Signaling and Signposting

place name sign, thing, experience-1647341.jpg
    Add a header to begin generating the table of contents

    Signaling and Signposting

    Signaling and Signposting language is the words and phrases that people use in order to guide the listener coherently through what is being said. It is the responsibility of the speaker in English to make it clear to the listener how various parts of the speech are connected. These connections can be made explicit by the use of different signaling and signposting words or phrases.

    Signaling and signposting words

    Time and order at first, eventually, finally, first, firstly, in the end, in the first place, in the second place, lastly, later, next, second, secondly, to begin with
    Comparison for similar ideas in comparison, in the same way, similarly
    Contrast for opposite ideas but, despite, in spite of, even so, however, in contrast, in spite of this, nevertheless, on the contrary, on the other hand, still, whereas, yet
    Cause and effect accordingly, as a consequence, as a result, because, because of this, consequently, for this reason, hence, in consequence, in order to, owing to this, since, so, so that, therefore, thus
    Examples for example, for instance, such as, thus, as follows
    Generalization as a rule, for the most part, generally, in general, normally, on the whole, in most cases, usually
    Stating the obvious after all, as one might expect, clearly, it goes without saying, naturally, obviously, of course, surely
    Expressing attitude admittedly, certainly, fortunately, luckily, oddly enough, strangely enough, undoubtedly, unfortunately
    Summary and conclusion finally, in brief, in conclusion, in short, overall, so, then, to conclude, to sum up
    Explanation and equivalence in other words, namely, or rather, that is to say, this means, to be more precise, to put it another way
    Addition apart from this, as well as, besides, furthermore, in addition, moreover, nor, not only...but also, too, what is more
    Condition in that case, then, if
    Support actually, as a matter of fact, in fact, indeed
    Contradiction actually, as a matter of fact, in fact
    Emphasis chiefly, especially, in detail, in particular, mainly, notably, particularly

    Signaling and signposting phrases

    Introducing the subject I’d like to begin by …

    Let’s start with …

    First of all, I’ll …

    Starting with …

    I’ll begin by ...

    Ending Moving on to …

    I’ve explained …

    That’s all I have to say about …

    We’ve had a look at ...

    Moving to another subject Now, moving on to …

    Let me shift focus to …

    Next …

    Turning to …

    I’d like now to have a look at …

    Let’s now discuss ...

    Analyzing a point and giving recommendations Where does that lead us?

    Let’s think about this in more detail …

    What does this mean for …

    Let’s get down to the details a bit more …

    Digging deeper into the numbers ...

    Giving an example For instance, …

    A good example of this is …

    As an illustration, …

    To give you a picture of …

    To highlight this point …

    A clear demonstration of this is ...

    Dealing with questions We’ll be examining this point in more detail later …

    I’d like to take this question later, if I may …

    I’ll come back to this question later in my talk …

    Perhaps you’d like to raise this point at the end …

    I’d be happy to discuss your question at the end of the presentation.

    Summarizing and concluding To sum up, …

    With all this in mind …

    In conclusion, …

    I’d like now to recap …

    So, we’ve covered …

    Let’s summarize briefly what we’ve looked at …

    Finally, let me remind you of the issues we’ve covered ...

    Ordering and sequencing Firstly … secondly … thirdly … lastly …

    First of all … then … next … after that … finally …

    To start with … later … to finish up …

     

    Short Quiz

    1 / 2

    Why signalling and signposting language is important in speech? 

    2 / 2

    When you want to give an example, which of the following expression should be used? 

    Your score is

    Scroll to Top
    Scroll to Top