Signaling and Signposting
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 … |