Programs and Areas
First Year Writing Program
Teaching Resources: Style
Tried & True Home
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Transitions | Transition Derby | Commonly Used Transitions |
Balderdash | Sentence Structure Activity | Slang, Cliches, and Informal Language |
Another Informal Language Activity | Style Tightening Your Writing | Tailor It to the Class Needs |
All Purpose Writing Activity | Throat Clearing Phrases | Cutting the Fat | Word Choice
Transitions
Creating and Understanding Transitions
Objection: To demonstrate the importance of transitions and practice writing them.Note: You will probably want to do some in-class prep work—explain what transitions are and how they function in the body of their own essays.
Step One: Noticing Transitions
Bring in clips from television news or entertainment news shows (Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, etc.). You should probably show around 4-5 minutes of two-three different shows. As students watch the clips, have them identify all of the transitions. Afterwards, discuss their findings briefly as a group.Step Two: Creating Transitions
Bring in several sets of news articles; each set should be somewhat related. Either in groups or individually, have the students organize and create transitions between each article in their set. Here they should be drawing on the observations that they made in their discussion of the news shows.Step Three: Follow Up
It may also be helpful for students, after they’ve had some practice with the news activity, to bring to class their own drafts, exchange them and evaluate the transitions in each other’s papers.Have an idea for Tried and True? Send it to fywp@osu.edu!
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