How To Use Sentence Connectors
Once you get a good handle on writing simple sentences in English, it’s time to take it a step further by expressing yourself in more complex ways. While you can successfully write pieces that “make sense” using purely simple constructs, it’s hardly the way we actually speak, for real.
To properly represent natural-sounding English in your writing, you’ll need to use the increasingly complex constructs we use in everyday language, apart from adhering to proper grammar rules (which a grammar checker should easily afford you). The easiest way to do that is to learn how to combine two sentences together by use of a connector.
Sentence connectors are employed to link ideas between two simple sentences, providing coherence to paragraphs and making your writing appear more sophisticated. For the most part, they are used to represent the relationship between two complete statements.
For the most part, sentence connectors will establish the following relationships:
Logical order. Sentence connectors that show order include “in addition,” “firstly,” “furthermore,” “also” and other similar terms.
Significance. Sentence connectors, such as “most importantly,” “above all” and “essentially,” show the order of importance among different subjects.
Contrast. Connecting terms, such as “however,” “in comparison” and “on the contrary,” can highlight the difference between two subjects.
Cause and effect. This type of sentence connector, which terms such as “therefore,” “thus” and “hence,” show a cause and effect relationship between two subjects.
Comparison. When comparing the subjects of two statements, you can use connectors such as “similarly,” “likewise” and “also.”