Cohesion Exercise Using Transitional Words and Phrases

This exercise will give you an opportunity to apply the techniques discussed in the article Cohesion Strategies: Transitional Words and Phrases. If you havent practiced sentence combining before, you may also find it helpful to review Introduction to Sentence Combining. Exercise Combine the sentences in each set into two clear and concise sentences, eliminating any needless repetition. As you do so, add a transitional word or phrase (in italics at the head of each set) to the beginning of the second sentence to show how it relates to the first. After you have completed the exercise, compare your sentences with the originals. Keep in mind that many combinations are possible, and in some cases, you may prefer your own sentences to the original versions. InsteadRetirement should be the reward for a lifetime of work.It is widely viewed as a sort of punishment.It is a punishment for growing old.ThereforeIn recent years viruses have been shown to cause cancer in chickens.Viruses have also been shown to cause cancer in mice, cats, and even in some primates.Viruses might cause cancer in humans.This is a reasonable hypothesis.In factWe do not seek solitude.If we find ourselves alone for once, we flick a switch.We invite the whole world in.The world comes in through the television screen.On the contraryWe were not irresponsible.Each of us should do something.This thing would be of genuine usefulness to the world.We were trained to think that.HoweverLittle girls, of course, dont take toy guns out of their hip pockets.They do not say Pow, pow to all their neighbors and friends.The average well-adjusted little boy does this.If we gave little girls the six-shooters, we would soon have double the pretend body count.NextWe drove the wagon close t o a corner post.We twisted the end of the wire around it.We twisted the wire one foot above the ground.We stapled it fast.We drove along the line of posts.We drove for about 200 yards.We unreeled the wire on the ground behind us.IndeedWe know very little about pain.What we dont know makes it hurt all the more.There is ignorance about pain.No form of illiteracy in the United States is so widespread.No form of illiteracy in the United States is so costly.MoreoverMany of our street girls can be as vicious as any corporation president.Many of our street girls can be as money mad as any corporation president.They can be less emotional than men.They can be less emotional in conducting acts of personal violence.For this reasonThe historical sciences have made us very conscious of our past.They have made us conscious of the world as a machine.The machine generates successive events out of foregoing ones.Some scholars tend to look totally backward.They look backward in their interpretation o f the human future.HoweverRewriting is something that most writers find they have to do.They rewrite to discover what they have to say.They rewrite to discover how to say it.There are a few writers who do little formal rewriting.They have the capacity and experience.They create and review a large number of invisible drafts.They create and review in their minds.They do this before they approach the page. After you have completed the ten sets compare your sentences  with the originals below. Keep in mind that many effective combinations are possible, and in some  cases, you may prefer your own sentences to the original versions. Retirement should be the reward for a lifetime of work.   Instead, it is widely viewed as a sort of punishment for growing old.(Carll Tucker)In recent years viruses have been shown to cause cancer not only in chickens but also in mice, cats, and even in some primates.  Therefore, it is a reasonable hypothesis that viruses might cause cancer in humans.We do not seek solitude.  In fact, if we find ourselves alone for once, we flick a switch and invite the whole world in through the television screen.(Eugene Raskin, Walls and Barriers)We were not irresponsible.  On the contrary, we were trained to think that each of us should do something that would be of genuine usefulness to the world.(Lillian Smith,  Killers of the Dream)Little girls, of course, dont take toy guns out of their hip pockets and say Pow, pow to all their neighbors and friends like average well-adjusted little boys.  However, if we gave little girls the six-shooters, we would soon have double the pretend body count.(Anne Roiphe, Confessions of a Female Chauvinist Sow)We drove the wagon close to a corner post, twisted the end of the wire around it one foot above the ground, and stapled it fast.  Next, we drove along the line of posts for about 200 yards, unreeling the wire on the ground behind us.(John Fischer, Barbed Wire)We know very little about pain and what we dont know makes it hurt all the more.  Indeed, no form of illiteracy in the United States is so widespread or costly as ignorance about pain.(Norman Cousins, Pain Is Not the Ultimate Enemy)Many of our street girls can be as vicious and money mad as any corporation president.  Moreover, they can be less emotional than men in conducting acts of personal violence.(Gail Sheehy, $70,000 a Year,  Tax Free)The historical sciences have made us very conscious of our past, and of the world as a machine generating successive events out of foregoing ones.  For this reason, some scholars tend to look totally backward in their int erpretation of the human future.(Loren Eiseley,  The Unexpected Universe)Rewriting is something that most writers find they have to do to discover what they have to say and how to say it. There are,  however, a few writers who do little formal rewriting because they have the capacity and experience to create and review a large number of invisible drafts in their minds before they approach the page.(Donald M. Murray, The Makers Eye: Revising Your Own  Manuscripts)