Transition words have important roles as "bridges" to guide the reader through the text and ideas when you write persuasive text. Especially in analysis (and argument) transition terms often serve as the glue to hold your description of evidence (the "what") or the process under which a situation or action occurred (the "how") to your thesis (the "why").

In our daily conversations, we assert our opinions. Then we often just list the evidence intended to support the assertion. But we don't always tell why the evidence supports our assertion. We expect our listeners to make the connection for us. And, sometimes, if they don't make the connection, we supply more evidence rather than making the link between the evidence and our assertion.

Suppose that a friend remarks that many elderly Americans don't have enough money to live on. He then says that social Security income doesn't match their expenses, and they haven 't saved enough money for their retirement. The initial statement as well as the two additional points are descriptive. Your friend may mean that low social Security payments and inadequate savings are "the causes" of poverty among the elderly but hasn't said so. And once your friend actually makes that connection, there's a big job ahead: proving the claim.

To develop an analytical thesis and support for it, you must think deeply to the root causes of elderly people's impoverishment. Ask yourself WHY they 're poor. Do the inadequacies of social programs cause poverty? Is inflation at the root of the problem? What about health care costs? Perhaps you want to say that because the rate of inflation is higher than the elderly person's pension increase, real monthly income has decreased. And because that income has decreased, the elderly person has a harder time making ends meet than when the pension increase and the rate of inflation were equal. (Notice that you've now changed the initial statement slightly; perhaps you will want to revise your thesis-or reconsider your evidence in order to prove the original.)

When you write your analytical essay, you will want to provide the analytical link, the connection between WHAT the evidence is and WHY it validates your thesis. The terms below can help you make those critical connections.

• hence

• since

• whereas

• so...that

• because

• if...then

• since... therefore

• thus

• for

• in conclusion

• as a result

• as has been shown, or as we have seen