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  • Hi, welcome back to EngVid.com, I'm Adam.

  • Today's lesson, we're going to look at writing skills.

  • More specifically, we're going to look at transitions.

  • Now again, before I begin, let me tell you IELTS and TOEFL students out there: Transitions are very, very important for you, for the essay section of the test.

  • Big points if you use them correctly, few points if you don't use them, or use them incorrectly.

  • Anyway, let's get into what transitions are, and look at a few specific ones.

  • What is a transition?

  • A transition means a change from one idea to another idea.

  • Now, there are many transitions in English.

  • We use transitions to add information, we use transitions to show a contrast—"although," "however," etc.

  • We use transitions to show conditions—"if," "unless."

  • We use transitions to get to a conclusion, "therefore", "thus," okay.

  • Lots of transitions, very important, because they can join ideas within a sentence, but even more so, they can join two paragraphs.

  • So what they do really, is they create flow.

  • Flow is very important for writing, okay.

  • Flow makes it easier for the reader to follow what you're saying, and it makes it a little bit more interesting, as well, okay.

  • So, to "transition" basically means to bridge.

  • You have two ideas you're connecting, you're creating a bridge from one idea to the next, okay.

  • Today, we're going to look specifically at "in addition", "in addition to", "furthermore", "moreover", and "another... something," okay.

  • These are very, very important transitions, because they help you add ideas, one idea to another.

  • Again, very, very important for TOEFL and IELTS, because you're always going to be adding ideas to one topic.

  • I'll get to that in a minute.

  • The most important thing to remember here, and where people I find make the most common mistakes.

  • And believe me—I have marked hundreds of essays for TOEFL and IELTS.

  • Very, very common mistake.

  • And what people forget, this basically means "plus"—you're adding, you're adding two things.

  • And you're always adding... you're always adding at least one idea to another idea, so you will always have two ideas if you're using these transitions, okay.

  • So one of the most common mistakes I have seen on these essays is that people use these words, but they only have one idea.

  • So I'm the reader, and I'm reading, reading, reading, and I see, "Furthermore...".

  • I'm going, "furthermore what?

  • What are you adding to, what are you adding, at all?

  • Then I look around, and I only see one idea.

  • If I am the IELTS grader, and I'm reading your essay, you just lost at least one band because of that.

  • Why? Because you made me stop; you made me search for that second idea that is not there, okay.

  • Be very careful about that.

  • If you're going to use these words there must be two ideas.

  • They must be linked, they must have something similar between them, and they must be pretty close to each other, okay

  • "In addition to", "furthermore", and "moreover"—these are all pretty much the same.

  • This one is probably the most formal, this one is next most, and this is the most common.

  • Now, if you're going to write a short essay, usually two of these will be enough.

  • Why do you need to know how to use two?

  • Because you don't want to repeat.

  • You don't want to say "in addition", and give your idea, "in addition", give another idea, "in addition", give another idea.

  • You don't want to do that.

  • You want vocabulary variety, so use at least two.

  • For a longer essay, you can use all three, or four as the case may be, okay.

  • What's interesting about these, you can use all of these mid-sentence or to join paragraphs, okay.

  • Very important that you use them correctly, though.

  • So let's look at some examples on how to use these.

  • Okay, so first we're going to look at a sentence with the transition working inside it, okay.

  • "His laziness caused the company to perform badly last quarter. Moreover, his attitude toward the board has put his job in jeopardy."

  • Okay, so first, let's look at what's going on herewhat are we talking about?

  • We're talking about the person's laziness.

  • What are we adding to this?

  • Remember, here I put "moreover."

  • I could put "furthermore". I can also put "in addition," but all three would be okay.

  • We're talking about his lazinesswhat are we adding to it?

  • Look at the second sentence.

  • What are the two things we are adding together to get the two whole ideas?

  • Okay, if you said attitude, you're correct.

  • Laziness and attitudethese are both qualities of this person.

  • His laziness and his attitude caused the company to do badly, and put his job in jeopardy.

  • I could rearrange these two sentences into one, but I don't want to.

  • I wanted to have this idea, because this is adding to this.

  • So, I have one idea, I have another idea, but they're very much connected, okay.

  • We used a word like this "moreover", "furthermore", "in addition," okay?

  • All of these... all of these are about the same topic.

  • Now, when we talk about an essay, when we're joining paragraph to paragraph, you have to be very careful.

  • The last idea has to join to the first idea of the next paragraph using one of these transition words, okay.

  • Let's look at that now.

  • Okay, so now let's look at an essay, and you're joining two paragraphs, for example.

  • My topic here... general topic is the Internet.

  • What I want to say is that the Internet is a good thingvery, very generally.

  • I'm going to use two reasons.

  • I'm going to talk about two reasons, and I'm going to use basically one example.

  • The reason it's good is because it helps connect families and friends.

  • This was my paragraph before, and this is the last sentence of my paragraph, my body paragraph.

  • "So"—conclusion—"the Internet not only helps connect your friends and family anywhere in the world, it also makes it cheap to do so, alright.

  • So that's one good thing about the internet: communication, networking, social media, etc. the Facebook... all that.

  • Now, I want to go to my next paragraph, and I want to add to this idea, the idea of connection, okay, the idea of communication, as why the Internet is a good thing, so...

  • "In addition to friends and family...", or "moreover/furthermore..."

  • "...the Internet provides companies with a larger network, or a larger pool of prospective employees."

  • So, I'm still talking about the same thingconnections, networksbut I went from "personal idea" to "business idea," but still within the topic of the internet, still for the reason of communication and networking.

  • I went with one idea, and the other idea working together for the overall idea, okay.

  • I hope this makes sense to you, because it's a little bit complicated.

  • Any topic you take, any essay you write, where you're using one example, or two reasons with one example, to work together, to support an opinion about a general topic...

  • ...you can use these: "in addition to," "moreover," "furthermore."

  • Let's say you're taking the IELTS, the TOEFL tests, you're writing your essay.

  • You're running out of time, you're not thinking properly, you're a little bit frazzled.

  • You need a transition wordalways use "another."

  • For example: "Another reason the Internet is good, is because it provides companies... " this is your go-to transition, okay.

  • When you're stuck, you have nothing else, you want to switch to the next idea, always use "another reason".

  • But remember, this is not your first choice, this is your last choice.

  • These are your first choice when you want to add an idea, okay.

  • But, always good to have this in your back pocket, in case you get stuck, you pull it out.

  • Ace of spades, etcyou're a winner, right?

  • Lots of examples on www.engvid.com , on the quizgo check it out.

  • Also, don't forget to subscribe to my channel on YouTube.

  • And I will see you again soon for more lessons, thanks!

Hi, welcome back to EngVid.com, I'm Adam.

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