Signposting
Explore different ways of guiding the reader through your assignment.
Signposting language can help you guide the reader through your writing and make sure the order is clear and flows well. These are small words or phrases that help the reader follow your argument, understand the relationship between your ideas and anticipate what鈥檚 going to come next.
These words may not seem important, but they鈥檙e really the glue that holds a piece of writing together. Without signposting language, writing can lose direction, become confused and read like a series of unrelated points. Try reading the paragraph without them and see how it changes the meaning.
Signposting words are useful in the introduction to signal your structure, and echoed in the first lines of paragraphs to indicate how the paragraphs relate to each other. They are also useful at sentence level to make the links between them clear. There are different kinds of links and relationships, so you need to choose a signposting word that does the right job.
Signposting of order
You can use these kinds of signposting words to direct the reader through your writing, provide a 鈥榬oadmap鈥� for the order in which you鈥檙e going to talk about things, help them keep on track throughout and remind them of key information or anticipate questions. This kind of signposting can be especially useful for introductions, conclusions and when transitioning from one big idea to another or talking about methods and procedures.
Signposting of relations
You can use these kinds of signposting words to show that you are constructing logical steps in your argument, show the relationship between ideas and make it clear to the reader where you鈥檙e identifying similarities and differences, cause and effect, summaries, examples or particularly important pieces of information.
Contrast
Tells the reader that this point is in opposition to the previous.
- In contrast,鈥�
- In comparison,鈥�
- 贬辞飞别惫别谤,鈥�
- Rather,..
- 颁辞苍惫别谤蝉别濒测,鈥�
- 滨苍蝉迟别补诲,鈥�
- 奥丑别谤别补蝉,鈥�
- On the other hand,鈥�
- Even so,鈥�
- 翱迟丑别谤飞颈蝉别,鈥�
- 础濒迟别谤苍补迟颈惫别濒测,鈥�
- Despite this,鈥�
- 础肠迟耻补濒濒测,鈥�
- 狈辞苍别迟丑别濒别蝉蝉,鈥�
- 狈别惫别谤迟丑别濒别蝉蝉,鈥�
- That aside,鈥�
- While this may be true鈥�
- And yet,鈥�
- 狈辞迟飞颈迟丑蝉迟补苍诲颈苍驳鈥�
- Then again,鈥�
- On the contrary,鈥�
Cause-and-effect
Tells the reader that this point is a result of the previous.
- 罢丑别谤别蹿辞谤别,鈥�
- 颁辞苍蝉别辩耻别苍迟濒测,鈥�
- 础肠肠辞谤诲颈苍驳濒测,鈥�
- 罢丑耻蝉,鈥�
- As a result,鈥�
- This means that鈥�
- This causes鈥�
- 贬别苍肠别,鈥�
- For this reason鈥�
- Because of this鈥�
- In view of this,鈥�
- With this in mind鈥�
- It can be seen that鈥�
- Resulting from this鈥�
- As a result,鈥�
- This suggests that鈥�
- 厂耻产蝉别辩耻别苍迟濒测,鈥�
Tips for using signposting language
Choose wisely
Signposting words aren鈥檛 interchangeable and can be really confusing for the reader if used inappropriately. So make sure you choose the right word to reflect the relationship you鈥檙e trying to communicate.
Use deliberately
You don鈥檛 need to use a signposting word in every sentence, so before you do ask yourself if it helps make the meaning clearer, or just bogs down the writing.
Edit carefully
When you want to get the wordcount down, you might be tempted to get rid of signposting words first so you can keep more of the information. This might not be as useful as it seems, though, because lots of information without any signposting can make it really difficult for the reader to understand what you鈥檙e trying to say.