Patterns and Transitions

All patterns of organization have related transitional words and phrases.  Writers use these transitions to connect and relate ideas, sentences, and paragraphs.  Some transitions have multiple uses as they may appear in more than one pattern.

When reading paragraphs, first pay attention to the key term in the topic sentence then look at the transitions throughout the paragraph that lead to the major details to determine the pattern.

To determine the relationship within a sentence, find where the sentence breaks into parts (usually after the punctuation).  Then look for transitional words (clue words for the pattern) at the beginning of one of the parts.  Sometimes, sentences do not have transitions; therefore, ask yourself, What is the relationship between the two sentences?

The relationship between sentences can be found by looking to see if the second sentence has a transition.  A good question to ask is Why did the author write the second sentence?  (To show an effect or cause? An example? To add more details?)