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ELA 6: Use the Teacher Voice 38 Views
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Description:
Everybody loves a good transition word. Additionally, everybody can tell when you're just trying to throw in transition words to sound fancy.
Transcript
- 00:02
Sometimes, people get lost.
- 00:04
Like that one time we were hiking in the woods and got super lost for ages. By the time we [Footage of someone running through woodland]
- 00:09
were finally found, we were naked, eating bark, and leading a small colony of squirrels [Naked man in front of a colony of squirrels]
- 00:14
to greatness.
- 00:15
…It was a strange forty minutes.
Full Transcript
- 00:17
But seriously, who made these trees look so similar, anyway? A few bright pink ones with
- 00:22
directional arrows wouldn't hurt… [Pink trees appear in a forest]
- 00:24
Anyway, people don't just get lost outside: they can get lost in a piece of writing, too. [Man falling into a book]
- 00:30
So how can we avoid that problem? Simple. Leave a trail of breadcrumbs throughout your [Boy studying with breadcrumbs all over his work]
- 00:34
paper.
- 00:35
…Or just use some transition words.
- 00:38
Transition words are words that signal the relationship between different parts of a
- 00:42
text, and help the reader make sense of how the different bits relate to each other.
- 00:46
We don't want the folks reading our work to feel like they're caught in an idea tornado. [Man looking confused as words fly around]
- 00:51
Though on the bright side, there are probably less cows inside of a idea tornado… [Man stuck in a tornado]
- 00:56
There are different transition words for different tasks. Some transition words show the order,
- 01:01
or sequence of thoughts.
- 01:03
These are words like "first," "second," "next," "finally," "previously," and "subsequently."
- 01:08
So let's say we wanted to tell someone how to make mud. Sure, we could say, "dirt, water, [Man writing on a blackboard]
- 01:15
mix."
- 01:16
Or, we could use some transition words to liven things up. [Woman dancing in a club]
- 01:20
Like…"first, grab some dirt. Next, get a pail of water. Finally, mix them together."
- 01:26
See? That sentence sparkles. [Sparkle appears on the writing]
- 01:28
The mud, not so much. We also use transition words to move between
- 01:32
similar thoughts or ideas.
- 01:34
These are words like "also," "similarly," "additionally," and "furthermore," which help
- 01:39
similar ideas get super cuddly.
- 01:41
Ugh…so obnoxious. [White rabbit]
- 01:43
So if we happened to have two sentences lying around that both touched on facts about nocturnal
- 01:48
animals…
- 01:49
…we could smoosh them even closer together with a transition word like "additionally."
- 01:52
Oh, but fair warning: these transition words won't help you see nocturnal animals. For [Spotlight on an owl]
- 01:58
that, we recommend a flashlight. There are also transition words that help
- 02:02
us move between contrasting thoughts or ideas.
- 02:06
Words like… "but," "however," "whereas," "in contrast," and "while," which all basically
- 02:11
say: "Hey, these things? These things are different." [An ugly blob and an otter]
- 02:15
So if you find yourself writing about two people who are very different, say….someone
- 02:19
loves birds, and someone who's terrified of 'em… [Woman holding a bird on her hand and a man looking scared]
- 02:23
…why not mark that difference with a transition word?
- 02:26
And why not, oh, we dunno….send them bird watching?
- 02:30
…What? We like watching people sob in the fetal position. [Man curled up terrified on the floor as a bird flies around]
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