LibGuides: Academic Writing Skills Guide: Signposting, Transitions & Linking Words/Phrases

Signposting

Signposting is how you guide your reader and indicate to them the direction your writing will take. It can help to make your discussion flow smoothly by connecting the ideas and arguments in your writing and avoid the reader having to guess what is happening or what is being argued.

A lack of signposting can lead to writing with abrupt, disjointed breaks, stopping and starting with each new point, leaving the reader wondering what your points have to do with one another or what their relevance is. In this way, your writing can lose direction, become confused and read more like a series of unrelated points. A lack of signposting can also indicate that your argument is more descriptive than analytical.

There are two main types of signposting:

	Major Signposts: introductions, conclusions and outlining main arguments; the signalling of key points in paragraphs through topic sentences.
	Transitions & Linking Words/Phrases: connecting sentences/words that help guide the reader through the argument by linking ideas within your writing and indicating the direction of the discussion.

In addition to presenting your argument, you should guide the reader as you are doing it. Tell the reader what you will discuss next, then discuss it, then tell them what you have just done. These are your major signposts. Doing this helps the reader understand why you are discussing something and how it relates to the overall argument. At the same time, it forces you to write more concisely and avoid unnecessary repetition. The reader expects and needs signposts. You need to include headings or transitional sentences between major sections of your writing to indicate to your reader that you have finished one section and are moving on to another. Major signposts are used in the introduction to indicate how you are going to address the assignment, the key themes you will cover and in which order. They are also used to direct the reader throughout the assignment and to signal the conclusion. They can also indicate to the reader the important elements of your writing such as the purpose and connection between points.

Examples of Major Signposts:

Signposts can also be used to signal transition in your writing. These signposts are words or phrases that express a connection between two ideas and make the transition from one point to the next in sentences, paragraphs, and sections of your writing and help your reader understand the logic of how your ideas fit together and the direction of your discussion. Without them, it can be difficult to follow the flow of ideas in your writing. They can help your reader see how a part of your argument is being continued, developed, challenged, changed, or summarised. Used within your paragraphs, they can help your reader move from one idea to another as well as move to the next paragraph and avoids any jarring changes of topic that leave your reader struggling to understand the connection between two paragraphs. Rather than leap from one idea to the next, a transitional word or phrase can help your ideas connect and flow and make your writing more reader friendly. You can also think of a transition as a sort of bridge between ideas or between paragraphs. Transition sentences can inform the reader when your writing is moving from one idea to another, and how those ideas are connected. Clear transitions will help to avoid a list style paper of seemingly unconnected points about an issue.

Transitions can link the following:


Ideas within a sentence	Two sentences	Two paragraphs	Two different parts of the assignment

a clear challenge for	a different view is	admittedly	against this	all the same	alternatively
although	although this may be true	although true	(and) yet	another possibility	at the same time
balanced against	besides	better/worse still	claims	but	contrastingly
conversely	correspondingly	despite this/being	differing from	equally	even so
even though	for all that	however	in/by comparison	in/by contrast	in fact
in opposition	in spite of	instead	likewise	nevertheless	nonetheless
notwithstanding	on the contrary	on the one/other hand	otherwise	rather	though
unlike	whereas	while/whilst

an example of this is	an illustration of this is	another example	as an example	as an illustration	as follows
a typical/particular/key example	chiefly	clearly	especially	for example	for instance
including	in effect	in other words	in particular	in the case of	in this case
in this situation	mainly	most importantly	namely	naturally	notably
not least	obviously	one such	particularly	primarily	say
significantly	specifically	such as	that is	that is to say	thus
to be more precise	to demonstrate/this demonstrates	to illustrate	to show that	to simplify	typical of this/such

above all	accordingly	additionally	again	also	another
apart from this	as a result	as well as	as with	at the same time	besides
collectively	comparatively	compared to	correspondingly	coupled with	equally
equally important	equivalent to	further	furthermore	in addition	in a similar way/fashion
in/by comparison	indeed	in essence	in the same way/manner	it could also be said	just as…so too
likewise	more importantly	moreover	next	relatedly	similarly
similar to	taken together	too

accepting/assuming this	accordingly	as a result/consequence	as previously stated	as such	as this assignment/research has demonstrated
because of this/that	clearly then	consequently	the effect of this is	finally	from the evidence detailed it seems that
from this it can be seen that	for this/that reason	given these points	has been noted/shown	hence	in all
in brief	in conclusion	in essence	in order to	in short	in summary
in the end	in the final analysis	in this/that case	in view of this	it follows that	it is evident
it might be concluded from this	leading to	on the whole	otherwise	overall	owing to/due to the fact that
resulting from/in consequence of this	since	so	subsequently	then	therefore
these examples show that	this evidence strongly suggests that	this implies	this may stem from	this suggests that	throughout
thus	to conclude	to summarise	to sum up	ultimately	whenever

above all	additionally	after	after that	afterwards	another
as long as	as soon as	at first	at last	at length	at present
at that/this time	at the same time	at this/that point	before	concurrently	consequently
currently	during	earlier	eventually	first and foremost	first and most importantly
finally	first(ly)	first of all	followed by	following on	following this
formerly	gradually	henceforth	immediately	in addition	initially
in the first/second place	in the past	lastly	lastly and most importantly	meanwhile	more/most importantly
moreover	next	once	previously	primarily	prior to (that)
recently	second(ly)	simultaneously	since	so far	soon
subsequently	then	thereafter	third(ly)	to begin/start with	ultimately
until now	while

above all	certainly	chiefly	clearly	conceivably	conclusively
crucially	doubtless	especially	evidently	for this reason	indeed
in fact	it should be noted	no doubt	of course	particularly	significantly
singularly	surely	undoubtedly	unfortunately	unquestionably	with attention to

as a rule	as usual	for the most part	generally	generally speaking	in most cases
on the whole	ordinarily	usually

Reporting Verbs

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