A list of linking words to help you improve the cohesion and coherence of your writing. They are listed in several categories including personal opinion, the expression of probability, advantages and disadvantages, listing points, giving instructions, making reference, expressing cause and effect, emphasising a point...

1. @MsEOITeacher Linking words & Phrases 1
LINKING WORDS
& PHRASES
IN WRITING
Personal Opinion
As far as I am concerned,
As I see it,
I am convinced that,
I am inclined to believe that,
I think that,
In my opinion/ view,
It is my firm belief that,
It is my opinion that
It seems to me that,
It strikes me that,
Personally, I
To my mind,
To my way of thinking,
To Express Probability
In all probability
It is (in)conceivable that
There is a chance that
There is every/little likelihood of…
There is every/little likelihood that…
will…
To List Advantages
One advantage of
The first advantage of
Another advantage of
One other advantage of
A further advantage of
The main advantage of
The greatest advantage of
To List Disadvantages
One disadvantage of
The first disadvantage of
Another disadvantage of
One other disadvantage of
A further disadvantage of
The main disadvantage of
The greatest disadvantage of
To List points
Finally
First of all
Firstly
In the first place
Secondly
Thirdly
To start/ begin with

2. @MsEOITeacher Linking words & Phrases 2
To List Points in a Specific Sequence
BEGINNING
First
First of all
Firstly
To start/ begin with
CONTINUING
After this/that
Afterwards
Besides
Furthermore
In addition
In the second place
Moreover
Next
Secondly
Then
CONCLUDING
Above all
Finally
In brief
In conclusion
In short
Last but not least
Lastly
To sum up
To Add More Points to the Same Topic
… both …
Apart from this/that
Besides (this), …
Furthermore
In addition (to this)
Moreover
Not only…, but … also
Not to mention the fact that
What is more
To give instructions
First of all,
Then,
To do this,… until…
If you don’t do this…
Make sure…
Don’t forget…
When you’ve…
At this point…
At the same time,
Finally,
To Refer to other Sources
With reference to
According to
Referring to what
As mentioned before/above,
As I said before/above
The former…
The latter…
To Express Cause
as
because
Because of
due to the fact that
for this reason
In view of

3. @MsEOITeacher Linking words & Phrases 3
now that
on the grounds that
Owing to
owing to the fact that
Seeing that
since
To Express Effect
as a consequence
as a result
consequently
so
therefore
thus
To Express Purpose
in case
so as to/ in order to
so that
with the intention of
with the purpose of
To Emphasize a Point
Certainly,
Clearly,
Indeed,
Naturally,
Needless to say,
Obviously,
Of course,
Really
Surely,
To Express Reality
Actually
As a matter of fact
In effect
In fact
In practice
Indeed
It is a fact that
The fact of the matter is (that)
To Express the Difference Between Appearance and Reality
At first Initially
To give examples
eg.
especially
For example
For instance
i.e.
in particular
like
namely
particularly
such as
To Make General Statements
As a (general) rule By and large

4. @MsEOITeacher Linking words & Phrases 4
Generally
In general
On the whole
To Make Partially Correct Statements
In a sense
In a way
To a certain degree
To a certain extent
To a limited extent
To some degree
To some extent
Up to a point
To Express Limit of Knowledge
As far as I know, To the best of my knowledge,
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 Make Contrasting Points
(adj) + though/as
Although
But
Despite of the fact that
Even so
Even though
For all
However
Much as
Nevertheless
No matter
Nonetheless
Regardless of the fact that
Still
While
yet
To Express Balance (the other side of the argument)
Opponents/ Those in favour of of … argue/ claim/ defend/ believe/ maintain that
While it is true to say that …, in fact…
The fact that … contradicts the belief/idea that
Negative Addition
… neither …
… nor…
…, either.
Neither … nor
To Express Exception
apart from but

5. @MsEOITeacher Linking words & Phrases 5
except (for)
To Clarify/ Rephrase
In other words
Or
That is to say
To put it another way
To Express Similarity
by the same token
in the same way
likewise
similarly
To Give an Alternative
Alternatively
Either
On the other hand
To Express Condition
as long as
if
in case
In the event of
In the event that
on the condition that
only if
or (else)
otherwise
provided (that)
providing (that)
whether (or not)
To Express the Consequence of a Condition
consequently,
if so,
in which case,
so,
then,
To Express Comparison
As … as
Less … than
More … than
Not so/as … as
Twice as … as
To Conclude
All in all,
All things considered,
Finally,
For the above mentioned reasons,
In conclusion,
Lastly,
On balance
On the whole,
Taking everything into account,
Taking everything into consideration,
Therefore I feel that,
To sum up,

6. @MsEOITeacher Linking words & Phrases 6
Time
After
As
Before
Now that
Since
Till
Until
When
Whenever
While
Relatives
Who/ whom/ that
Whose
Where
Reference
Regarding
Concerning
With respect to
With regard to
In regard to
In reference to
Summarising
In short,
Briefly,
To put it briefly,
In a nutshell,