Transitional Words and Phrases

This is just a collection of words and phrases that you can use to ensure your writing does not get too repetitive, and to give you an idea of the variety of options available to you when you need to express your ideas accurately.

Adding extra information

additionally, again, also, and, and then, as well, besides, equally important, finally, first (second, third, etc.), further, furthermore, in addition, incidentally, in the first place, lastly, moreover, more important, next, still, then, too, what is more

Causation

accordingly, after all, as, because of this, by this means, consequently, for this reason, hence, in many cases, in this way, knowing this, naturally, of course, then, therefore, thus, to be sure, to this end, with this object, with this end, with this in mind

Chronology

after, afterward, at that moment, at last, at length, before, by that time, during, earlier, first, from then on, later, meanwhile, next, presently, since, second, soon afterward, the next day, then, when, while, within an hour

Concessions

although it is true that, certainly, despite, granted that, however, indeed, granted, I admit that, in fact, in spite of, it may appear that, naturally, nevertheless, of course, once in a while, sometimes, still, yet

Contradictions

although, but, contradicting, despite (the fact that), however, in contrast, in spite of the fact that, in spite of this, it cannot be reasonably deduced/inferred/assumed from this that, nevertheless, nonetheless, notwithstanding, of course, on the contrary, on the one hand… on the other hand, paradoxically, still, that is, the previous does not imply/demonstrate/show, the apparent implication is that, unfortunately that does not, while it is the case that…, still…, while it may be that, while it may seem that, yet

Giving examples

as an illustration, after all, even, for example, for instance, in fact, in short, in particular, indeed, in another case, in other words, in this case, in this situation, it is true, more specifically, namely, of course, on this occasion, specifically, take the case of, that is, thus, to demonstrate, to illustrate, to summarise, truly

Sequencing events and ideas

after, afterward, again, as long as, at length, at that time, at the same time, at this point, at this time, before, before this, beyond, behind, by, besides, concurrently, consequently, earlier, eventually, finally, first (second, third, etc.), following this, formerly, further, furthermore, hence, here, immediately, initially, in addition, in the beginning, in the first place, in the meantime, in the past, in the same instant, in time, last, lastly, later, meanwhile, moreover, near, next, now, opposite, on the opposite side, on the right, on the left, now, presently, previously, shortly, simultaneously, since, so far, soon, still, subsequently, then, thereafter, therefore, thus, then, today, to begin, too, until, until now, when

Results/Summary/Conclusion

accordingly, all in all, altogether, as a result, as has been noted, as I have said, as mentioned, as shown, consequently, finally, hence, in any event, in a word, in brief, in conclusion, in other words, in short, in sum, in summary, in the final analysis, to conclude, on the whole, summing up, that is, therefore, thus

Random useful phrases taken from academic papers…

Paper 1

This article looks at…
While acknowledging…, this article looks at the way that … is/are taken as a point of departure for the analysis of …

Introduction

Here, we present the results of an empirical study of …
Our primary data base is …
One motivation for the present study is a lack of data with which to reliably answer basic questions about …
Our main objective is to …
As we note below …
The main value of the present study is that it may contribute to …

Conclusion

We first present …
We then describe the … model that forms a methodological basis for …
We next detail the research procedures and descriptive results of …
Finally, we explore the implications of our findings for …
In conclusion, our study emphasizes the importance of …
We emphasize, however, that …

Paper 2

Introduction

There is a well-established research interest in …
Traditional approaches to exploring … tend to follow a paradigm that …
This article goes beyond … to explore …
First, we review…, then we focus on …
The empirical basis of our work is …

(At the start of a section)
We now turn to an examination of …
There are a number of different (adj.) theories of (n.) and they reflect a of different approaches to the issue.
A growing literature suggests that …

Results / Conclusions

Based on the findings of surveys conducted among…, this article compared…
Despite the fact that…, it is clear that…
Of course, such a conclusion might be challenged by those who argue that…
It is also important to note that there does not seem to be a trend toward… As we have argued earlier, …
Overall then, it is clear from the data presented in this study, that …

Adjective Order

In English, if you wish to apply more than one adjective to a noun, they must appear in the following order:

Quantity, Value/opinion, Size, Temperature, Age, Shape, Colour, Origin, Material