CHAPTER

7 DISCOURSE MARKERS FOR

BOTH SPEAKING AND WRITING(E.G. LINKING
WORDS FOR COHESION)









Est modus in rebus.
(There is a middle course in all things.)

 Conversational fillers (used in speaking only):

 mm
 uh
 um
 er
 erm
 yeah
 ok
 oh
 well
 you know
 ok then
 right
 I mean
 I guess
 I would have to say
 actually
 really
 in fact
 as a matter of fact
 sort of
 kind of
 you can imagine
 like
 as you know

When you can’t remember a given word, you can replace it with a vague
word (speaking only):

 for objects: thingy, thingummy, thingumajig, thingumabob, whatsit,
whatchamacallit, whatnot
 for people: whatshisname (for a man), whatshername (for a woman), whosit

To express your personal opinion:

 In my opinion/point of view,
 As far as I know/see/understand,
 I (really) think/believe/am convinced that
 Frankly/honestly speaking, (for speaking only)
 To be frank/honest, (for speaking only)
 I would like to say/appeal/express (for speaking only)
 I feel that (for speaking only)
 I suppose that
 I assume that
 I doubt that
 I guess that
 In my impression, (for speaking only)
 In my eyes, (for speaking only)
 To my mind,
 To my way of thinking,
 I am convinced that
 It strikes me that
 It is my (firm) belief/opinion/view/conviction (that)
 I am inclined to believe that
 It seems/appears to me that
 As far as I am concerned
 My opinion is that
 I (definitely) feel/think that
 Personally,
 In my experience, (for speaking only)
 Speaking for myself, (for speaking only)
 If you ask me, (for speaking only)
 From my point of view,
 As I see it, (for speaking only)
 In my estimation,
 In my book, (for speaking only)
 For my money, (for speaking only)
 To the best of my knowledge,

To express a memory (for speaking only):

 In my memory,
 As far as I can remember,
 If I remember correctly, it should be
 I still remember that
 In retrospect,
 As far as I recall,
 As I look back on
 When I think back on/to

To emphasize a point:

 I have to admit that (for speaking only)
 It is (definitely) true that
 There is no doubt that
 I have noticed that (for speaking only)
 Indeed,
 Naturally,
 Clearly,
 Obviously,
 Of course,
 Needless to say,
 It is obvious that
 In point of fact
 As a matter of fact,
 In truth,
 If truth be told, (for speaking only)
 Admittedly,

To add more points:

 Equally,
 Also,
 Again,
 Indeed,
 Additionally,
 as well as
 What is more,
 Furthermore,
 Apart from this/that,
 In addition (to this),
 Moreover,
 Besides (this),
 …not to mention the fact that…
 Not only…, but also…
 There is another side to the issue/argument/question of…

To compare or contrast:
(remember to use comparatives)

 There are many differences
 The main difference is
 whereas/while (X is… whereas/while Y is…)
 Comparatively speaking,
 They are similar in some ways such as
 but
 in contrast to
 however,
 by contrast
 nevertheless,
 nonetheless,
 although
 instead of
 yet,
 even though
 apart from
 as opposed to
 except for
 unlike
 even so
 still
 regardless of (the fact that)
 In spite of (the fact that)
 Despite (the fact that)
 likewise
 Opponents of… argue that
 The fact that… contradicts the belief/idea that
 While it is true to say that…, in fact
 On the other hand,
 On the contrary,
 While/although…, it cannot be denied that
 Conversely,
 It may be the case that…, but
 granted that
 Alternatively,
 compared with
 in comparison with/to
 in the same way/manner
 similarly, again
 also
 as…as.
 more…than
 twice as…as
 less…than
 in like manner

To talk about the past:
(remember to use past tenses)

 In the past…
 At one time…
 Back then…
 X years ago…
 When I was young…
 Last (week, year, etc.)…
 If my memory serves me (well/right/correctly)

To talk about the present:
(remember to use present tenses)

 Nowadays,
 These days,
 Currently,
 Presently,
 At the moment,
 These days,
 Today,
 At the present time,
 In these times,
 In this day and age,
 Now,
 At this moment in time,
 In the present climate,

 To speculate (extremely useful for problem-solution essay):
(try to use First Conditional)

 I think, in the future…
 will (definitely)/won’t
 will (probably)/won’t
 I doubt that … will…
 might/might not/could
 I think we’ll probably see a lot of changes…
 It’s unlikely that we’ll have…
 I bet (that)…
 I imagine (that)…
 The chances are that…
 In all probability,
 My guess is that…
 There’s just a chance that…
 I wouldn’t be surprised if…
 it can/could/may/might…
 it is possible/probably/(un)likely/foreseeable/certain that…
 … is (un)likely to/bound to/certain to/possible/probable…
 The likelihood/possibility/probability of (-ing/noun) is…

To explain reasons:

 The main reason/cause/ground/motive/aim for this is…
 I think it’s because…
 I think there are several reasons for this…
 Owing to (the fact that)…
 Due to (the fact that)…
 …because of
 …because/as/since…
 The reason why… is that…
 It explains why…
 For this reason…
 Therefore,
 If…then…
 on the grounds that…
 since
 as
 In view of…,
 on account of
 given that
 Seeing that…
 …now that…

To agree (for speaking):

 That’s true.
 I completely/entirely agree.
 I agree to a certain extent/point.
 Absolutely.
 I couldn’t agree more.
 On the whole, I think these arguments are fair.
 I quite agree.
 I thin you’re absolutely right.
 That’s a very good point.
 You’ve got a very good point there.
 I fully support what you say.
 Exactly!

To disagree (for speaking):

 I’m not sure I entirely agree.
 I disagree.
 I don’t’ agree (at all).
 But don’t you think that…?
 I see what you mean, but…
 But isn’t it really a question of…?
 But what about…?
 But surely…?
 I take your point, but…
 Yes, but on the other hand…
 But all the evidence suggests that…
 I’m afraid I can’t agree with you on this matter.
 I wouldn’t say that.
 I can’t accept that.

To ask for clarification (for speaking only):

 Could you repeat that, please?
 I’m sorry, I didn’t catch what you said about…, please?
 I’m not sure what you mean.
 Sorry, but I’m not quite clear on…
 I beg your pardon.
 I’m sorry, could you repeat what you said about…, please?
 Pardon?
 Would you please rephrase it? (applies only to Part 3)
 So what you’re saying is that…
 Am I correct in assuming that…?
 Let me just make sure – your point/question is (that)…
 If I have understood you correctly, your point is that…

To list points/enumerate:

 First of all,
 First(ly),
 In the (first, second, etc.) place,
 To begin with,
 The first (reason) is
 Second(ly),
 Third(ly),
 Finally,
 To start with,
 Last(ly),
 Next,
 On top of (that)…,
 Then,
 After this/that,
 Afterwards,
 Last but not least,
 For one thing,
 For another thing,
 The (first, second, next, last) point I’d like to make is…

To express similarity:

 in the same way
 likewise
 similarly
 accordingly
 equally (important)
 not only…but (also)
 the same
 in a similar way
 in a similar fashion
 both … and …
 as well as
 also
 too
 like x, y…
 as…as…
 just as x, y…
 just as x, so y…
To quote:

 As X sais/says, “…”
 As X wrote/writes, “…”
 As X commented/comments, “…”
 As X observed/observes, “…”
 As X pointed/points out, “…”
 To quote from X, “…”
 It was X who said that, “…”
 This example is given by X: “…”
 According to X, “…”
 X claims that, “…”
 X found that, “…”
 The opinion of X is that, “…”
 As X stated/states, “…”

To summarize/conclude:

 In conclusion,
 In summary,
 In short,
 Lastly,
 To conclude,
 To sum up,
 Finally,
 All in all,
 Taking everything into account/consideration,
 On the whole,
 All things considered,
 On balance,
 For the above mentioned reasons,
 Therefore I feel that,
 Briefly,
 To put it briefly,
 In all,
 In brief,
 To summarise,
 In a nutshell,
 Basically,
 Unquestionably,
 Undoubtedly,
 Summarizing,
 To recapitulate,
 To recap,
 So,
 As a final point,
 Eventually,
 Altogether,
 Hence,
 Overall,
 Thus,
 Last but not least,

To give examples:

 for example
 for instance
 in particular
 particularly
 such as
 that is to say
 namely
 a (good) case in point is…
 to illustrate
 in the following manner
 take… as an example/instance
 as an illustration
 A better example of this can be best provided by…
 The most familiar example of this is…
 … is generally cited as an example of…
 All available evidence points to the fact that…
 Nothing could be more apparent than the evidence that…
 like…
 especially
 The fact that shows/illustrates that…
 as (evidence of)…
 thus
 to illustrate
 to show what (I mean)
 specifically
 let us (take the case of)
 in support of this
 to demonstrate
 e.g.,
 As proof of that,
 including
 by way of illustration
 case in point
 viz.,
 to wit.

To express effect/show results/consequences:

 as a result
 consequently
 hence
 so
 therefore
 thereby
 thus
 for this reason
 as a consequence (of)
 on this/that account
 it follows that
 if…were to happen, the effect/result would be
 this results in
 this leads to…
 …is due to…
 …is brought about/by/because…
 then
 in which case
 since
 …,if so,…
 …,if not,…
 …otherwise,…
 …caused…
 …contributes to…

To infer/clarify:

 in other words
 in that case
 then
 (or) else
 otherwise
 The chances are that…
 Probably, there is some truth in the idea that…
 It makes no difference whether…
 That is (to say)…
 To put it another way,
 which means that…
 put simply,
 to clarify
 to explain
 to rephrase it
 to put it more (simply),
 basically
 i.e., (that is)

To give alternatives:

 alternatively,
 on the other hand,
 then again
 either…or…
 (better) still
 the alternative is

To refer to other sources (for reference):

 With reference to…
 According to…
 regarding…
 concerning…
 with respect to
 with regard to
 in regard to
 in reference to
 to turn to
 as for…
 incidentally
 The work of X indicates/reveals/shows that…
 Turning to X, one finds that…
 In a study of Y, X found that…
 As X has indicated…

To express purpose/intention:

 so that
 so as to
 in order to
 in case
 with the purpose/intention of
 to
 for

To make general statements:

 As a (general) rule,
 By and large,
 Generally,
 In general,
 On the whole,
 In most cases,
 All things considered,
 All in all,
 For the most part,
 In the main,
 As a rule,
 Overall,
 On average,

To make partially correct statements:

 In some cases,
 Up to a point,
 To a certain extent/degree,
 To some extent/degree,
 In a sense,
 In a way,
 To a limited extent,
 This is partly true (but)
 There is some truth in (this)

To state other people’s opinion:

 It is popularly believed that…
 People often claim that…
 It is often alleged that…
 Some people argue that…
 Many argue that…
 Most people feel that…
 Some people point out that…
 Contrary to popular belief,
To express condition:

 on the condition that
 provided (that)
 providing (that)
 only if
 as long as
 in the event of
 in the event that
 if
 in case
 whether (or not)
 otherwise
 or (else)
 presuming (that)
 assuming (that)
 on the assumption that
 given (that)
 with the provision that
 with/on the understanding that
 contingent to

To express time:

 when
 whenever
 before (that time)
 till
 after (a while)
 since (then)
 as
 while
 now that
 afterwards
 at first/last/the same time
 thereafter
 in the end
 meanwhile
 concurrently
 soon
 as soon as
 finally
 next
 immediately
 in the future
 subsequently
 at that time
 so far
 somewhat
 earlier
 shortly
 over the next (2 days, month, etc.)
 as long as

Miscellaneous
(adverbs and phrases may be used at the beginning of sentences to show
how the sentence which follows relates to the rest of the text):

 Admittedly, (used to introduce a concession or recognition that sth is true or
is the case)
 All things considered,
 As a general rule,
 Astonishingly, (= surprisingly)
 Broadly, (= in general)
 By and large, (= on the whole)
 Characteristically, (= typically)
 Clearly, (= without doubt)
 Coincidentally, (= happening by chance)
 Conveniently,
 Curiously, (= strangely)
 Disappointingly,
 Equally, (= to the same extent or degree)
 Essentially, (= basically)
 Explicitly, (= in a clear and detailed way)
 Even so, (= in spite of that)
 Eventually, (= in the end)
 Fortunately,
 Fundamentally, (= essentially)
 Generally speaking,
 Interestingly,
 Ironically,
 In essence, (= fundamentally)
 In general,
 In particular,
 In practice,
 In reality,
 In retrospect, (= when looking back)
 In hindsight (= when looking back)
 In theory,
 In view of this,
 More interestingly,
 More seriously,
 More specifically,
 Naturally,
 On balance,
 Obviously,
 On reflection,
 Overall,
 Paradoxically, (= self-contradictory)
 Potentially, (= possibly)
 Predictably,
 Presumably,
 Primarily, (= firstly)
 Probably,
 Remarkably,
 Seemingly, (= apparently)
 Significantly,
 Surprisingly,
 Theoretically,
 To all intents and purposes, (= essentially)
 Typically,
 Ultimately, (= in the end)
 Understandably,
 Undoubtedly,
 Unfortunately,
 With hindsight,