signposting in essay writing

Effective Signposting

Signposts are words or phrases that help articulate the structure of a piece of writing and ensure that readers don’t get lost. Signposting will flag the most important parts of an argument, signal transitions, and clarify the stakes of an argument.

Here are some examples of helpful signposts:

“This essay examines biblical symbolism in Moby-Dick . . . ” This signpost states the focus of the essay .

“After a review of recent scholarship on biblical symbolism, I consider how Melville relates funerary symbolism to both death and rebirth . . . ” This signpost clarifies how the author’s focus is distinguished from previous scholarship .

“My purpose in focusing on Queequeg’s coffin . . . ” This signpost clarifies the stakes of the author’s argument .

Single words and short phrases can be useful signposts, such as additionally , consequently , however , also , in contrast . But make sure to use these words correctly. However should be used to pivot to an opposing idea or to acknowledge another side of an argument, and consequently indicates that an idea is a result or consequence of a previously discussed idea or point. Signposts that identify the sequence or direction of your argument can also be effective: for example, first , next , then , finally ; or first , second , third , and so on.

Using signposts can improve your writing by giving it structure and direction, but excessive signposting creates unnecessary wordiness and can give the impression that you don’t trust the reader’s ability to follow your argument or that you’re grafting signposts on to compensate for a poorly articulated argument. Here are some signposts that may do more harm than good:

“ It’s important to note that Melville’s treatment . . . ” Show, don’t tell, what is important.

“ What I want to call attention to in this passage . . . ” Skip the wordy opening; lead with “In this passage . . . ”

“ I will now turn to the pulpit of Father Mapple . . . ” If you’ve signposted your essay’s structure at its beginning, you don’t have to give directions throughout .

“ As I argued in the previous section, the symbolism of the white whale . . . ” If the point has been well made, your reader will remember it. Summarize it briefly, but you don’t need to mention the earlier section .

Early drafts of an essay are likely to include some extra signposting, because you may be developing and revising the essay’s structure as you write. For this reason, it’s a good idea to read the final draft of a piece of writing with an eye toward its transitions and signposts, to make sure that they support and clarify your argument. At this stage of revision, you can eliminate any wordy or excessive signposts.

Frank Nzewi 07 October 2021 AT 10:10 AM

This topic is useful to me, because it clarifies the use of signposting.

Your e-mail address will not be published

Join the Conversation

We invite you to comment on this post and exchange ideas with other site visitors. Comments are moderated and subject to terms of service.

If you have a question for the MLA's editors, submit it to Ask the MLA!

Current Students
News & Press
Exam Technique for In-Person Exams
Revising for 24 Hour Take Home Exams
Before the 24 Hour Take Home Exam
Exam Technique for 24 Hour Take Home Exams
Structuring a Literature Review
Writing Coursework under Time Constraints
Reflective Writing
Writing a Synopsis
Structuring a Science Report
Presentations
How the University works out your degree award
Accessing your assignment feedback via Canvas
Inspera Digital Exams
Writing Introductions and Conclusions

Paragraphing

Reporting Verbs

Signposting

Proofreading
Working with a Proofreader
Writing Concisely
The 1-Hour Writing Challenge
Editing strategies
Apostrophes
Semi-colons
Run-on sentences
How to Improve your Grammar (native English)
How to Improve your Grammar (non-native English)
Independent Learning for Online Study
Reflective Practice
Academic Reading
Strategic Reading Framework
Note-taking Strategies
Note-taking in Lectures
Making Notes from Reading
Using Evidence to Support your Argument
Integrating Scholarship
Managing Time and Motivation
Dealing with Procrastination
How to Paraphrase
Quote or Paraphrase?
How to Quote
Referencing
Responsible and Ethical use of AI
Acknowledging use of AI
Numeracy, Maths & Statistics
Library Search
Search Techniques
Keeping up to date
Evaluating Information
Managing Information
Understanding Artificial Intelligence
Getting started with prompts
Thinking Critically about AI
Using Information generated by AI
SensusAccess
Develop Your Digital Skills
Digital Tools to Help You Study

Explore different ways of guiding the reader through your assignment.

Newcastle University
Academic Skills Kit
Academic Writing

Signposting language can help you guide the reader through your writing and make sure the order is clear and flows well. These are small words or phrases that help the reader follow your argument, understand the relationship between your ideas and anticipate what’s going to come next.

These words may not seem important, but they’re really the glue that holds a piece of writing together. Without signposting language, writing can lose direction, become confused and read like a series of unrelated points. Try reading the paragraph without them and see how it changes the meaning.

Signposting words are useful in the introduction to signal your structure, and echoed in the first lines of paragraphs to indicate how the paragraphs relate to each other. They are also useful at sentence level to make the links between them clear. There are different kinds of links and relationships, so you need to choose a signposting word that does the right job.

Signposting of order

You can use these kinds of signposting words to direct the reader through your writing, provide a ‘roadmap’ for the order in which you’re going to talk about things, help them keep on track throughout and remind them of key information or anticipate questions. This kind of signposting can be especially useful for introductions, conclusions and when transitioning from one big idea to another or talking about methods and procedures.

Informs readers of the writing’s overall structure.

First/Firstly,…
To begin with…
Second/Secondly,…
Afterwards,…
Following this…
To conclude,…

Helps readers anticipate content that’ll appear later in the writing.

In the following section…
As we shall see,…
As explored below,…
As will be explained later,…

Reminds readers of important information mentioned earlier.

In the previous section,…
As we have seen,…
As demonstrated above,…
As indicated earlier,…
As discussed previously,…
Prior to this,…
Initially,…

Helps readers identify where they are in the writing’s overall structure.

Turning now to…
Moving on to…
Having considered…we will now consider…
It is now necessary to…
This section identifies…

Signposting of relations

You can use these kinds of signposting words to show that you are constructing logical steps in your argument, show the relationship between ideas and make it clear to the reader where you’re identifying similarities and differences, cause and effect, summaries, examples or particularly important pieces of information.

Tells the reader that this point builds on the previous.

As well as,…
In addition…
Additionally,…
What is more…
To elaborate,…

Tells the reader that this point is a further example of the previous.

Similarly,…
Just as…, so too…
In the same way,…
Correspondingly,…
Complementary to this…

Prepares the reader for an example.

For example,…
For instance,…
To illustrate,…
In particular,
…including…
…as can be seen in…
…as demonstrated by…
…exemplifies…

Tells the reader that this point is in opposition to the previous.

In contrast,…
In comparison,…
Conversely,…
On the other hand,…
Otherwise,…
Alternatively,…
Despite this,…
Nonetheless,…
Nevertheless,…
That aside,…
While this may be true…
Notwithstanding…
Then again,…
On the contrary,…

Tells the reader that this point is a result of the previous.

Therefore,…
Consequently,…
Accordingly,…
As a result,…
This means that…
This causes…
For this reason…
Because of this…
In view of this,…
With this in mind…
It can be seen that…
Resulting from this…
This suggests that…
Subsequently,…

Prepares the reader for a summary of previous points.

In summary,…
Altogether,…
On the whole,…
To review,…

Provides the reader with another way of saying the same thing.

In other words,…
Better still,…
Stated otherwise,…
That is to say,…
Put simply...
To look at this another way....

Helps the reader identify key information.

In particular,…
Especially…
Importantly,…
Furthermore,…

Tips for using signposting language

Choose wisely.

Signposting words aren’t interchangeable and can be really confusing for the reader if used inappropriately. So make sure you choose the right word to reflect the relationship you’re trying to communicate.

Use deliberately

You don’t need to use a signposting word in every sentence, so before you do ask yourself if it helps make the meaning clearer, or just bogs down the writing.

Edit carefully

When you want to get the wordcount down, you might be tempted to get rid of signposting words first so you can keep more of the information. This might not be as useful as it seems, though, because lots of information without any signposting can make it really difficult for the reader to understand what you’re trying to say.