segue

Something must be said immediately about the word "segue." Listen!

A segue is an uninterrupted move from one section to another. Instead of a dramatic pause, or a commercial, or a transition, you just go right from one thing into another.

A segue is not a transition. We have a perfectly good word for transition. It is "transition." What we are in danger of losing, though, is a perfectly good word for what happens when there is no transitional material or pause between things.

When someone says, "that would make a great segue between...," what they mean is, "that would make a great transition between...."

I again state that a segue is when there is no transitional material.

Sorry. An entire weekend of conference talk has me on edge. (May we have a two-year moratorium on "unpack," please?)

Several years ago, I got a wonderful note from a wonderful person who had heard me speak and was moved to write. I was really grateful that this person thought enough of my speaking to sit down and affirm me in writing. I still have the note. One thing, though, that always gets me laughing about it is the piling of wrong on wrong on wrong that winds up in the phrase, "I love good introductions and sedgeways. Yours was superb."

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