Unit 3 academic writing

3.1. While writing in English for academic purposes linking words are used for logical relationship between sentences or parts of a sentence. The main links (linking words) are grouped below according to the similarity of their meaning. Your task is to study this information carefully.

So, linking devices show:

1) POSITIVE ADDITION

and / both … and / not only / as well / above all / again / what is more / furthermore / also / apart from / in addition to / moreover / besides / too / not to mention the fact that / whereas / while

e.g. Gold is an excellent conductor of electricity, besides, it does not oxidise.

2) NEGATIVE ADDITION

neither … nor / nor / neither / either / not only / but also

e.g. Neither John nor Mary speaks French.

3) CONTRAST

but / not … but / however / instead / on the contrary / although / yet / nevertheless / though / in spite of / but / while / despite / even if / even though / at the same time / on the other hand / regardless of / whereas / at first sight / in comparison

e.g. Killing endangered species is illegal, however, people will not stop hunting them.

4) CHRONOLOGY

Initially / at first / then / after this/that / afterwards / next / before this / firstly / in the first place / first of all / to start/begin with / secondly / thirdly / finally / at last / in the end / lastly / eventually

e.g. First of all, we need to decide what problem is. Then, we need to consider all possible solutions. Finally, we must decide on the best alternative.

5) CAUSE / REASON / EFFECT

As / since / because of / owing to / due to / for this reason / a result of / thanks to / in view of / therefore / as a result / consequently / so / as a consequence / hence / thereby / under those circumstances / if so / if not / in that case / thus / otherwise / anyway / at any rate / in any case

e.g. Under the circumstances, the situation cannot be improved.

6) EMPHASIS

In fact / actually / as a matter of fact / in practice / the fact of the matter is that / real / existing as a fact / as a rule / indeed / what is more / in practice / on the whole / in general / generally speaking / to some extent / to a certain extent

e.g. In fact, the report states that most college graduates are interested in pursuing a Master’s degree in the future.

7) CLARIFICATION

Clearly / obviously / of course / needless to say / in particular / easy to see that / specifically / in other words / I mean / that is to say / doubtless

e.g. Needless to say, research has proved that eating healthy foods and exercising regularly reduce the risk of heart disease.

8) EXEMPLIFICATION