It's often hard for writers to construct smooth transitions from one paragraph to the next. Good transitions, along with most structural elements of an essay, tend to be the result of continuous and careful revision. Sometimes it just takes practice. Paragraph transitions are a crucial part of paragraph structure because they can make the difference between an essay that reads smoothly and coherently and one that seems choppy and confusing.

Sometimes the problem is not that you haven't used transitions but that the transitions sound forced or are inappropriate to the content. As Prof. Clark notes, often with shorter assignments, the paragraphs seem to flow better because the essay is much more direct and to-the-point. You can achieve the same results in longer writing assignments if you understand how the relationship the paragraphs have to your thesis and to each other.