Study Skills

Academic writing and essays are an important part of your educational life and you will be submitting many writings while at Bradford College. All of your assignments will be written in formal language. You need to ensure that you demonstrate your knowledge and full understanding as well as your ability to answer the question posed.

A fundamental part of writing an essay (or any submission) is signposting. These should be used in most types of assignments. Your tutor will expect your work to be signposted because they help to guide the reader through your work. Without them, your work can be disorienting, confusing and frustrating.

These words and phrases indicate the direction, order and sequence of your ideas. Significantly, they strengthen the quality, structure and flow of the work that you are submitting.

What does signposting mean?

Signposting means using words to tell your reader about the direction of your essay. They will help them understand as clearly as possible what your writing will be about, where you are going in the writing and how you got to your conclusion.

You can signpost by using single words, long or short phrases, or entire sentences. Most of these can be used in any section of your essay, but some will suit particular fields more than others. Examples of each are provided below:

• single words: initially, however or furthermore
• short phrases: an additional point to consider is, in contrast or in conclusion
• sentence: This report will now address the validity of... or Having discussed the reliability of this new research…  

Signposting in the introduction

You should use an opening statement like this to signpost your introduction: 

This essay will:

• examine
• address
• focus on
• analyse

It will then: 

• clarify
• show
• describe
• ascertain
• establish
• review
• evaluate
• explore

To help to quantify what your essay will do, you should say: 'This essay will address four separate aspects of the argument'. You can also signpost how you will be doing this, for example: 'This essay will attempt to determine whether diesel and petrol are more harmful than electric vehicles by analysing ecological results of their emissions from official reports.' 

 Signposting in the body of the writing

These examples show a word or phrase and what it tells the reader to expect:

• 'This essay will now' — introduces the next point or argument
• 'Furthermore' — takes the point, issue, or data further than before
• 'In contrast' — includes a challenge, opposition or strong alternative to what you have been saying previously
• 'However' — this also adds an alternative or challenge, but less strongly than the phrase 'In contrast'

Signposting in your conclusion

Not all of the terms that you’ve used previously are appropriate in your conclusion. You can use some terms and phrases from the introduction and main body of your essay in the conclusion as well, but it can be better if you change the verb tense.  You shouldn't introduce new material in a conclusion in order to summarise your writing.  You should probably use the present perfect tense ('This essay has addressed...' ‘I have detailed…) or present tense ('This essay clarifies…'’ The research clearly indicates…). 

Transitions and Linking Words

Transitions in your writings also link one main idea to another separated by a semi-colon or a full-stop.  When the transition word is at the beginning of the sentence, it should be followed by a comma:

Among other functions, they can signal cause and effect or sequencing as well.

Linking words within a sentence are referred to as coordinating conjunctions.  Look at the list below and think about the function.

Remember that ‘Less Is More’. This is especially true when you have to reduce the word count to meet, and not exceed, the required number of your submission. Too many signposts and linking words can be almost as bad as having none. If you need to cut words, this can be a starting point.