Transitional Devices

How do you develop your one theme in four paragraphs of intro, education, professional experience and in your asking for an interview?

Transitional devices can reallly help you focus and bring out the theme of your letter:

1. Transitional sentences: use the last sentence of one paragraph to connect ideas that you will explore in the next sentence (see page 393, end of paragraph 1, for example).

• Open-ended
• Introduce or repeat phrases that you will develop in next paragraph

2. Transitional Words and Phrases:

• Visit U. of Richmond's site for a good example.
• Also, Purdue's OWL website is the most infamous site for grammar help.

As You Consider your Cover Letter:

• Which transitional phrases will help you structure your letter
• What is your theme, and in which ways will you develop it through education and work experience?