Writing Signal Words

Introductory Phrases:
In my opinion           There is no doubt that                I question whether
I believe                   From my point of view              I (dis)agree with
It is my belief that     It seems to me that                    I maintain that

Concluding Phrases:
For the reasons above     To sum up           In short           Undoubtedly
As you can see                To be sure           In brief            In any event
As I have noted              Without a doubt    In conclusion   In any case
In other words                 In summation       Obviously        Concluding
On the whole                   Unquestionably    Summarizing

Supporting Opinions:
First          Furthermore       Equally important     Besides     Further
Second     In addition          In the first place       Next          Again
Third        Also                    Likewise                 Moreover  Similarly
Finally       Last

Introducing Details:
For example     For instance     In support of this     In fact
As evidence     As noted

Cause and Effect:
Since                 Caused by         In effect            Because of          This results in
Brought about    Due to               Consequently   Made possible     For this reason
Accordingly       Therefore           As a result of    Give rise to         Leads to
If……then        Was responsible for                    As might be expected

Compare and Contrast:
Similarly           Likewise               As well as             Whether or not
Compared to    In the same way    Have in common   Even though
In like manner  Contrasting            All are                   Rather than
Nevertheless    On the contrary     The same as          On the other hand
Although          As opposed to      Conversely             In spite of

Countering:
I realize you            Believe        I understand you    Feel              What I doubt
Yet                         But             Even though you     Maintain        However
Although you          Favor          Some people          I question      Argue
Let me explain        Support       It may be that you  On the contrary
On the other hand   State           Nevertheless          Your idea to ____ deserves

Transitions That Add:

and, again, and then, besides, equally important, finally, further, furthermore, nor, too, next, lastly, what's more, moreover, in addition, first (second, etc.),

Transitions That Compare:

whereas, but, yet, on the other hand, however, nevertheless, on the other hand, on the contrary, by comparison, where, compared to, up against, balanced against, vis a vis, but, although, conversely, meanwhile, after all, in contrast, although this may be true

Transitions That Prove:

because, for, since, for the same reason, obviously, evidently, furthermore, moreover, besides, indeed, in fact, in addition, in any case, that is

Transitions That Show Exception:

yet, still, however, nevertheless, in spite of, despite, of course, once in a while, sometimes

Transitions That Show Time:

immediately, thereafter, soon, after a few hours, finally, then, later, previously, formerly, first (second, etc.), next, and then

Transitions That Repeat:

in brief, as I have said, as I have noted, as has been noted,

Transitions That Emphasize:

definitely, extremely, obviously, in fact, indeed, in any case, absolutely, positively, naturally, surprisingly, always, forever, perennially, eternally, never, emphatically, unquestionably, without a doubt, certainly, undeniably, without reservation

Transitions That Show Sequence:

first, second, third, and so forth. A, B, C, and so forth. next, then, following this, at this time, now, at this point, after, afterward, subsequently, finally, consequently, previously, before this, simultaneously, concurrently, thus, therefore, hence, next, and then, soon

Transitions That Give an Example:

for example, for instance, in this case, in another case, on this occasion, in this situation, take the case of, to demonstrate, to illustrate, as an illustration, to illustrate

Transitions That Summarize or Conclude:

in brief, on the whole, summing up, to conclude, in conclusion, as I have shown, as I have said, hence, therefore, accordingly, thus, as a result, consequently, on the whole,

For information about using many of these words and phrases, see the Purdue OWL handout Sentence Variety

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