Assuming you're writing formal, five-paragraph essays in high school or essays for college admissions, your transition sentences are important.
For the most part, your paper will probably be about something that happened in your life, which means you'll be introducing the main point of your paper in the first paragraph.
After that, every paragraph will be about a different sub-point that supports the main point. The transition sentences are important because they act like little road signs that tell the reader where they're going and why they're going there.
A good transition sentence will:
1. Introduce the main point of the paragraph
2. Connect that point to the overall thesis of the paper
3. Give the reader a "road map" of what's to come in the rest of the paragraph.
Let's say you're writing a paper on the importance of reading to children. In your first paragraph, you might introduce the main point of the paper like this:
"Reading to children is important because it develops their language skills, helps them learn to read, and gives them a chance to bond with their parents."
Notice how this sentence introduces the main point of the paper, and then gives the reader a "road map" of what's to come in the rest of the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph will be about the first point (developing language skills), the second point (learning to read), and the third point (bonding with parents).
A good transition sentence between these points will make it clear to the reader how they're related.
For example:
"Developing language skills is important because it helps children learn to read. Learning to read is important because it allows children to access a world of knowledge."
This sentence makes it clear that developing language skills is important because it helps children learn to read, which is in turn important because it allows them to access a world of knowledge.
