26 Part 1 IWritingaParagraph
Paragraph 2
Onedifferenceamongtheworld'sseasandoceansis thatthesalinityvaries
indifferentclimatezones.Forexample,theBalticSeainnorthernEuropeis
onlyone-fourthassalineastheRedSeaintheMiddleEast.Therearetwo
reasonsforthis.Firstofall,inwarmclimatezones,waterevaporatesrapidly;
therefore,theconcentrationofsaltis greater.Second,thesurroundinglandis
dry;consequently,it doesnotcontributemuchfreshwatertodilutethesalty
seawater.Incoldclimatezones,ontheotherhand,waterevaporatesslowly.
Furthermore,therunoffcreatedbymeltingsnowaddsa considerableamount
offreshwatertodilutethesalineseawater.Paragraph2 is morecoherentbecauseit containstransitions~gnals.Eachtransi-
tionsignalhasa specialmeaning;eachshowshowthefollowin~sentencerelatesto
theprecedingone. )
Forexampletellsyouthatanexampleoftheprecedingid~aiscoming.
Twotellsyoutolookfortwodifferentreasons. Ii
Firstofalltellsyouthatthisisthefirstreason. /
Secondandfurthennoreindicatethatadditionalideasarecoming.
Thereforeandconsequentlyindicatethatthesecondstatementisa resultofthe
firststatement.
Ontheotherhandtellsyouthatanoppositeideaiscoming.Therearedifferentkindsoftransitionsignals.Someofthemarelistedinthechart
onpage27.Youwillfinda morecompletelistinAppendixC,pages297-299.
Eachgrouphasdifferentrulesforpositionina sentenceandpunctuation.TransitionWordsandPhrasesandConjunctiveA.dverbs
Mostwordsandphrasesinthefirsttwocolumnsofthe chartcanappearatthe
beginning,inthemiddle,orattheendofoneindependentclauselandareusually
separatedbycommas.Forexample,theBalticSeainnorthernEuropeis onlyone-fourthassalineas
theRedSeaintheMiddleEast.
Therunoffcreatedbymeltingsnow,furthermore,addsa considerableamount
offreshwatertodilutethesalineseawater.TheMediterraneanSeais moresalinethantheRedSea,however.EXCEPTIONS
1.Thewordsandphrasesinthelastfourgroupsinthechart(forlistingideas
andtimesequences,foremphasizing,forgivingreasons,andfor
conclusions)usuallyappearonlyatthebeginningofa sentence,notin
themiddleorattheend.- Toousuallyappearsonlyattheendofa sentence,sometimesprecededbya
comma.
3.Theshorttimewordsthen,now,andsoonusuallydonotneedcommas.
lindependentclause:groupofwordscontaininga subjectanda verbthatexpressesa completethought