Using Transition Words To Keep Your Copy Flowing Smooth and Strong

[SARubin]

I call this next technique… “using transition words and phrases”.


Transition words are great for keeping our audience engaged as they move from one sentence to the next, or one paragraph to the next in our copy.

On top of that, they can also be useful for alerting your reader that you’re about to either “dig deeper” into what you’re saying, or you’re about to “smoothly flow” from one thought into a new (related) thought.


When writing copy we can’t just abruptly change focus without upsetting the flow of our readers thought process. And if we break our readers focus they’re much more like to stop reading.

And this is where transition words (or “connecting words”) earn their keep.


Rather than give you a long blog post on the topic of transition words, what do you say we just look at some examples, OK?

Below, you’ll find some of the most commonly used transitions and a few examples of each…


1. Addition or Continuation Words – use these transitions when you’re presenting another idea that flows in the same direction.

Also
In addition
Another thing
On top of that
Because of that
That’s why
Next we have (or “next there is”)



2. Contrast Words – use these transition words to show differences between ideas or a change in direction:

But
However
By contrast
On the other hand,
By comparison
Otherwise



3. Comparison Words – use these transition words to demonstrate similarities between ideas:

Likewise
Equally
Similar to
In the same way
In other words



4. Illustration Words – use these transition words to develop or clarify an idea:

For example
To illustrate
In this case
Specifically
Such as
To demonstrate
Let me explain…



5. Emphasis Words – use these transition words to suggest that an idea is particularly important:

Most important (or “most importantly”)
A key feature
Pay particular attention to
Most noteworthy
Above all
And the best part is



6. And finally we have Summary or Conclusion Words – use these transition words to signal that what follows is summarizing or finishing the previous ideas.

Summary and conclusion words are also great for people who skim your copy looking for the gist of what you’re saying. Ideally, if they like the summary they’ll go back and read the entire thing from the beginning.

To sum it up
In conclusion
And finally
P.S.
Remember



So there’s a few transition words / phrases to get you started…

There’s a bunch more where these came from, but I don’t want to hog up the entire thread. So I’ll leave it here and let anybody else chime in who wants to…


One final note: In my experience, transition words are most effective at the beginning of a sentence or paragraph, because most readers will at least finish the sentence they’re on before clicking away from your page. And transition words keep them reading, by saying “Wait, there’s more…”

Of course they can also be used in the middle or end of a sentence and still have some impact. But at the beginning is where they can give you the most impact.