50 linking words to use in academic writing

It’s very common for students to use long words they don’t understand very well in their essays and theses because they have a certain idea of what academic writing should be.

Many students believe that academic writing is wordy and convoluted, and uses a lot of jargon. This leads many students to fall into a trap of imagining that the longer the word, the more impressive and intelligent their writing will seem.

We often see long sentences and multisyllabic words where shorter sentences and simpler words would do. Some students even use Microsoft Word’s thesaurus function to replace a common word with a more complicated word. This is a risky move, because unless you’re very careful, the new word may not carry quite the same meaning as the original, even if it’s similar.

The result can range from funny to confusing, which defeats the purpose of academic writing: to be as clear and concise as possible, using just the right words to convey your argument. Using uncommon words, instead of making your paper seem smarter, generally detracts from your ideas.

To avoid this, using linking or transition words that signpost your arguments can help to clarify your views and show the reader what to expect from certain paragraphs or sentences. These words give structure to the whole, helping you to organise your ideas and assist the reader in understanding them.

Below is a handy list of words that are both useful and appropriate to academic language.

Describing similarities
Likewise
Correspondingly
Equally
Not only… but also
In the same way
Similarly

Showing cause and effect
Consequently
As a result
Thus
Hence (never ‘hence why’)
Since (try to avoid ‘as’ when showing cause and effect)
Because
Therefore
Accordingly
This suggests that
It follows that
For this reason

Comparing and contrasting
Alternatively
However
Conversely
On the other hand
Instead
Yet
On the contrary

Showing limitation or contradiction
Despite/in spite of
While (not whilst!)
Even so
On the contrary
Nevertheless
Nonetheless
Although
Admittedly

Emphasis, addition or examples
To illustrate
To clarify
Further (not ‘furthermore’)
First, second and third (not firstly, secondly and thirdly)
For instance
Moreover
Typically
Especially
In fact
Namely
In addition

Concluding
To summarise
It can be concluded that
As can be seen
Ultimately
Given the above
As described
Finally

So choose some from this list and if you need more help, look no further than a Verbling tutor with experience in writing academic essays.
8 июля 2019 г.
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**I have been teaching since 2006 when I graduated from International House with a CELTA qualification. I am a highly experienced professional teacher who gives high quality lessons. **I give varied, stimulating and interesting classes based on your needs. If you need to pass an exam, perfect a presentation or review and practice your grammar and learn new vocabulary, then I am the teacher for you! **In the first class we will go over your language learning history and your goals, both short and long term. **From this assessment we will formulate our plan of action. This will be based on the time you have to dedicate to English, your current level and where you want to be, and how fast you need to get there. **We will achieve these goals through a variety of different and stimulating lessons based on current language acquisition theories and using didactic materials designed for your level. ** I will give you recommendations for things to do outside of class to improve your l...
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