your thesis or main idea, a transition is probably the right tool for the job.

When Is the Right Time to Build in Transitions?

There’s no right answer to this question. Sometimes transitions occur spontaneously, but just as often (or maybe even more often) good transitions are developed in revision. While drafting, we often write what we think, sometimes without much reflection about how the ideas fit together or relate to one another. If your thought process jumps around a lot (and that’s okay), it’s more likely that you will need to pay careful attention to reorganization and to providing solid transitions as you revise.

Let’s take some time to consider the importance of transitions at the sentence level and transitions between paragraphs.

Sentence-Level Transitions

Transitions between sentences often use “connecting words” to emphasize relationships between one sentence and another. A friend and coworker suggests the “something old something new” approach, meaning that the idea behind a transition is to introduce something new while connecting it to something old from an earlier point in the essay or paragraph. Here are some examples of ways that writers use connecting words (highlighted with red text and italicized) to show connections between ideas in adjacent sentences:

To Show Similarity When I was growing up, my mother taught me to say “please” and “thank you” as one small way that I could show appreciation and respect for others. In the same way, I have tried to impress the importance of manners onmy own children. Other connecting words that show similarity include also, similarly, and likewise.

To Show Contrast Some scientists take the existence of black holes for granted; however, in 2014, a physicist at the University of North Carolina claimed to have mathematically proven that they do not exist. Other connecting words that show contrast include in spite of, on the other hand, in contrast, and yet.

To Exemplify The cost of college tuition is higher than ever, so students are becoming increasingly motivated to keep costs as low as possible. For example, a rising number of students are signing up to spend their first two years at a less costly community college before transferring to a more expensive four-year school to finish their degrees. Other connecting words that show example include for instance, specifically, and to illustrate.

To Show Cause and Effect Where previously painters had to grind and mix their own dry pigments with linseed oil inside their studios, in the 1840s, new innovations in pigments allowed paints to be premixed in tubes. Consequently, this new technology facilitated the practice of painting outdoors and was a crucial tool for impressionist painters, such as Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, and Cassatt. Other connecting words that show cause and effect include therefore, so, and thus.

To Show Additional Support When choosing a good trail bike, experts recommend 120–140 millimeters of suspension travel; that’s the amount that the frame or fork is able to flex or compress. Additionally, they recommend a 67–69 degree head-tube angle, as a steeper head-tube angle allows for faster turning and climbing. Other connecting words that show additional support include also, besides, equally important, and in addition.

A Word of Caution

Single-word or short-phrase transitions can be helpful to signal a shift in ideas within a paragraph, rather than between paragraphs (see the discussion below about transitions between paragraphs). But it’s also important to understand that these types of transitions shouldn’t be frequent within a paragraph. As with anything else that happens in your writing, they should be used when they feel natural and feel like the right choice. Here are some examples to help you see the difference between transitions that feel like they occur naturally and transitions that seem forced and make the paragraph awkward to read:

Too Many Transitions : The Impressionist painters of the late 19th century are well known for their visible brush strokes, for their ability to convey a realistic sense of light, and for their everyday subjects portrayed in outdoor settings. In spite of this fact, many casual admirers of their work are unaware of the scientific innovations that made it possible this movement in art to take place. Then, In 1841, an American painter named John Rand invented the collapsible paint tube. To illustrate the importance of this invention, pigments previously had to be ground and mixed in a fairly complex process that made it difficult for artists to travel with them. For example, the mixtures were commonly stored in pieces of pig bladder to keep the paint from drying out. In addition, when working with their palettes, painters had to puncture the bladder, squeeze out some paint, and then mend the bladder again to keep the rest of the paint mixture from drying out. Thus, Rand’s collapsible tube freed the painters from these cumbersome and messy processes, allowing artists to be more mobile and to paint in the open air.

Subtle Transitions that Aid Reader Understanding : The Impressionist painters of the late 19th century are well known for their visible brush strokes, for their ability to convey a realistic sense of light, for their everyday subjects portrayed in outdoor settings. However, many casual admirers of their work are unaware of the scientific innovations that made it possible for this movement in art to take place. In 1841, an American painter named John Rand invented the collapsible paint tube. Before this invention, pigments had to be ground and mixed in a fairly complex process that made it difficult for artists to travel with them. The mixtures were commonly stored in pieces of pig bladder to keep the paint from drying out. When working with their palettes, painters had to puncture the bladder, squeeze out some paint, and then mend the bladder again to keep the rest of the paint mixture from drying out. Rand’s collapsible tube freed the painters from these cumbersome and messy processes, allowing artists to be more mobile and to paint in the open air.

Transitions between Paragraphs and Sections

It’s important to consider how to emphasize the relationships not just between sentences but also between paragraphs in your essay. Here are a few strategies to help you show your readers how the main ideas of your paragraphs relate to each other and also to your thesis.

Use Signposts

Signposts are words or phrases that indicate where you are in the process of organizing an idea; for example, signposts might indicate that you are introducing a new concept, that you are summarizing an idea, or that you are concluding your thoughts. Some of the most common signposts include words and phrases like first, then, next, finally, in sum, and in conclusion. Be careful not to overuse these types of transitions in your writing. Your readers will quickly find them tiring or too obvious. Instead, think of more creative ways to let your readers know where they are situated within the ideas presented in your essay. You might say, “The first problem with this practice is…” Or you might say, “The next thing to consider is…” Or you might say, “Some final thoughts about this topic are….”

Use Forward-Looking Sentences at the End of Paragraphs Sometimes, as you conclude a paragraph, you might want to give your readers a hint about what’s coming next. For example, imagine that you’re writing an essay about the benefits of trees to the environment and you’ve just wrapped up a paragraph about how trees absorb pollutants and provide oxygen. You might conclude with a forward- looking sentence like this: “Trees benefits to local air quality are important, but surely they have more to offer our communities than clean air.” This might conclude a paragraph (or series of paragraphs) and then prepare your readers for additional paragraphs to come that cover the topics of trees’ shade value and ability to slow water evaporation on hot summer days. This transitional strategy can be tricky to employ smoothly. Make sure that the conclusion of your paragraph doesn’t sound like you’re leaving your readers hanging with the introduction of a completely new or unrelated topic.

Use Backward-Looking Sentences at the Beginning of Paragraphs Rather than concluding a paragraph by looking forward, you might instead begin a paragraph by looking back. Continuing with the example above of an essay about the value of trees, let’s think about how we might begin a new paragraph or section by first taking a moment to look back. Maybe you just concluded a paragraph on the topic of trees’ ability to decrease soil erosion and you’re getting ready to talk about how they provide habitats for urban wildlife. Beginning the opening of a new paragraph or section of the essay with a backward-looking transition might look something like this: “While their benefits to soil and water conservation are great, the value that trees provide to our urban wildlife also cannot be overlooked.”

Evaluate Transitions for Predictability or Conspicuousness

Finally, the most important thing about transitions is that you don’t want them to become repetitive or too obvious. Reading your draft aloud is a great revision strategy for so many reasons, and revising your essay for transitions is no exception to this rule. If you read your essay aloud, you’re likely to hear the areas that sound choppy or abrupt. This can help you make note of areas where transitions need to be added. Repetition is another problem that can be easier to spot if you read your essay aloud. If you notice yourself using the same transitions over and over again, take time to find some alternatives. And if the transitions frequently stand out as you read aloud, you may want to see if you can find some subtler strategies.

The Paragraph Body from The Word on College Reading and Writing. Authored by : Monique Babin, Clackamas Community College Carol Burnell, Clackamas Community College Susan Pesznecker, Portland State University. Provided by : Open Textbook Library. Located at : https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/BookDetail.aspx?bookId=471 . Project : Center for Open Education. License : CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial

Peterborough

Creating Coherence (or Flow)

Transitions within Paragraphs
Transitions between Paragraphs

Transitional Paragraphs

The importance of transitions in making connections within paragraphs.

Good paragraphs make clear connections between sentences and ideas, both within and between paragraphs. Internally, paragraphs should move smoothly from one idea to the next; the reader should be able to see how each sentence relates to the controlling idea.The paragraph must have internal cohesian and advance the main idea. Do not simply expect the reader to see connections: you may find, when your essay is returned, that you have been misinterpreted.

Transitional words and phrases are essential tools for connecting ideas. They can join ideas together in a sentence, sentences together in a paragraph, and paragraphs together in an essay. Transitions are words such as “subsequently” and “conversely,” or phrases such as “as a result” and “in conclusion.” They link ideas and signal the logical connection between ideas.

Common Transitional Words and Phrases

Adding Ideas: again, also, and, and then, as well as, besides, equally important, finally, first (second, third, etc.), for one thing, further, furthermore, in addition, in the first place, last, likewise, more, moreover, next, nor, similarly, too
Emphasizing Ideas: above all, after all, equally important, especially, indeed, in fact, in particular, it is true, most important, of course, truly
Illustrating Ideas: an illustration of, for example, for instance, in other words, in particular, namely, specifically, such as, that is, thus, to illustrate
Comparing Ideas : in the same way, likewise, similarly
Contrasting Ideas : and yet, but, but at the same time, conversely, despite, differently, even so, for all that, however, in contrast, in spite of, nevertheless, notwithstanding, on the contrary, on the other hand, or, otherwise, rather, regardless, still, though, unfortunately, yet
Showing Cause and Effect : accordingly, as a result, consequently, for that reason, for this purpose, hence, otherwise, so, then, therefore, thereupon, thus, to this end, with this object
Placing Ideas in Time: again, already, always, at first, at least, at length, at once, at that time, at the same time, briefly, during this time, earlier, eventually, finally, first (second, third, fourth, etc.), formerly, gradually, immediately, in future, in the meantime, in the past, last, lately, later, meanwhile, next, never, now, once, presently, promptly, recently, shortly, simultaneously, so far, sometimes, soon, subsequently, suddenly, then, thereafter, until now
Summarizing Ideas: all in all, altogether, as has been noted, finally, in brief, in conclusion, in other words, in short, in simpler terms, in summary, on the whole, that is, to put it differently, to summarize

Using Transitions Between Paragraphs

Transitions also make connections between paragraphs; it is important to make sure that each paragraph connects to the one preceding it. Use the following transitional strategies to ensure that connections are clear for the reader.

Strategy One: Connect the preceding paragraph with the new one by reminding the reader of your thesis as you begin the paragraph.

Example: Clearly, then, our obstetrical procedures have not kept pace with our knowledge of infant psychology. Especially serious has been the early separation of the newborn from its mother.

Strategy Two: Use a transitional word or phrase. (See the previous explanation and the list of transitions above)

Example: Conversely, some non-traditional birthing centres have attempted to create areas where mothers, fathers, and babies can sleep together during their first days together.

Strategy Three: Use a key word from the preceding paragraph.

Example: Our increased attention to psychological tendencies such as bonding [discussed in previous paragraph] should lead to new hospital procedures.

Strategy Four: Begin the paragraph with a sentence that glances backward to the last paragraph and forward to the new one.

Example: If the last decade has witnessed many changes in theory [subject of preceding paragraph], practice has not kept pace.

Transitional paragraphs are used after major sections of essays to pause, regroup, and show where you are in your argument. In them, you can sum up the major points and evidence considered in the previous section of the essay, and relate the previous section to the thesis of the paper. After reviewing what you have covered, you may then go on to explain how it connects to what will follow. Will the next section offer a similar or a contrasting point? Where you will go next in your argument?

For context, please review the thesis of the essay:

Although Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream are alike in many ways, they differ primarily because of two characters—Malvolio and Bottom—whose differences make Twelfth Night less a purely comic play than A Midsummer’s Night Dream; Twelfth Night thwarts illusion, and acquires wistfulness, whereas A Midsummer Night’s Dream does not.

This transitional paragraph refers to important essay themes and shows the relationship between the section that has just been developed and the section that follows it:

Clearly, illusion, romance, and mistaken identity are found within both Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Indeed, the settings and story lines seem almost interchangeable (topic of previous section). The important difference between the two plays lies in Shakespeare’s treatment of Malvolio and Bottom (topic of next section).

The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

What this handout is about

This handout will explain what flow is, discuss how it works, and offer strategies to improve the flow of your writing.

What is flow?

Writing that “flows” is easy to read smoothly from beginning to end. Readers don’t have to stop, double back, reread, or work hard to find connections between ideas. Writers have structured the text so that it’s clear and easy to follow. But how do you make your writing flow? Pay attention to coherence and cohesion.

Coherence—global flow

Coherence, or global flow, means that ideas are sequenced logically at the higher levels: paragraphs, sections, and chapters. Readers can move easily from one major idea to the next without confusing jumps in the writer’s train of thought. There’s no single way to organize ideas, but there are common organizational patterns, including (but not limited to):

Chronological (e.g., a history or a step-by-step process)
Grouping similar ideas (e.g., advantages / disadvantages; causes / effects)
Moving from large to small (e.g., national to local) or vice versa (local to national)
Assertion, evidence, reasoning (e.g., an argument essay)
Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion (e.g., lab reports)

More than a single organizational strategy can be present in a single draft, with one pattern for the draft as a whole and another pattern within sections or paragraphs of that draft. Take a look at some examples:

Assignment: Describe how domestic and international travel has changed over the last two centuries.

Primary pattern: chronological Additional pattern: grouping

Travel in the 19th century: Domestic travel. International travel. Travel in the 20th century: Domestic travel. International travel.

Assignment: “Analyze the contribution of support services to student success.”

Primary pattern: Assertion, evidence Additional patterns: various

(Assertion) Students who actively use support services have a better college experience (Chronological) Story of first-year student’s difficult experience in college (Grouping) Social and psychological reasons students may avoid using resources (Evidence) Research on academic resources and academic performance (Evidence) Research on self-care resources and student well-being (Chronological) Story of student’s much-improved second-year experience in college

Even though there are various patterns, there’s also a certain logic and consistency. If your readers can follow your organization and understand how you’re connecting your ideas, they will likely feel as though the essay “flows.”

You can also preview your organization through signposting. This strategy involves giving your readers a roadmap before they delve into the body of your paper, and it’s typically found near the beginning of a shorter essay or at the end of the first section of a longer work, such as a thesis. It may look something like this:

“This paper examines the value of using resources in university settings. The first section describes the experience of a first-year student at a top-tier university who did not use resources. The following section describes possible reasons for not using them. It then describes the types of resources available and surveys the research on the benefits of using these resources. The essay concludes with an analysis of how the student’s experience changed after taking advantage of the available support.”

Analyzing coherence

Try these two strategies to analyze the flow of your draft at the global level.

Reverse outlining

A reverse outline allows you to see how you have organized your topics based on what you actually wrote, rather than what you planned to write. After making the reverse outline, you can analyze the order of your ideas. To learn more about reverse outlining, you can watch our demo of this strategy , or read our Reorganizing Drafts handout for a more in-depth explanation. Some questions to consider:

How am I ordering ideas? Can I describe the pattern?
Why are the ideas presented in this order? Would they make more sense if I reorder them?
What effect does the order of ideas have on my readers?
How would reordering the information affect my paper?

Color coding

You can use color coding to group similar ideas or ideas that are connected in various ways. After sorting your ideas into differently colored groups, figure out how these ideas relate to one another, both within color groups and between color groups. For example, how do blue ideas relate to one another? How does this blue idea connect to this yellow idea? We have a short color coding demo that illustrates using the strategy before you draft. The reverse outlining demo above illustrates this strategy applied to an existing draft.

Cohesion—local flow

Cohesion, or local flow, means that the ideas are connected clearly at the sentence level. With clear connections between sentences, readers can move smoothly from one sentence to the next without stopping, doubling back, or trying to make sense of the text. Fortunately, writers can enhance cohesion with the following sentence-level strategies.

Known-to-new sequencing

Readers can process familiar (“known”) information more quickly than unfamiliar (“new”) information. When familiar information appears at the beginning of sentences, readers can concentrate their attention on new information in later parts of the sentence. In other words, sequencing information from “known to new” can help enhance the flow.

The paragraphs below illustrate this sequencing. They both contain the same information, but notice where the known and new information is located in each version.

1. The compact fluorescent bulb has become the standard bulb for household lamps. Until recently, most people used incandescent bulbs in their lamps. Heating a tungsten filament until it glows, throwing off light, is how this type of bulb operates. Unfortunately, approximately 90% of the energy used to produce the light is wasted by heating the filament.

2. The compact fluorescent bulb has become the standard bulb for household lamps. Until recently, most lamps used incandescent bulbs. This type of bulb operates by heating a tungsten filament until it glows, throwing off light. Unfortunately, heating the filament wastes approximately 90% of the energy used to produce the light.

The second version flows better because it follows the known-to-new strategy. In the second paragraph, notice how “household lamps” appears in the “new” position (the end of the sentence), and in the next sentence, “most lamps” appears in the “known” position (or beginning of the sentence). Similarly, “incandescent bulbs” appears for the first time in the “new” position, and then “this type of bulb” appears in the “known” position of the next sentence, and so on.

In this example, the new information in one sentence appeared in the known position of the very next sentence, but that isn’t always the case. Once the new information has been introduced in the later part of a sentence, it becomes known and can occupy the beginning part of any subsequent sentence.

Transitional expressions

Transitions indicate the logical relationships between ideas—relationships like similarity, contrast, addition, cause and effect, or exemplification. For an in-depth look at how to use transitions effectively, take a look at our transitions handout . For an explanation of the subtle differences between transitional expressions, see our transitions (ESL) handout .

Clear pronoun reference

Flow can be interrupted when pronoun reference is unclear. Pronouns are words like he, she, it, they, which, and this. We use these words to substitute for nouns that have been mentioned earlier. We call these nouns “antecedents.” For example,

Clear reference: Active listening strategies help you learn. They focus your attention on important lecture content.

It’s clear that “strategies” is the antecedent for “they” because it’s the only noun that comes before the pronoun. When there’s more than one possible antecedent, the choice may be less clear, and the cohesion won’t be as strong. Take a look at the example below.

Unclear reference: I went by the bookstore earlier and bought some textbooks and notebooks for my classes, but I’m going to have to return them because I bought the wrong ones.

Here, “them” could refer to two antecedents: the textbooks or the notebooks. It’s unclear which of these purchases needs to be returned, so your reader may have to pause to try to figure it out, thus interrupting the flow of the reading experience. Generally, this problem can be fixed by either adding another noun, or rephrasing the sentence. Let’s try both strategies by adding a noun and breaking the sentence in two.

Clear reference: I went by the bookstore earlier and bought some textbooks and notebooks for my classes. I’m going to have to return the textbooks because I bought the wrong ones.

Now, it is clear what needs to be returned.

A common cause of confusion in a text is the use of “which.” Look at this example:

Unclear reference: I’ve begun spending more time in the library and have been getting more sleep , which has resulted in an improvement in my test scores.

Does “which” here refer to spending more time in the library, getting more sleep, or both? Again, let’s solve this by splitting it into two sentences and changing our wording:

Clear reference: I’ve begun spending more of my free time in the library and have been getting more sleep. These habits have resulted in an improvement in my test scores.

Here’s another example of “which” being used in a sentence. In this sentence, “which” only has one antecedent, the roommate’s habit of staying up late, so it is clear why the writer is having difficulties sleeping.

Clear reference: My new roommate tends to stay up late, which has made it hard for me to get enough sleep.

This/these + summary noun

Another way to clarify the reference of pronouns like “this” or “these” is to add a summary noun. Look at this example:

The school board put forth a motion to remove the school vending machines and a motion to move detention to the weekend instead of after school. This created backlash from students and parents.

In the sentence above, “this” is vague, and could be referring to a number of things. It could refer to:

The removal of vending machines
The moving of detention
Both motions

We can make this sentence more clear by adding something called a “summary noun,” like so:

The school board put forth a motion to remove the school vending machines, and a motion to move detention to the weekend instead of after school. These motions created backlash from students and parents.

By adding “motions,” the sentence can now only refer to both motions, rather than either individually.

Parallel structure

Parallel structure means using the same grammatical structure for things that come in sets. The similarity creates a rhythm that helps the writing flow.

Not parallel: walking, talked, and chewing gum

Parallel: walking, talking, and chewing gum

Not parallel: teenagers…people in their thirties…octogenarians

Parallel: people in their teens…people in their thirties…people in their eighties

Not parallel: To perform at your peak, you will need to get enough sleep each night, read the material and prepare questions before class every day, and be eating nutritious, well-balanced meals.

Parallel: To perform at your peak, you will need to get enough sleep each night, read the material and prepare questions before class every day, and eat nutritious, well-balanced meals.

Getting to the verb

Academic writers often disguise actions as things, making those things the subject of the sentence.

This change is called “nominalization” (“changing a verb to a noun”). It can be a useful strategy, but it can lead to excessively long subjects, pushing the verb far away from the beginning of the sentence. When there are too many words before the verb, the connection between the verb and the subject may not be clear. Readers may have to look backward in the sentence to find the subject, interrupting the flow of their reading.

Look at this example:

Student government’s recent decision to increase the rental fee on spaces that student groups reserve in the Union for regular meetings or special events, especially during high demand periods of the semester like homecoming week or the Week of Welcome but not during low-demand periods like midterm or finals week, elicited a response from several groups that were concerned about the potential impact of the change on their budgets.

“Student government’s decision…elicited a response.” There are 50 words before the verb “elicited” in this sentence! Compare this revision:

Student government recently decided to increase the rental fee on spaces that student groups reserve in the Union for regular meetings or special events, especially during high demand periods of the semester like homecoming week or the Week of Welcome but not during low-demand periods like midterm or finals week. This decision elicited a response from several groups that were concerned about the potential impact of the change on their budgets.

By changing the thing “decision” into the action “decided,” we’ve created a sentence with just two words before the verb, so it’s very clear who did what. We’ve also split the longer sentence into two, keeping the verb “elicited” and adding “this decision.”

Look for nouns that have underlying actions and try turning them into verbs near the beginning of your sentence: decision–>decide; emergence–>emerge; notification–>notify; description–>describe; etc.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Ruszkiewicz, John J., Christy Friend, Daniel Seward, and Maxine Hairston. 2010. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers , 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.

Towson University. n.d. “Pronoun Reference.” Online Writing Support. https://webapps.towson.edu/ows/proref.htm .

Williams, Joseph, and Joseph Bizup. 2017. Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace , 12th ed. Boston: Pearson.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Chapter 8: Arguing Academically

8.3. Developing Relationships between Ideas

Monique Babin, Carol Burnell, Susan Pesznecker, Nicole Rosevear, Jaime Wood

Transitioning

Why are Transitions Important?

When Is the Right Time to Build in Transitions?

When you’re working on building transitions into an essay, consider the essay’s overall organization. Consider using reverse outlining and other organizational strategies presented in this text to identify key ideas in your essay and to get a clearer look at how the ideas can be best organized. See the “ Reverse Outlining ” section in the “Revision” portion of this text, for a great strategy to help you assess what’s going on in your essay and to help you see what topics and organization are developing. This can help you determine where transitions are needed.

Let’s take some time to consider the importance of transitions at the sentence level and transitions between paragraphs.

Sentence-Level Transitions

To Show Similarity

When I was growing up, my mother taught me to say “please” and “thank you” as one small way that I could show appreciation and respect for others. In the same way , I have tried to impress the importance of manners on my own children.

Other connecting words that show similarity include also , similarly , and likewise .

To Show Contrast

Some scientists take the existence of black holes for granted; however , in 2014, a physicist at the University of North Carolina claimed to have mathematically proven that they do not exist.

Other connecting words that show contrast include in spite of , on the other hand , in contrast , and yet .

To Exemplify

The cost of college tuition is higher than ever, so students are becoming increasingly motivated to keep costs as low as possible. For example , a rising number of students are signing up to spend their first two years at a less costly community college before transferring to a more expensive four-year school to finish their degrees.

Other connecting words that show example include for instance , specifically , and to illustrate .

To Show Cause and Effect

Where previously painters had to grind and mix their own dry pigments with linseed oil inside their studios, in the 1840s, new innovations in pigments allowed paints to be premixed in tubes. Consequently , this new technology facilitated the practice of painting outdoors and was a crucial tool for impressionist painters, such as Monet, Cezanne, Renoir, and Cassatt.

Other connecting words that show cause and effect include therefore , so , and thus .

To Show Additional Support

When choosing a good trail bike, experts recommend 120–140 millimeters of suspension travel; that’s the amount that the frame or fork is able to flex or compress. Additionally , they recommend a 67–69 degree head-tube angle, as a steeper head-tube angle allows for faster turning and climbing.

Other connecting words that show additional support include also , besides , equally important , and in addition .

A Word of Caution

Too Many Transitions: The Impressionist painters of the late 19th century are well known for their visible brush strokes, for their ability to convey a realistic sense of light, and for their everyday subjects portrayed in outdoor settings. In spite of this fact , many casual admirers of their work are unaware of the scientific innovations that made it possible this movement in art to take place. Then , In 1841, an American painter named John Rand invented the collapsible paint tube. To illustrate the importance of this invention , pigments previously had to be ground and mixed in a fairly complex process that made it difficult for artists to travel with them. For example , the mixtures were commonly stored in pieces of pig bladder to keep the paint from drying out. In addition , when working with their palettes, painters had to puncture the bladder, squeeze out some paint, and then mend the bladder again to keep the rest of the paint mixture from drying out. Thus , Rand’s collapsible tube freed the painters from these cumbersome and messy processes, allowing artists to be more mobile and to paint in the open air.

Subtle Transitions that Aid Reader Understanding : The Impressionist painters of the late 19th century are well known for their visible brush strokes, for their ability to convey a realistic sense of light, for their everyday subjects portrayed in outdoor settings. However , many casual admirers of their work are unaware of the scientific innovations that made it possible for this movement in art to take place. In 1841, an American painter named John Rand invented the collapsible paint tube. Before this invention , pigments had to be ground and mixed in a fairly complex process that made it difficult for artists to travel with them. The mixtures were commonly stored in pieces of pig bladder to keep the paint from drying out. When working with their palettes, painters had to puncture the bladder, squeeze out some paint, and then mend the bladder again to keep the rest of the paint mixture from drying out. Rand’s collapsible tube freed the painters from these cumbersome and messy processes, allowing artists to be more mobile and to paint in the open air.

Transitions between Paragraphs and Sections

Use Signposts

Signposts are words or phrases that indicate where you are in the process of organizing an idea; for example, signposts might indicate that you are introducing a new concept, that you are summarizing an idea, or that you are concluding your thoughts. Some of the most common signposts include words and phrases like first, then, next, finally, in sum , and in conclusion . Be careful not to overuse these types of transitions in your writing. Your readers will quickly find them tiring or too obvious. Instead, think of more creative ways to let your readers know where they are situated within the ideas presented in your essay. You might say, “The first problem with this practice is…” Or you might say, “The next thing to consider is…” Or you might say, “Some final thoughts about this topic are….”

Use Forward-Looking Sentences at the End of Paragraphs

Sometimes, as you conclude a paragraph, you might want to give your readers a hint about what’s coming next. For example, imagine that you’re writing an essay about the benefits of trees to the environment and you’ve just wrapped up a paragraph about how trees absorb pollutants and provide oxygen. You might conclude with a forward-looking sentence like this: “Trees benefits to local air quality are important, but surely they have more to offer our communities than clean air.” This might conclude a paragraph (or series of paragraphs) and then prepare your readers for additional paragraphs to come that cover the topics of trees’ shade value and ability to slow water evaporation on hot summer days. This transitional strategy can be tricky to employ smoothly. Make sure that the conclusion of your paragraph doesn’t sound like you’re leaving your readers hanging with the introduction of a completely new or unrelated topic.

Use Backward-Looking Sentences at the Beginning of Paragraphs

Rather than concluding a paragraph by looking forward, you might instead begin a paragraph by looking back. Continuing with the example above of an essay about the value of trees, let’s think about how we might begin a new paragraph or section by first taking a moment to look back. Maybe you just concluded a paragraph on the topic of trees’ ability to decrease soil erosion and you’re getting ready to talk about how they provide habitats for urban wildlife. Beginning the opening of a new paragraph or section of the essay with a backward-looking transition might look something like this: “While their benefits to soil and water conservation are great, the value that trees provide to our urban wildlife also cannot be overlooked.”

Evaluate Transitions for Predictability or Conspicuousness

Exercise: Try Out Some New Transition Strategies

Choose an essay or piece of writing, either that you’re currently working on, or that you’ve written in the past. Identify your major topics or main ideas. Then, using this chapter, develop at least three examples of sentence-level transitions and at least two examples of paragraph-level transitions. Share and discuss with your classmates in small groups, and choose one example of each type from your group to share with the whole class. If you like the results, you might use them to revise your writing. If not, try some other strategies.

8.3. Developing Relationships between Ideas by Monique Babin, Carol Burnell, Susan Pesznecker, Nicole Rosevear, Jaime Wood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Some experts argue that focusing on individual actions to combat climate change takes the focus away from the collective action required to keep carbon levels from rising. Change will not be effected, say some others, unless individual actions raise the necessary awareness.

While a reader can see the connection between the sentences above, it’s not immediately clear that the second sentence is providing a counterargument to the first. In the example below, key “old information” is repeated in the second sentence to help readers quickly see the connection. This makes the sequence of ideas easier to follow.

Sentence pair #2: Effective Transition

You can use this same technique to create clear transitions between paragraphs. Here’s an example:

Some experts argue that focusing on individual actions to combat climate change takes the focus away from the collective action required to keep carbon levels from rising. Other experts argue that individual actions are key to raising the awareness necessary to effect change. According to Annie Lowery, individual actions are important to making social change because when individuals take action, they can change values, which can lead to more people becoming invested in fighting climate change. She writes, “Researchers believe that these kinds of household-led trends can help avert climate catastrophe, even if government and corporate actions are far more important” (Lowery).

So, what’s an individual household supposed to do?

The repetition of the word “household” in the new paragraph helps readers see the connection between what has come before (a discussion of whether household actions matter) and what is about to come (a proposal for what types of actions households can take to combat climate change).

Sometimes, transitional words can help readers see how ideas are connected. But it’s not enough to just include a “therefore,” “moreover,” “also,” or “in addition.” You should choose these words carefully to show your readers what kind of connection you are making between your ideas.

To decide which transitional word to use, start by identifying the relationship between your ideas. For example, you might be

making a comparison or showing a contrast Transitional words that compare and contrast include also, in the same way, similarly, in contrast, yet, on the one hand, on the other hand. But before you signal comparison, ask these questions: Do your readers need another example of the same thing? Is there a new nuance in this next point that distinguishes it from the previous example? For those relationships between ideas, you might try this type of transition: While x may appear the same, it actually raises a new question in a slightly different way.
expressing agreement or disagreement When you are making an argument, you need to signal to readers where you stand in relation to other scholars and critics. You may agree with another person’s claim, you may want to concede some part of the argument even if you don’t agree with everything, or you may disagree. Transitional words that signal agreement, concession, and disagreement include however, nevertheless, actually, still, despite, admittedly, still, on the contrary, nonetheless .
showing cause and effect Transitional phrases that show cause and effect include therefore, hence, consequently, thus, so. Before you choose one of these words, make sure that what you are about to illustrate is really a causal link. Novice writers tend to add therefore and hence when they aren’t sure how to transition; you should reserve these words for when they accurately signal the progression of your ideas.
explaining or elaborating Transitions can signal to readers that you are going to expand on a point that you have just made or explain something further. Transitional words that signal explanation or elaboration include in other words, for example, for instance, in particular, that is, to illustrate, moreover .
drawing conclusions You can use transitions to signal to readers that you are moving from the body of your argument to your conclusions. Before you use transitional words to signal conclusions, consider whether you can write a stronger conclusion by creating a transition that shows the relationship between your ideas rather than by flagging the paragraph simply as a conclusion. Transitional words that signal a conclusion include in conclusion , as a result, ultimately, overall— but strong conclusions do not necessarily have to include those phrases.

If you’re not sure which transitional words to use—or whether to use one at all—see if you can explain the connection between your paragraphs or sentence either out loud or in the margins of your draft.

For example, if you write a paragraph in which you summarize physician Atul Gawande’s argument about the value of incremental care, and then you move on to a paragraph that challenges those ideas, you might write down something like this next to the first paragraph: “In this paragraph I summarize Gawande’s main claim.” Then, next to the second paragraph, you might write, “In this paragraph I present a challenge to Gawande’s main claim.” Now that you have identified the relationship between those two paragraphs, you can choose the most effective transition between them. Since the second paragraph in this example challenges the ideas in the first, you might begin with something like “but,” or “however,” to signal that shift for your readers.

picture_as_pdf Transitions

The Writing Center @ UVa

314 bryan hall, strategies for effective conclusion writing.

After writing an entire essay, writing the conclusion paragraph may seem like a mere formality or a tedious chore. But conclusion paragraphs can hold a lot of power to impact how a reader receives an essay. The conclusion paragraph is the writer’s last chance to make sure that their ideas have come across in the ways that they intended. The conclusion synthesizes all of the information in a way that feels new for the reader but leaves them with an enduring message. A great conclusion can help the reader to comprehend what they just read, why it matters, and how they can apply it to their own lives.

The conclusion is the writer’s chance to go beyond the prompt and connect their paper to the world around them. If the introduction acts as a first impression, the conclusion paragraph is a last impression. While different disciplines may desire different functions of a conclusion and there is no “formula” to writing the perfect one, these strategies can be a great starting point in writing a conclusion that closes an essay with finesse.

Answer the Question: “So What?”

Perhaps the most important function of a conclusion paragraph in any essay is that it provides the essay with a level of significance and importance. In answering the question “so what?”, the conclusion will tell readers why what they’ve just read matters .

Create Closure

An essay is a journey for its’ readers and the conclusion works to signal to the reader that their journey is not only finished, but also that it was whole and complete. This effect is often created by echoing ideas in the conclusion that were introduced earlier in the essay. Instead of simply repeating the thesis or general ideas of the essay, the conclusion is an opportunity to recast these ideas with a deeper and more refined perspective.

Expand the Scope

The conclusion often works well when structured like a triangle, starting with the more narrow and focused ideas of the essay and then moving on to how those ideas can be translated and applied to a greater concept. In an English or Humanities paper, the conclusion may state how the ideas of the essay reveal something about a greater universal truth. For a more research-based paper, the conclusion may suggest ways in which the findings of the paper impact the field of study.

Raise Questions and Discuss Implications

By raising questions for the reader, the conclusion leaves them with something to think about. It allows them to use the knowledge that has been provided to them and apply it to broader ideas. It urges them to make connections and form their own opinions. The conclusion can hint at what the ideas of the essay imply for the reader, for the field of study, or even for society.

Call the Reader to Action

One of the more daring and bold functions that a conclusion can hold is that of charging the reader with action. In doing this, the conclusion uses all of the assertions and evidence provided in the essay to propose a solution to a problem or convince the reader to react in a certain way.

Works Consulted:

http://writing2.richmond.edu/writing/wweb/conclude.html

https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/conclusions/

https://writingcenter.fas.harvard.edu/pages/ending-essay-conclusions

Northern Illinois University Effective Writing Practices Tutorial

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Organization

A conclusion is a call to action. It reiterates the main idea of the essay stated in the introduction, summarizes the evidence presented in the body of the essay, draws any conclusions based on that evidence, and brings a written composition to a logical close.

An essay, a research paper, or a report can end with any of the following:

a short summary of the main idea
a call to action
a reiteration of the main points made
a proposed solution to the question raised in the thesis statement
a statement of the significance of findings
a statement of the limitations of the study or research
a recommendation for further exploration of the subject

Rule to Remember

A conclusion reiterates the importance of the main idea and summarizes the evidence presented in support of it.

Things to avoid in conclusions:

repeating the thesis verbatim
repeating ideas from the introduction
introducing a new idea not discussed in the main body of the paper
apologizing for your views

Sample Conclusion

Advantages of the online delivery of instruction abound; it is the limitations educators often fail to consider. There has to be a well-thoughtout assessment of the curriculum, instructor training programs, technology, and students who will be participating in online programs. Poorly developed curriculum, instructors who are untrained in online delivery of courses, inadequate assessment of student computer skills, and technology accessibility can all contribute to the failure of web-based instruction and result in unmet expectations on the part of students. While educators should take full advantage of all the strengths online instruction has to offer, at the same time they have to strive hard to minimize some of its limitations.

From a student research paper on Advantages and Limitations of Web-Based Instruction

Punctuation
Reading the Assignment
Addressing the Audience
Introduction
Thesis Statement
Supporting Paragraphs
Transitions
Revision Process

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37 Writing Essay Conclusions

Studies have shown that the human brain is more likely to remember items at the beginnings and at the ends of lists, presentations, and other texts. When people recall the last thing they read or hear, that’s called the “recency effect” because they’re remembering the most recent information they’ve encountered. This is why the last thing you write is so important; it’s your final chance to make an impression on your readers.

What Is the Purpose of a Conclusion?

Conclusions have two jobs:

Clarify why your topic matters to them and the larger community (whether that be the class, their neighborhood or the whole wide world).
Suggestions for further study.
Remind readers of what you have written.

Sometimes the conclusion is called the “So what?” section of the text because it helps readers understand the significance of your subject.

Techniques to Keep Readers Thinking about the Topic at the End of a Piece

Funny enough, some of the same methods that work for the introduction also work for the conclusion. However, the formula is a little different.

A good conclusion = a call to action and/or a connection between the topic and the reader. In other words, because you’re trying to end your piece, you don’t want to start making new claims or sharing new research. Instead, you’ll want to help readers see how they relate to your subject matter. Sometimes this means suggesting that the reader do something specific. That’s a call to action. You can also end by raising questions related to your topic or by making suggestions for how this topic may develop in the future. Leaving readers with interesting ideas to think about is key to a successful conclusion.

The following are some methods and examples for concluding an essay and giving your readers a sense of closure or an idea of what you would like them to think about or do next.

Method : Make a call to action. The goal of a call to action is to prompt readers to do something.

Example : Citizens who agree that music education should be a part of all public schools in the United States can make a difference by writing their representatives, going to a school board meeting, and when a ballot initiative comes around, voting to fund music education.

Method : Ask a rhetorical question. A rhetorical question is meant to make people think, but not necessarily come to an answer. Often, the answer to rhetorical questions is clear right away, but the deeper significance needs to be pondered.

Example : Should schools in the U.S. be concerned with the kind of emotional and cognitive development that music education prompts? If we’re interested in educating the whole child, not just the most academic parts of the brain, then the answer is yes, and we have to reconsider our priorities when it comes to school funding.

Method : Share an anecdote or story that will keep the issue in the forefront of the readers’ minds. An interesting snapshot of someone’s life or story about an intriguing character will help humanize the topic and help the readers remember your message. If you used an anecdote or story in the introduction, this is an opportunity to reconnect with that at the end of your piece.

Example : Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton , says that arts education saved his life. He went to an elementary school where the sixth grade put on a famous play every year—everything from Fiddler on the Roof to The Wizard of Oz— but by the time Miranda’s class was in sixth grade, the teachers had run out of plays appropriate for children, so they had the sixth graders write their own musicals in addition to performing all the musicals from the previous years. That four-hour-long musical extravaganza was Miranda’s first experience of writing and acting in his own production (Raskauskas). The opportunity that his teachers provided him turned into a lifelong passion. All students should have that same opportunity to connect with the arts in meaningful ways.

Method : Share a quote by an expert or historical figure. Choose a quote from someone who is well known in a relevant field and who has expertise on your topic. This will lend your conclusion credibility and leave readers with something powerful to consider.

Example : As Oliver Sacks notes in his book Musicophilia , “Rhythm and its entrainment of movement (and often emotion), its power to ‘move’ people, in both senses of the word, may well have had a crucial cultural and economic function in human evolution, bringing people together, producing a sense of collectivity and community” (268). Our schools aim to foster that same sense of community, which is why music must be part of a well rounded education.

Exercise: Strong or Weak Conclusion?

One way to improve your conclusion-writing skills is to look at different choices that other writers make when concluding a topic and to consider what feels satisfying or thought-provoking to you as a reader and what doesn’t. Read the conclusions below about teenagers and decision making. Which ones pull you in? Which ones are less interesting? What’s the difference? Work with peers to decide.

Should teens be given complete freedom? Probably not, but a measured level of responsibility helps kids of all ages learn to trust themselves to make good decisions. This is especially important for teens since they will be adults very soon.
Parents who want to teach their teenagers to be responsible decision makers can start by talking to their teens regularly about the kinds of decisions their teens are being faced with and allowing teens to make decisions about anything that won’t put them in immediate danger. This may be difficult at first, but the reward will come when parents see their teens feeling more confident in the face of difficult decisions and more ready to face the adult world.
As stated above, research shows that the teenage brain isn’t fully matured, so adults should consider this when deciding how much freedom to give them.
According to the AACAP, teens are more likely to make decisions based on emotions without thinking first. This means they’re more likely to “engage in dangerous or risky behavior.” Therefore, teens need to be protected until they’re old enough to make thoughtful decisions.
Now that Rachael has been given the freedom to make some big decisions in her life, she’s more willing to talk to her parents when she needs advice or isn’t sure about something. Even though she sometimes makes mistakes, her parents trust that she will learn important lessons from those mistakes, and they help her feel supported when she experiences a failure. Raising a teenager isn’t easy, but this family has found a method that’s working for this particular teen.

Exercise: Write a Conclusion

Now that you’ve had an opportunity to think about some different approaches and techniques for writing conclusions, let’s practice. Find an entry in your journal or a draft of a piece of writing you’re working on this term and use what you’ve learned in this section to write a compelling conclusion to your piece.

If you don’t currently have a piece to work with, you can write a conclusion using one of the scenarios below. Read through the following list and choose one. Then, practice writing a concluding statement or paragraph on the topic. One to three sentences is enough.
Persuade your local school board members that the elementary school should change the way it teaches sex education.
Persuade teens to travel to a foreign country before they graduate from college.
Give some tips to new parents that will help lower their stress and make their new baby feel safe and loved.
Inform young athletes who may want to play football of the possible risks and benefits.
Review a movie, book, product, or trip for someone thinking of making one of these purchases to help them decide that they should or shouldn’t do it.

Share your conclusion with your classmates and discuss what about it is effective and how it could be improved.

See the discussion about “Writing Endings” in the “ Writing a First Draft ” section of this text for more on writing conclusions as part of your drafting process.

Text Attributions

This chapter was adapted from “ Writing Conclusions ” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence . Adapted by Allison Kilgannon.

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4.3 Glance at Genre: Conflict, Detail, and Revelation

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Identify common formats and design features used to develop a personal narrative or memoir.
Show that genre conventions are shaped by purpose, culture, and expectation.

In personal writing genres, you share experiences of your life, centering them on a specific theme or memory. Unlike an autobiography, which typically extends across an entire lifetime or at least a number of years, memoirs and personal narratives are shaped by a narrower focus, with more specific storytelling surrounding a time period or an event. When writing in these personal genres, authors seek to make an emotional connection with their audience to relate an experience, emotion, or lesson learned.

Characteristics of Memoirs and Personal Narratives

One way to approach a memoir or personal narrative is to think of it as a written series of photographs—snapshots of a period of time, moment, or sequence of events connected by a theme. In fact, writing prose snapshots is analogous to constructing and arranging a photo album composed of separate images. Photo albums, when carefully assembled from informational snapshots, tell stories with clear beginnings, middles, and endings. However, they show a lot of white space between one picture and the next, with few transitions explaining how the photographer got from one scene to another. In other words, while photo albums tell stories, they do so piecemeal, requiring viewers to fill in or imagine what happens between shots. You also might think of snapshots as individual slides in a slideshow or pictures in an exhibition—each the work of the same maker, each a different view, all connected by some logic, the whole presenting a story.

Written snapshots function in the same way as visual snapshots, each connected to the next by white space. Sometimes written snapshots can function as a series of complete and independent paragraphs, each an entire thought, without obvious connections or transitions to the preceding or following paragraph. White space between one snapshot and another gives readers breathing space, allowing them time to digest one thought before continuing to the next. It also exercises readers’ imaginations; as they participate in constructing logic that offers textual meaning, the readers themselves make connections and construct meaning. At other times, snapshots flow more directly, one after another, through chronological, circular, parallel, or other structures to move from event to event.

The secret to using snapshots successfully in your writing is to place them carefully in an order that conveys a theme and creates an unbreakable thread. And as with visual snapshots, writers must carefully choose which moments to include—and which to omit. Because they tell stories, memoirs and personal narratives share aspects of the fictional narrative genre. In writing them, you will use crafting tools to tell a vivid and purposeful story that takes into consideration your personal experience and the needs of your reader.

The Storyteller’s Dilemma: Clarity of Action

How you construct your story is as important as the story you choose to tell. Deciding on the most effective way the way to tell the story—that is, deciding what framework to use—helps you develop clarity of action to lead readers to the theme or message you seek to develop. Various components work together to bring clarity, but most often in a memoir or personal narrative, clarity comes from plot and character development. Narratives often follow a general structure called an arc to develop characters and plot and build the emotional impact of a story. Look at Figure 4.4 for an idea of what a story arc looks like.

This arc, also called a narrative arc or a plot triangle , is composed of the following elements:

The exposition sets up the narrative. It introduces characters and setting and establishes the primary conflict of the story, allowing readers to learn the who, what, when, where, and why of the events that will unfold.
Next, the rising action fully develops the conflict. This developed series of events, the longest part of the narrative, produces increasing tension that engages readers.
The climax is the turning point of the narrative, in which the story reaches its highest point of tension and conflict. It is the moment when some kind of action must be taken.
In the falling action , the conflict begins to be resolved, and the tension lessens.
Finally, during the resolution , the conflict is resolved, and the narrative ends. In memoirs and personal narratives, the resolution often includes or precedes a reflection that examines the broader implications of the theme or lessons learned. Of course, as in real life, conflicts are not always resolved, but the narrator can still reflect on the outcome of the situation.

Although many narratives and memoirs follow this plot-driven arc, narratives can also focus on character arcs. Character-driven narratives explore an individual, most often the narrator, and their development. The stories focus on creating an emotional connection between the character and the reader. Both plot and character arcs may be, and often are, present in memoirs and personal narratives.

Regardless of whether the focus is on plot or characters, conflict is synonymous with the reason for telling your story—it is the driving force. Conflict is often the main challenge faced by a character, and it urges the story along by engaging readers through tension and encouraging them to keep reading. Without conflict, your memoir or personal narrative will lack an overall theme. The major conflict is the undercurrent that drives each scene and is often developed by an inciting incident . Introduced in the exposition and developed in the rising action, this incident sets the mood of the story and engages readers. After the story’s climax, where the conflict reaches its peak, the tension gradually resolves during the falling action and moves toward resolution , during which you can explicitly or implicitly explore the theme that ties the story elements together. Sometimes the resolution is accompanied by a revelation , in which the narrator or reader understands something about the bigger picture, such as a lesson learned from the events recounted or knowledge about the general human condition. Of course, each scene or section should have its own conflict, connected in some way to the overarching message of your writing. As you write, ask yourself, What’s the conflict? By identifying the conflict explicitly, you will ensure that it remains central to your narrative.

Two important aspects of plot structure regarding time in a memoir are chronos and kairos . Chronos is the sequence of events told according to their order. This order is often chronological and linear, but not always—it can be interrupted, fragmented, circular, or otherwise out of sequence and can sometimes include flashbacks. Chronos develops themes by the telling of events. Kairos , on the other hand, is the Greek concept of timeliness. Events told through the lens of kairos are often transcendental, an argument that is made at the right time, often rooted in a cultural moment or movement.

Other important aspects of personal writing overlap with the narrative genre. Both reader engagement and plot rely largely on vivid details and sensory descriptions to move readers through the story. For more information on narrative elements that may enhance your personal narrative or memoir, revisit Literacy Narrative: Building Bridges, Bridging Gaps .

Key Terms for Memoir or Personal Narrative Writing

anecdotes : a short, interesting story or event told to demonstrate a point or amuse the audience.
Bias : the inclusion or exclusion of certain events and facts, the decisions about word choice, and the consistency of tone. All work together to convey a particular feeling or attitude. Bias comes from a specific stance or worldview and can limit a text, particularly if that bias is left unexamined.
Characters : fictional people (or other beings) created in a work of literature. The narrator of a memoir or personal narrative is the nonfiction equivalent of the main character.
Climax : the point of highest level of interest and emotional response in a narrative.
Conclusion : in narrative writing, the resolution. It is the point at which the narrator has reached a decision.
Conflict : the major challenge that the main character faces.
Doubling : a mirroring of events, objects, characters, or concepts in a memoir.
Exposition : the beginning section of a narrative that introduces the characters, setting, and plot.
Falling action : the section of the plot after the climax in which tension from the main conflict is decreased and the narrative moves toward the conclusion, or resolution.
Flashback : a scene that interrupts the chronological order of the main narrative to return to a scene from an earlier time.
Foreshadowing : hints of what is to come in the text.
Mood: the atmosphere of the text, often achieved through details, description, and setting.
Plot : the events that make up a narrative or story.
Point of view : the perspective from which a narrative is told. Memoirs and personal narratives usually use the first-person point of view, or tell the story through the eyes of the narrator.
Resolution : the point at which a story’s conflict is settled; the conclusion of a narrative.
Revelation : a discovery about a person, event, or idea that shapes the plot.
Rising action : a series of events in the plot in which tension surrounding the major conflict increases and the plot moves toward its climax.
Setting : when and where a narrative occurs. Setting is revealed through narration and details.
Theme : the underlying idea that reveals the author’s message about a narrative.
Vivid details : sensory language and detailed descriptions that help readers gain a deeper and fuller understanding of ideas and events in the narrative.
Voice : the combination of vocabulary, tone, sentence structure, dialogue, and other details that make a text authentic and engaging. Voice is the “identity” or “personality” of the writer and includes the specific English variety used by the narrator and characters.

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Russia Maps Show 25% of Moscow Without Power Amid Winter Freeze 'Emergency'

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the nationalization of an ammunition plant in Moscow after a mechanical failure caused tens of thousands of Muscovites to lose heat and water amid freezing temperatures beginning last week.

On January 4, a heating main burst at the Klimovsk Specialized Ammunition Plant in the town of Podolsk, which is around 30 miles south of central Moscow. Since then, tens of thousands of Russians are reported to have no heating in their homes in the Moscow region amid subzero temperatures.

Affected areas include the cities of Khimki, Balashikha, Lobnya, Lyubertsy, Podolsk, Chekhov, Naro-Fominsk, and Podolsk, a map published by a Russian Telegram channel and shared on other social media sites shows.

⚡️Map of European cities where people complain about the lack of heating and electricity due to the restriction of #ruZZian energy supplies 😆😆😆😆😆 pic.twitter.com/o0kldiLwiy — Aurora Borealis 🤫 (@aborealis940) January 8, 2024

Other Russian media outlets reported that in Moscow, residents of Balashikha, Elektrostal, Solnechnogorsk, Dmitrov, Domodedovo, Troitsk, Taldom, Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Krasnogorsk, Pushkino, Ramenskoye, Voskresensk, Losino-Petrovsky, and Selyatino are also without power.

That means that in total, more than a quarter of Moscow's cities have been hit with power outages and a lack of heating.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment via email.

Many residents have taken to publishing video appeals on social media to complain about their freezing conditions. In one clip, people living in Moscow say that they are left with no choice but to warm their homes with gas stoves, heaters, and "whatever else we can find." Others said they are lighting fires in the streets to keep warm.

Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region, announced on Tuesday that Putin ordered the ammunition plant to be nationalized because two of its owners have been "located abroad." He didn't name the individuals.

"We received the right to take control of this boiler house within the framework of an emergency," Vorobiev said, adding that the plant's boiler room was managed "very poorly" and there was "virtually no qualified competent personnel."

Russia's Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case over Klimovsk Specialized Ammunition Plant not meeting safety requirements.

On Tuesday, the committee said that because of the incident, the deputy head of Podolsk's administration, the head of the plant's boiler house, and the general director of the ammunition plant had been detained.

Residents of Selyatino have described the situation as "some kind of struggle for survival," Russian Telegram channel ASTRA reported.

Power outages have also struck St. Petersburg, Rostov, Volgograd, Voronezh, Primorsky Territory, and Yekaterinburg.

Do you have a tip on a world news story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about the Russia-Ukraine war? Let us know via [email protected].

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

About the writer

Isabel van Brugen is a Newsweek Reporter based in Kuala Lumpur. Her focus is reporting on the Russia-Ukraine war. Isabel joined Newsweek in 2021 and had previously worked with news outlets including the Daily Express, The Times, Harper's BAZAAR, and Grazia. She has an M.A. in Newspaper Journalism at City, University of London, and a B.A. in Russian language at Queen Mary, University of London. Languages: English, Russian

You can get in touch with Isabel by emailing [email protected] or by following her on X @isabelvanbrugen

To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy at a press conference in Odesa.

Zelenskiy calls for operational changes to Ukraine military after sacking commander

President demands ‘new level of medical support for soldiers’ as questions mount over speed of counteroffensive against Russia

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has demanded rapid changes in the operations of Ukraine’s military and announced the dismissal of the commander of its medical forces.

The Ukrainian president’s move was announced on Sunday as he met defence minister, Rustem Umerov, and coincided with debate over the conduct of the 20-month-old war against Russia , with questions over how quickly a counteroffensive in the east and south is proceeding.

“In today’s meeting with defence minister Umerov, priorities were set,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. “There is little time left to wait for results. Quick action is needed for forthcoming changes.”

Zelenskiy said he had replaced Maj Gen Tetiana Ostashchenko as commander of the medical forces.

“The task is clear, as has been repeatedly stressed in society, particularly among combat medics, we need a fundamentally new level of medical support for our soldiers,” he said.

This, he said, included a range of issues – better tourniquets, digitalisation and better communication.

Umerov acknowledged the change on the Telegram messaging app and set as top priorities digitalisation, “tactical medicine” and rotation of service personnel.

Ukraine’s military reports on what it describes as advances in recapturing occupied areas in the east and south and last week acknowledged that troops had taken control of areas on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in southern Kherson region.

Ukrainian commander in chief, Gen Valery Zaluzhny, in an essay published this month, said the war was entering a new stage of attrition and Ukraine needed more sophisticated technology to counter the Russian military.

While repeatedly saying advances will take time, Zelenskiy has denied the war is headed into a stalemate and has called on Kyiv’s western partners, mainly the United States, to maintain levels of military support.

Ostashchenko was replaced by Maj Gen Anatoliy Kazmirchuk, head of a military clinic in Kyiv.

Her dismissal came a week after a Ukrainian news outlet suggested her removal, as well as that of others, was imminent after consultations with paramedics and other officials responsible for providing support to the military.

Meanwhile on Sunday, air defence units in Moscow intercepted a drone targeting the city, mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

Sobyanin, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said units in the Elektrostal district in the capital’s east had intercepted the drone.

According to preliminary information, falling debris resulting from the operation had caused no casualties or damage, Sobyanin said.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy

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Creating Coherence (or Flow)
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It's important to consider how to emphasize the relationships not just between sentences but also between paragraphs in your essay. Here are a few strategies to help you show your readers how the main ideas of your paragraphs relate to each other and also to your thesis. Use Signposts. Signposts are words or phrases that indicate where you ...
Transitions
Transitions. Transitions help your readers move between ideas within a paragraph, between paragraphs, or between sections of your argument. When you are deciding how to transition from one idea to the next, your goal should be to help readers see how your ideas are connected—and how those ideas connect to the big picture.
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Conclusion
Conclusion. A conclusion is a call to action. It reiterates the main idea of the essay stated in the introduction, summarizes the evidence presented in the body of the essay, draws any conclusions based on that evidence, and brings a written composition to a logical close. An essay, a research paper, or a report can end with any of the following:
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Integrating Sources

Good vs. Weak Support

Breaking, Combining, or Beginning New Paragraphs

Developing Relationships Between Ideas

Why are Transitions Important?

When Is the Right Time to Build in Transitions?

Sentence-Level Transitions

A Word of Caution

Transitions between Paragraphs and Sections

Creating Coherence (or Flow)

Transitional Paragraphs

Common Transitional Words and Phrases

Using Transitions Between Paragraphs

What this handout is about

What is flow?

Coherence—global flow

Analyzing coherence

Cohesion—local flow

Known-to-new sequencing

Transitional expressions

Clear pronoun reference

This/these + summary noun

Parallel structure

Getting to the verb

Works consulted

8.3. Developing Relationships between Ideas

Transitioning

Why are Transitions Important?

When Is the Right Time to Build in Transitions?

Sentence-Level Transitions

To Show Similarity

To Show Contrast

To Exemplify

To Show Cause and Effect

To Show Additional Support

A Word of Caution

Transitions between Paragraphs and Sections

Use Signposts

Use Forward-Looking Sentences at the End of Paragraphs

Use Backward-Looking Sentences at the Beginning of Paragraphs

Evaluate Transitions for Predictability or Conspicuousness

Exercise: Try Out Some New Transition Strategies

Sentence pair #2: Effective Transition

The Writing Center @ UVa

Answer the Question: “So What?”

Create Closure

Expand the Scope

Raise Questions and Discuss Implications

Call the Reader to Action

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Northern Illinois University Effective Writing Practices Tutorial

Rule to Remember

Sample Conclusion

37 Writing Essay Conclusions

What Is the Purpose of a Conclusion?

Techniques to Keep Readers Thinking about the Topic at the End of a Piece

Text Attributions

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Russia Maps Show 25% of Moscow Without Power Amid Winter Freeze 'Emergency'

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