Signposting in an essay

What is signposting and how to use them in your essay?

What is signposting?

Signposting is a method to connect the readers towards the correct direction of reading. Signposting is helpful for readers to identify what is being conveyed through an essay.

The transition between each paragraph and an idea must be well-connected with signposting. Signposting usually occurs in the initial sentences of a paragraph of every section. 

Why are they required?

1.To achieve clarity in an essay being written.

2.To achieve reader’s attention towards an essay

3.To build link or relationship  between two ideas or paragraphs

There are two kinds of signposting:

1.Major signposts- such as main arguments, body transitions, transitions, and few among others.

2.Minor signposts- connections between sentences and paragraphs.

Some of the signposting that can be used while writing an essay

There are several categories of signposting which should be used in your essay to make it more approachable and readable.

1.Giving an example:

1.Similarly

2.For example

3.For instance

4.To illustrate

5.To demonstrate

6.Namely...

7.Such as...

2.Concluding:

1.In conclusion

2.Finally

3.Overall

4.To summarize

5.Lastly

6.In this way

7.In short

8.Thus

9.It has been established

3.Addition to the content:

1.To add further content to this...

2.Although

3.With this, there is also...

4.It could also be...

5.It is also important

6.As noted above/below

7.As stated previously

            
          4.Introducing a topic:

          1.To begin with

          2.Next

          3.In this section

          4.The aim of this essay

          5.The paper discusses

          6.The purpose is...

          7.It is important to know

          8.Initially

5.Linking to a new idea:

1.Undoubtedly

2.However

3.Furthermore

4.Another significant factor

5.At the same time

6.Accordingly

7.Moreover

8.Apart from this

9.Equally

10.Also Besides

11.As well as

12.Moving

6.To focus on a detail:

1.Specifically

2.To add to this

3.Furthermore

7.To generalise:

1.As a rule

2.Generally

3.In general

4.Usually

5.In most cases

6.On the whole

7.Having said this

8.To contrast a point:

1.On the contrary

2.Consequently

3.As a result

4.Evidently

5.For these reasons

6.Hence

7.As we have seen

8.In the final analysis

9.A contrary explanation to this

9.To explain something:

1.Evidently

2.We must consider...

3.Despite this

4.Given this...

5.In this way...

6.subsequently

7.As we have seen

10.Enumerating the objects:

1.Firstly

2.Secondly

3.Thirdly

4.Finally

These are few of the signposting that should be used while writing an essay. This will definitely help in hooking the readers to your essay