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“Do not expect your reader to make the connections in your ideas ... make those connections explicit”
Signposting words and phrases are essential elements of academic writing - they make your writing flow. By making explicit how points are connected to each other you make it easier for your reader to follow your arguments. The reader is, after all, your marker and you don't want to make their job too hard. This page gives you a selection of common phrases that you can use to link together your paragraphs and so make logical connections between your ideas.
Reasoning/summarising the point
Consequently/As a consequence, …
Accordingly, …
Therefore, …
What this means/suggests is...
It could be concluded that …
The strength of such an approach is that …
For this reason …
Evidently*, …
Clearly/It is clear that, …*
Naturally*, …
It is clear that* …
In short, …
From this, it can be concluded/inferred/suggested that …
The evidence highlights that …
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*Only use such phrases if you really are sure that your arguments cannot be challenged.
These are just a selection of the phrases you can you to make your writing flow and to keep the reader with you and following your line of argument. Academics often complain about a lack of this in assignments they mark so make sure you use them in your writing.
Take care
Don't overdo it. Only use signposts when they add clarity to your work. Some students try to put a signposting word into every sentence which can actually obscure meaning.
Be precise. The signposting words have very specific meanings. Only use a word like 'consequently' if you really mean that the following sentence is a true consequence of the previous one!
