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Transition words
Adapted from Moran and Cottrell
A key skill of successful and effective writing is to ensure that your
ideas flow smoothly between paragraphs. This is achieved by using “transition
words” (Moran, 132) Below is a selection of these words which
can be used to link your paragraphs or ideas and deliver this flow.
Adding to a point already made:
- also; moreover; furthermore; again; further; what is more; then; in
addition,
- besides; above all; too; as well (as), next
- either; neither…nor; not only…but also; similarly; in the
same way; indeed.
- in fact; really; in reality; it is found that…
- as for; as to; with respect to; regarding,
Writing in lists:
- first(ly); second(ly); third(ly)…
- another; yet another; in addition; finally,
- to begin with; in the second place;
- moreover; additionally; also;
- next; then; and to conclude; lastly; finally;
Putting the same idea in a different way:
- in other words; rather; or; better; in that case
- to put it (more) simply
- in view of this; with this in mind
- to look at this another way
Introducing examples:
- that is to say; in other words;
- for example; for instance; namely; an example of this is
- and; as follows; as in the following examples; such as; including;
- especially; particularly; in particular; notably; chiefly; mainly;
mostly
Introducing an alternative viewpoint:
- by/in contrast; another way of viewing this is; alternatively; again;
rather; one alternative is; another possibility is, but
- on the one hand…on the other hand
- conversely; in comparison; on the contrary; in fact; though; although
Returning to emphasise an earlier point:
- however; nonetheless; in the final analysis; despite x; notwithstanding
x; in spite of x
- while x may be true, nonetheless
- although; though; after all; at the same time; on the other hand;
all the same; even if x is true; although x may have a good point
Useful phrases to introduce references:
- as x points out…
- to quote from x…
- x states/suggests that…
- x tells/shows us that…
- in an article entitled Name of Text, X makes the point that…
- referring to…, X says that…
- as X stated/wrote/said…
- in Name of Text, X wrote that…
- writing in Name of Text, X explained that…
- writing in 1926, X argued that…
Showing the results of something:
- Therefore; accordingly; as a result
- So (then), it can be seen that
- The result is, the consequence is
- Resulting from this; consequently; now
- We can see, then, that; it is evident that
- Because of this; thus; hence; for this reason; owing to x; this
suggests that; it follows that
- In other words, otherwise, in that case, that implies
Summing up or concluding:
- therefore; so, my conclusion is
- in short; in conclusion; to conclude; in all; on
the whole;
- to summarise; to sum up briefly; in brief; altogether;
overall; thus; thus we can see that
