According to the writing assignment 1, I found many common grammar mistakes in it. One of them is in using transition signals or connecting words. I find that I make this mistake because of a habit in my home country. In my country ,that is Indonesia, I seldom speak English. Although I have taken some English tuitions for many years, I frequently speak Hokkien and bahasa Indonesia instead of English. In other words, I do not spend much time in learning English. After having done some exercise, I also find that I lack definitions of transition words. For example,I cannot differ with the usage of however and nevertheless. After consulting an English dictionary, I now do understand about a difference of the transition words. However is used for contrasting with the things that has just been said; whereas, nevertheless has a same function with however and mentions a surprising result. Other transitions words that make me confused are furthermore and indeed. I think that they have a same function;however, they have a significant difference. Furthermore is used for adding a similar idea-usually in adding a point in an argument;whereas, indeed is used for emphasizing a stronger-usually positive- statement. To sum up, in order to improve my ability in using transition words, I need to speak English quite often. Moreover, I need to check the English dictionary whenever I doubt about a definition of transition words.
Here I attach the link where I do some exercises about transition words,
part 1
part 2
I also give my answer of the exercise:
Transition words 1 - Exercise to learn English.htm
Transition words 2 - Exercise to learn English.htm
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Maybe you can read out the sentence and use the transition? It works for me sometime. The exercise you provided is really useful. =)
arghh... the font size is killing my eyes... haha...
back to the topic, transition words are very important in writing a good essay. You should try to read more and write more. We rarely use such a formal English when we talk to each other, unless you are taking part in a debate competition, public speaking or maybe giving a speech. Lastly, do not use words that you don't know the meaning, even words that you have doubt in. Trying to fit in words blindly will only make your essays looks ugly.
p/s: wow... you can speak Hokkien!! have to learn from you some day :P
all the best!!
Zheng (#.#)
Hey Harris. I have learnt 2 sets of transition after reading your blog. Thanks for interpreting it to us! I think for us who are not from english speaking background, it is tough for us to speak and write fluent english. But i think we must work harder to improve our enlish because it is essential to our future! Cheers~!
Jensen`08
I have the same grammar mistake too.I seldom use transition words in my essay because I used to write chinese essay and the transition words is not necessary for chinese language.
I agreed with Yik Zheng,The only way to improve and overcome this mistake is "to read more and write more".
Post a Comment