1. USING SEQUENCE WORDS AND TRANSITION WORDS

2. FLUENCY IN WRITING Just like a river is always flowing from one place to another, your writing needs to FLOW. Instead of being made from water, your writing is made from WORDS. Your words, and the sentences they make, need to help your ideas & information flow from one to another.

3. Every river is different, as is every piece of writing. The pace may be fast or slow or a combination of the two. Some pieces will have a speedy, almost frenetic, pace and others will meander, taking the reader through many emotional turns.

4. But no matter what the pace or topic, a writer’s goal is to create FLUENCY – A NATURAL FLOW FROM IDEA TO IDEA, SENTENCE TO SENTENCE.

5. Sequence & Transition Words act as STEPPING STONES for your reader, to clearly lead them from one thought to another in logical order

6. BUILD BRIDGES for your reader between paragraphs – don’t leave your reader hanging, asking, “Huh? How did I get here?”

7. PRACTICE BRIDGE BUILDING 1.With your partner, write two paragraphs with a BRIDGE connecting one paragraph to the next. 2.The first paragraph should describe a character standing on the steps of a haunted house at midnight on Halloween. 3.The second paragraph should describe the character being INSIDE the house, after entering through the front door. 4.CONNECT THE TWO PARAGRAPHS WITH A BRIDGE BETWEEN THE TWO.