Real Grammar - Susan Conrad, Douglas Biber 2009

Positions of Transitions
Unit 30 It would thus appear that…

What have you learned from your grammar textbook?

Transitions such as therefore have several possible positions in a sentence. (In contrast, conjunctions such as and must be placed between two clauses.)

• It’s raining. Therefore, the picnic is cancelled. • It’s raining, and the picnic is cancelled.

• It’s raining. The picnic is cancelled, therefore.

• It’s raining. The picnic, therefore, is cancelled.

What does the corpus show?

A

Although there are several possible positions for transitions, they are not used equally and they have slightly different effects. Individual writers often have different preferences for the placement of transitions, but the following general rules apply for the most common positions in academic writing.

B

Be careful! It is uncommon for transitions to be placed at the end of the sentence, even when they are grammatical there.

• When a particularly close rapport develops between a human and an animal, such that the animal will follow its owner through the forest, the animal is called a batiti, “pet.” One must still not talk to the pet in human language, however.

Activities

1 Notice in context: Read these excerpts from academic writing. Circle the transitions.

1. A wide range of personal preferences in children ages five to eleven made it impossible to serve an absolutely standardized breakfast. Most children, however, had breakfast cereal with milk, with the addition, or substitution, of buttered toast.

2. Teachers are likely to be required to engage in one-to-one dialogue with individual pupils as the basis for reviewing academic progress. Teachers are thus faced with increasingly divergent pressures.

3. It was found that young learners who study spoken Arabic mentioned that knowledge of Arabic contributes to achieving peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. It seems, therefore, that the teaching of spoken Arabic in grades 4 to 6 helped to improve attitudes towards the other group, its language, culture, and speakers.

4. Today, most of us own machines which translate information from one form to another. For example, a tape recorder can translate sound into patterns of magnetization on a tape.

2 Analyze discourse: Look back at Activity 1 and at the transitions you circled. For each transition, tell its position and give one or more reasons why that position is effective.

1. Position: ...

2. Position: ...

3. Position: ...

4. Position: ...

Reason(s): ...

Reason(s): ...

Reason(s): ...

Reason(s): ...

3 Practice writing: Rewrite the second sentence in each pair to show its relationship to the first sentence by adding a transition. Choose from the most common transitions listed in Unit 29. Use each of the four most common positions in academic writing, deciding which sentence is best for each position. Be ready to explain your choices to a partner.

1. Helen’s personality does not seem to have altered since her move into shared housing. Elizabeth has changed significantly.

2. Congress lacks power to regulate education directly, yet it does have the power to grant money to support education.

By attaching conditions to its grants of money, Congress may regulate what it cannot directly control.

3. As defined in physics, a force can be exerted on an object and yet do no work.

If you hold a heavy bag of groceries in your hands at rest, you do no work on it.

4. This teaching approach is based on the experiences and viewpoints of students rather than on an imposed culture.

It is multicultural.

4 Practice writing: Follow these instructions to create sentences that use the indicated transition in an effective and appropriate way.

1. Write two sentences that have a contrasting meaning. Use however immediately after the subject.

2. Write two sentences, with the second sentence expressing a result of the first sentence. Use thus immediately after the verb be in the second sentence.

3. Write two sentences, with the second sentence expressing a result of the first sentence. Use an “expletive it” and therefore in the second sentence.

4. Write two sentences that have a related meaning. Introduce the second sentence with the appropriate transition of your choice.