Have you heard of the story of the blind men asked to describe an elephant?

Have you heard of the story of the blind men asked to describe an elephant? One was holding the tail, one the trunk, the next a foot, and the last an ear. You can imagine the resulting descriptions of an elephant. Some things in life are mysterious until you can put the pieces together. Has writing been mysterious for you? How do sentences and paragraphs fit together smoothly to form essays? What are the most useful transitions for you? Is there a purpose for transitions? Some people think that transitions are devices or bridges. What would these blind men think about transitions if they could see?

Have you heard of the story of the blind men asked to describe an elephant?
I don't think that the blind man and the elephant is a good analogy for transitions in writing.





Too many questions-are we doing your homework??





Has writing been mysterious for you? No. I grew up reading alot, and still read constantly. Reading is what teaches you to write. In fact, when I was a kid, i read the story of the blind men and the elephant (the poem by John Godfrey Saxe based on the Indian story.)





How do sentences and paragraphs fit together smoothly to form essays? They fit because form follows function; because the words work as bricks and mortar, because content flows, yet maintains enough variety and texture to be interesting; and because the author embeds the text begging the question, which drives the reader to continue.





What are the most useful transitions for you? The most useful transition is one I do not notice.





Is there a purpose for transitions? Of course. The writer is trying to tack another sentence in. But a transition won't work if the sentence doesn't fit. It's like forcing in a puzzle piece--even if you use a superglue transition, what is more important in the long run is CONTENT.





What would these blind men think about transitions if they could see? It is irrelevant. How can blind men SEE the whole?





In the poem, the blind men never do come to a conclusion. As a metaphor for your concept, this falls apart here.





Better that you have your students read sample paragraphs and then deconstruct.





This would be akin to letting your clueless blind men handle a small model, where they could grasp the idea of "elephant" as a complete entity first.





Their problem was not transitions. It was being unable to grasp the whole.





A paragraph is more like a chain. Something which lacks cohesive content (or needs a transition that isn't there) is the weak link.
Reply:No. No. Each word has its own meaning, and they work together to create an idea or thought. So. Yes. That they help traverse one idea to another.
Reply:I think the blind men would think transitions are necessary and cool stuff in writing... just as we all do. Don't know why they would think differently if given a whole sentence, huh? Just like we get?
Reply:Yes; and it is a very informative metaphor for social understanding. What it has to do with "transition", I have no idea. As for "writing", per se, if your train of thought is not sound, you will de-rail.

augmon