: Should the transition sentence be placed in the end of the current section, or at the beginning of next section? When in the same chapter, I finish a section and want to connect it with the

Vote Up Vote Down

It depends on the context. In the example in this question, cars are being presented as connected to buses somehow, so it makes sense to have this kind of segue. However, in a chapter with a bunch of stand-alone sections, it doesn't. If the same chapter is talking about buses, cars, trains, planes, and the Enterprise's transporter, and you aren't laying out connections among all of these, a reader would not expect to see you talking about these outside of their own sections.

It depends on the format. In a dissertation your readers are likely to be reading text from beginning to end (maybe skipping parts). If, instead, your work is likely to be broken up into chunks -- individual web pages, blocks of context-sensititve help in an application, or the like -- then you cannot rely on any reader context beyond the current section. The "cars" section needs to either stand on its own or have an explicit cross-reference to the "buses" section, and vice-versa. It is important to consider how your reader will use your document.

(I realize that the question asks about a dissertation, but it is also tagged technical-writing, which has broader considerations.)

(0)

Vote Up Vote Down

Nope. Sections do not refer directly to the next section, unless there is a specific reason, such as a cross-reference. What you need is an overview topic/section ABOVE these where you describe the contents of the sub-sections.

(0)

Vote Up Vote Down

The information about buses being replaced by cars logically makes sense in both sections of the paper. There's nothing wrong with having a sentence or two overlap between the sections. If it gets to be more than that, you might want to consider adding even more details and have a separate section that discusses the transition.

(0)