Making Your Academic Writing Flow

Making Your Academic Writing Flow

Signposts to introduce something new

One aspect which illustrates … can be identified as …
The current debate about … illustrates/identifies/highlights …
With regard to…/ with respect to…
Initially/secondly/finally, …

Continuing an argument with a related point

Furthermore …
To further understand the role of …
In addition …
Similarly …
Likewise …
What is more …
Moreover …
Another issue regarding … is …
Another line of thought on … is …

Going into more detail on a point/rephrasing

In particular …
Specifically …
Concentrating on …
By focusing on … in more detail, it is possible to …
To be more precise …
In other words …
To put simply …

Linking to a different point

Having established …, it is possible to consider …
… is one key issue; another of equal/
similar importance/significance is …
Also of importance is the issue of …

Reintroducing a topic

As discussed/explained earlier, …
The earlier discussion on … can be developed further here, …
As stated previously, …
As noted above, …

Introducing an opposing/alternative view

However, …
Conversely, …
In contrast, …
Alternatively, …
Nevertheless/Nonetheless, …
An alternative perspective is given by … who suggests/argues that …
Despite this, …
This conflicts with the view held by …

Reasoning/summarising the point

Consequently/As a consequence, …
Accordingly, …
Therefore, …
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 …

*Only use such phrases if you really are sure that your arguments cannot be challenged.