It’s time to spill the tea: can you guess what topic trips up almost all of my SAT and ACT tutoring clients (who are smart and motivated kids!) when they sit down in my office for the first time? Transitions.
By “transitions,” I mean words and short phrases like “similarly,” “nonetheless,” “however,” and “since” that help signpost for the reader how certain sentences in a passage relate to each other. Now, not every sentence needs a transition word or phrase to be complete and grammatical…but, some well-placed transitions DO help ENORMOUSLY as a reader makes their way through a piece of writing!
You might be wondering: why am I, a test prep expert, dedicating a whole blog post to this topic? Well, because both the ACT English section and the Digital SAT Reading and Writing section test this concept quite a bit. Meaning: whichever test you’re taking, it’s worth investing some time in this subject. (If you want to get a high score, that is!)
ARTICLE CONTENTS
1. Types of Transition Word on the Digital SAT and ACT
Digital SAT and ACT Transition Word Categories
When we talk about transition words, there are three main umbrella categories:
I) Words that Continue
II) Words that Contrast, and
III) Words that show Cause-and-Effect.
Each of these three categories can be further subdivided according to specific function. For your ease of reading, I’m listing all the words from each category below. Please note, however, that there are still differences between them:
You will notice that some words have commas after them. That means that they are what I call “hard transition words,” which act like extra information in a sentence. Hard transition words—aka “adverbs”—don’t change whether the clause is considered complete or dependent. Instead, they simply add commentary.
Other transition words don’t have a comma after them, like FANBOYS words. These do change the clause! They determine whether the clause is complete or dependent. I think of this type as “soft transition words.”
Furthermore, some transition words require certain verb forms, like using an “-ing” verb. These will be noted below.
I. CONTINUE words.
A) Words that add a piece of information to the same subject you were already discussing:
(ex: My pencil is six inches long. Additionally, it’s mustard yellow.)
Additionally,
Also,
And [FANBOYS]
Furthermore,
In addition,
Moreover,
B) Words that show how two things are similar:
(ex: My pencil is mustard yellow. Likewise, my ruler is mustard yellow.)
Likewise,
Similarly,
C) Words that PROVIDE a specific example OF something you just said:
(ex: Many office supplies these days are mustard yellow. For example, my pencil and ruler are both this color.)
For example,
For instance,
Specifically,
D) Words that clarify or explain something you just said:
(ex: In our capitalist and increasingly visual society, office supply companies are catering to the demands of the public by creating aesthetically-pleasing models of previously ugly or boring items. In other words, they are selling yellow and pink rulers and pencils instead of the dull gray or basic wooden versions of old.)
Effectively,
Essentially,
In other words,
That is,
E) Words that emphasize something you just said:
(ex: Office supply companies are more concerned with appealing to as broad an audience as possible. In fact, they seem to think it’s more important to make pencils available in every color than to ensure that the pencils actually write well!)
In fact,
Indeed,
II. CONTRAST words.
A) Words that show how two ideas contradict or go against ONE other:
Alternatively,
Although
But [FANBOYS]
Conversely,
Despite [+“ing” verb]
Even so,
However,
In any case,
In spite of [+”ing” verb]
Instead,
Meanwhile,
Nevertheless,
Nonetheless,
Otherwise,
Rather,
Regardless,
Still,
Though
Whereas
While
Yet [FANBOYS]
To recap: Hard transitions are separated by commas and do not impact the clause’s completeness. Soft transitions are NOT separated by commas and (like magic) they turn complete clauses into dependent ones!
Example 1 with hard transition, which maintains two complete clauses and is separated by a comma from the surrounding word(s): She was hungry. However, she didn’t eat the cupcake.
Example 2 with soft transition that creates a dependent clause and is not separated by a comma from the subsequent word: Despite being hungry, she didn’t eat the cupcake.
B) Words that show how two things or people are different from each other:
Alternately,
Alternatively,
By contrast,
In contrast,
On the contrary,
On the other hand,
III. CAUSE-AND-EFFECT words.
A) Words that come before the reason/cause:
(Ex: Because she was so hungry, she ate an entire tray of cupcakes.)
Because
For [FANBOYS]
Since
B) Words that indicate the result/effect:
(Ex: She was quite hungry. Therefore, she ate an entire tray of cupcakes.)
Accordingly,
As a result,
As such,
Consequently,
Hence,
So [FANBOYS]
Thus,
Therefore,
To these ends,
...Got it?
Man…that’s a heck of a lot of transition words!
But I promise you: it’ll pay off to learn how to use ALL of them. I say this because you can then use these categories and subcategories in two very important ways that grab you extra points on your SAT or ACT: consult my two tried-and-true strategies for answering transition word questions!
And if you’re looking for BUCKETS of other hacks for upping your grammar skills and gaining lots of SAT/ACT points, look no further:
My ACT Grammar Cram Plan is a self-study guide that brings you through all of the grammar and rhetorical strategy content you’ll need to ace your ACT English section.
And, obvi, I offer a Digital SAT Grammar edition, too!
