Speech transitions are magical words and phrases that help your argument flow smoothly. They often consist of a single transition word or a short transition phrase, but occasionally form an entire sentence. In a written speech, speech transitions are generally found at the start of paragraphs.
Speech transitions smooth over the boundary between two ideas, and reveal the relationship between the words just spoken and those about to be spoken. In this way, speech transitions help your audience understand your message.
Types of speech transition words
演讲过渡语的类型
There are many types of speech transitions. Each type highlights a different verbal relationship. For example, one type of transition highlights the contrast between two different ideas.
Each of these types is cataloged below. For each type, we list just a few of the possible words and phrases. Can you think of others?
1. Transition between Similar Ideas or Points
过渡到相似的观点
Likewise …
Similarly …
This is just like …
In a similar way …
We see the same thing if we consider …
“Speech transitions smooth over the boundary between two ideas, and reveal the relationship between the words just spoken and those about to be spoken.”
2. Transition between Contrasting Ideas or Points
过渡到相反的观点
However …
Conversely …
On the contrary …
On the other side …
On the other hand …
If we flip that around …
Yet, we cannot ignore …
The opposing argument …
If we examine the opposite side, we see …
3. Transition to elaborate upon an idea
转入对观点的详细解释说明
Also …
Moreover …
In addition …
Furthermore …
In other words …
Not only that, but …
4. Transition to Numbered Ideas or Points (or Process Steps)
引出多个观点
First … (The first step is …)
Second … (The second step is …)
Third … (The third step is …)
Last … (The last step is …)
5. Transition to show Cause-Effect Relationship
因果关系转折
Therefore …
As a result …
Consequently …
For that reason …
This is important because …
6. Transition to a Supporting Example
转入支撑观点的事例
For instance …
For example …
As an example …
To illustrate this …
What’s an example of this? …
But does this happen in real life? Yes …
7. Transition to a Supporting Demonstration
转入支撑观点的演示、展示
Now that we’ve covered the theory, let’s see it in action …
To reinforce what we’ve learned, let’s see a demonstration …
I’ve prepared a demonstration to show how this works.
Let’s see a demonstration which applies what we’ve learned.
“When executed well, speech transitions help make a speech understandable.
When executed poorly, speech transitions can obscure meaning and frustrate audiences.”
8. Transition to a Supporting Quotation
转入支撑观点的引用语
X said: …
In 1968, X said: …
This idea was expressed clearly by X who said …
9. Transition from Introduction into Speech Body
从引入语过渡到演讲正题
Let’s begin …
To get started, let’s examine …
Let’s get started talking about …
Now that we’ve given an overview, let’s start with …
10. Transition from Speech Body into Conclusion
从演讲正文过渡到结束语
For a short speech, you might conclude with a single statement:
In short …
In summary …
In conclusion …
In a longer presentation, your conclusion might include a review of a the key points:
Let’s summarize the key lessons …
Let’s recap what we’ve covered today …
11. Transition to Another Speaker
一个讲者过渡到另一个讲者
In a team presentation, it is necessary to transfer control between speakers.
The abrupt way to do this is to simply have one person stop talking, and then have the other person start talking. It is much smoother, however, to pass the verbal baton to the next speaker (X):
To talk about our next topic, we have X …
I’ll pass the microphone to X who will describe …
To guide us through a demonstration of this, we have X …
12. Transition Back to an Earlier Point
转回之前的观点
There are many occasions when you need to jump back to an earlier idea to add additional information. e.g. after a break, following an exercise, or returning from an unplanned interruption
Let’s return …
Let’s revisit …
Let’s go back to …
We introduced X earlier; let’s explore that further now.
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