Why are bridge sentences important in essays?

Where should a bridge sentence be placed in an essay?

Note how the evidence about Gulliver's welcome by his wife is introduced; the author tells the reader what to look for in the evidence — Gulliver's loss of touch with human feelings, values, and priorities — before presenting it. This makes the paper easier to read because the reader is able to assess the adequacy of the evidence while reading it. In addition, the author is careful to present all of the necessary evidence — both the wife's welcome and Gulliver's reaction — before moving on to analysis. Note, in the use of phrases like "odious Animal," how the author is careful to reproduce the specific pieces of Swift's language that will be relevant for his later analysis.

The paragraph's opening sentence clearly establishes the claim that will be argued throughout: that Swift undercuts Gulliver's rejection of humanity by using his authorial power to turn the hero of his novel into a comical figure of pity. This topic sentence reproduces the tension at the heart of the essay's thesis that "there is an ironic disconnect between Swift as author and Gulliver as narrator and critic of humankind." The topic sentence also forges a subtle transition. The reference to "Gulliver's negative view of humankind" refers back to the central claim of the previous paragraph.

sentences that occur after the grabber / opener and lead the reader into the thesis. They provide a bridge from your directive, quote, rhetorical question, short narrative grabber / opener to the thesis. They usually fill in background information about the author, text, and subject matter.

Can using too many bridge sentences be detrimental to essay writing?

Evidence alone does not make your argument for you. Evidence requires analysis to make it relevant to an argument. Analyzing effectively requires showing or explaining how the evidence you have cited actually supports the larger claims your essay is making, both on the paragraph level and the thesis level. Because analytical sections are the places where your essay does real argumentative work, they should constitute the bulk of your paragraph (and essay).

Transitions are verbal bridges that use language to make the logical movement and structure of an essay clear to the reader. The topic sentence will often contain a transition that links the argument of the paragraph to the one made in the previous paragraph. This is most often accomplished by opening the paragraph with a prepositional phrase or by retaining some important language from the previous paragraph. The final sentence of a paragraph may also suggest a logical link to the argument to come. Transitions do not always link adjacent paragraphs. Good writers will refer back to relevant points made several paragraphs earlier. Especially long or complex papers will often contain several sentences (even entire paragraphs) of transitional material summarizing what the essay has sought to establish up to that point.

The first sentence in a paragraph should clearly announce the thesis of the paragraph (i.e., its direction), the claim that will be supported by the content of the paragraph. Effective topic sentences will often link this local claim back to the overall thesis of the essay.

It is useful to envision body paragraphs as links in the chain of reasoning that forms the overall argument of your essay. In order to get to the next link, each paragraph must establish a claim that moves your overall argument one step closer to its ultimate goal (i.e., proving its thesis). Though the topic sentence will announce your paragraph’s direction, the movement of your analysis within the paragraph will consist of pushing this claim from being unproven at the outset of the paragraph to logically compelling at the end.

And what’s worse is they seem to be getting away with it.

In a 300-500 word short essay, discuss whether you believe the Horizon Pharmaceutical Company is justified in selling the drug Vimovo at the price that they do.

A good, conversational, initial bridge can help with all of this.

Keep in mind that these bridges do not require you to open a separate bridge writing frame because they are selected from the sentence starters that are accessed from the Type of essay: The prompt:

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Write a Bridge in an Essay

This will cause a bridge writing frame to appear and you can write as much as you would like in the box (although we recommend that you keep your bridges to one or two sentences). Â

What is a bridge sentence? What are some examples? - Quora

The words you use in your bridge sentences help define the relationship between the paragraphs or ideas you seek to connect. Words such as "consequentially," "therefore" or "accordingly" demonstrate a cause-effect relationship. Words like "whereas," "although" or "nevertheless" establish a contrast between concepts, while "furthermore," "in addition" or "similarly" help you further expand an idea.

What is the purpose of the bridge in an essay

Bridge sentences resemble topic sentences in the essay structure. They clue in the reader to what the article just mentioned and what will come up next, and how the two topics relate to each other. Expository essays -- the most common essay assigned to students -- inform the reader or give an explanation of a topic based on fact. Persuasive or argumentative essays aim to convince the reader to agree with your point of view by addressing both sides of an argument and refuting the opposition, often in a bridge statement. All essay types make use of bridge statements. For instance, bridge statements in expository essays build a foundation of knowledge by slowly adding on to what has already been presented. Persuasive essays may use bridge statements to introduce a counter argument to hold the reader's attention.

How do I bridge my analysis and evidence together in my essay?

Instead of starting with a topic sentence for each paragraph, the writer uses a bridge to make a smooth transition into a new paragraph. Also called a transition idea or transition sentence, it usually discusses the previous point and how it ties in to the new point. The goal is to weave words and ideas together to create a seamless rhetorical tapestry. Your essay should not be a patchwork quilt of jumbled ideas. Bridge sentences provide the chain link between one concept and the next.