100 ways to improve your writing - Gary Provost 2019

Use bridge words
Nine ways to save time and energy

A bridge word is a word that is used in one paragraph and then repeated in the following transition. It shows you how the writer got from one thought to another, thus supplying you with a smooth bridge between thoughts.

We use bridge words all the time to make conversations smooth. If your friend says, “Let’s pick apples Saturday. My brother Larry lives in California,” you will feel slightly jarred. You are distracted and will want to ask, “Why are you suddenly talking about your brother?” On the other hand, if your friend says, “Let’s pick apples Saturday. My brother Larry and I used to pick apples all the time. He lives in California,” the word apples provides you with a bridge across your friend’s thoughts, and you go along easily.

Similarly, in your writing you can convince the reader of a logical connection between subjects by using good bridge words.

In High Stakes, I used the bridge word business to make a logical transition into Bill Bennett’s change in status to a serious businessman in Las Vegas.

In 1965 Del Webb hired Bennett as a casino host at the Sahara in scenic Lake Tahoe, on the California-Nevada border, for $750 a month. There Bennett’s job was to squire high rollers around town and make sure their wheels were oiled. Flights had to be met; credit had to be arranged; restaurant tables had to be reserved. High rollers are a precious and delicate commodity in the gaming business, and Webb probably slept more easily at night knowing that they had been put into the hands of a man he knew and trusted.

This was a job that required diplomacy, discretion, and great efficiency. But it was not a job that required Bill Bennett’s business sense. Still, it was a beginning, and from the beginning Bennett was convinced that he had stumbled onto a way to make more money than he had ever made in his life.