Transitions, In Life – and Writing

Transitions, In Life – and Writing January 9, 2014

Over at The High Calling, Karen Swallow Prior writes about transitions – in life, and in writing:

The lack of proper connections is, I’ve been noticing lately, the root of all kinds of trouble.

Weak or missing transitions account for the greatest problem in the writing of my advanced students. One paper in particular comes to mind. It deftly addressed heady philosophical ideas, each point brilliantly nuanced and skillfully applied to the material at hand. But these points were strung together like popcorn on a holiday garland—just one after another after another, no emphasis, no relationship established between them, no argument developed, no indication of whether the connection between ideas was sequential, illustrative, causal, conditional, continuous, comparative, or what. Just a list of bullet points without the bullets.

Sometimes life feels that way.

Read the whole thing here.


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