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.
COHERENCE: LINKING WORDS AND PHRASES To make your work more readable and meaningful, ideas and paragraphs must be linked. Linking words are essential in developing coherent logical arguments and discussion in your assignments. They show the relationships between the ideas and are the glue that holds your assignment together. The table below.
The way you start a paragraph will determine the quality of your essay. Therefore, you need to be careful when choosing words to start a paragraph. The use of transition words to start a paragraph will make your text more engaging. These transition phrases will tell the reader that you know what you are doing.
At the beginning of each paragraph, you should aim to provide a clear topic sentence that tells the reader the subject of the paragraph, and also connects the paragraph with the previous paragraph or the main topic of the assignment. The following words and expressions are frequently used as paragraph openers and linking expressions. Read.
Below are two resources you can download to help you with writing essay body paragraphs. The first is a model which outlines the 6 Golden Rules for Writing an Essay Body Paragraph. The second is an annotated exemplar of the sample body paragraph mapped out in the video presentation which takes you step-by-step through the 6 Golden Rules.
Your paragraph should end by stating the significance of the point to the overall argument or idea, or link to the next paragraph if you are going to build upon that main point further (eg examine the same point from a different perspective). This short video, The Power of the Paragraph, gives a basic explanation of how to structure a paragraph.