All the Transition Words You'll Ever Need for Academic Writing

In academic writing, transitions are the glue that holds your ideas together. Without them, your writing would be illogical and lack flow, making it difficult for your audience to understand or replicate your research.

In this article, we will discuss the types of transitions based on their purpose. Familiarizing yourself with these most-used and best transition terms for academic writing will help bring clarity to your essays and make the writing process much easier on you.

Like the links on a chain, transition words hold an academic paper together and make ideas flow logically. Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash.

Types of transitions

There are four types of transitions: Causal, Sequential, Adversative and Additive. Below, we've listed the most commonly used transitions in each of these categories, as well as examples of how they might be used to begin a paragraph or sentence.

Causal

When you use causal transitions, you are letting your reader know that there is a cause-and-effect relationship between ideas or paragraphs or consequences.

Accordingly ("Accordingly, the author states…")
All else being equal ("All else being equal, these ideas correlate…")
As a consequence ("As a consequence, all data were aggregated…")
As a result (of this) ("As a result of this finding, scholars now agree…")
Because (of the fact that) ("Because of the fact that these numbers show signs of declining,…")
Because (of this) ("Because of this, scholars determined…")
Consequently ("Consequently, the research was stalled…")
Due to (the fact that) ("Due to the fact that all prior studies showed similar results,…")
For the purpose(s) of ("For the purposes of our argument, we will…")
For this reason ("For this reason, the researchers…")
Granted (that) ("Granted that the numbers were significantly higher, the study…")
Granting (that) ("Granting that the data was collected incorrectly, the researchers felt…")
If…then ("If this data is significant, then it is obvious that…")
If so ("If so, the data is not useable…")
In the event ("In the event that it is not significant, we should consider that…")
Inasmuch as ("Insomuch as the authors attempt to refute these findings, research suggests that…")
In the hope that ("In the hope that new data will encourage more in-depth research, the author found that….")
In that case ("In that case, we've found that…")
Only if ("Only if data is insubstantial should findings be ignored, thus…")
Otherwise ("Otherwise, the research would continue…")
Owing to (the fact) ("Owing to the fact that the gathered data is incorrect, …")
Provided (that) ("Provided that the same results occur, we can assume that…")
Since ("Since it would seem futile to continue to study this topic, we posit that…")
So as to ("So as to clarify past remarks, we initiated further research…")
So long as ("So long as there is established credibility, this journal seeks….")
So much (so) that ("The data is manipulated so much so that it can't be used to clarify…")
Therefore ("Therefore, this result compromises the exploration into…")
That being the case ("That being the case, we should look into alternatives…")
Thus ("Thus, it would see that further research…")
Unless ("Unless this calls to question the original hypothesis, the exploration of this topic would be…")
With (this fact) in mind ("With this fact in mind, let's consider another alternative…")
Under those circumstances ("Under those circumstances, fewer participants…")

Sequential

Sequential transitions show a numerical sequence or the continuation of a thought or action. They are used to establish an order to your main points in an academic essay, and help create a logical outline for your writing.

(Once) again ("Once again, this is not a reason for lack of rigor…")
After (this) ("After this, it would seem most prudent to…")
Afterwards ("Afterwards, it seemed a moot point to determine…")
Altogether ("Altogether, these data suggest that…")
Anyway ("Anyway, such loss would prove to be damaging..")
As (was) mentioned earlier/above ("As was mentioned above, the lack of attention given to…")
As (was) stated before ("As was stated before, there is little evidence show…")
As a final point ("As a final point, consider the connection between…")
At any rate ("At any rate, loss of significance was vital to…")
By the way ("By the way, one can't assume that…")
Coincidentally ("Coincidentally, this affected the nature of…")
Consequently ("Consequently, Smith found that…")
Eventually ("Eventually, more was needed to sustain…")
Finally ("Finally, we now know that…"
First ("First, it seems that even with the additional data…")
First of all ("First of all, none of the respondents felt that…")
Given these points ("Given these points, it's easy to see that…")
Hence ("Hence, we see that the above details…")
In conclusion ("In conclusion, since the data shows significant growth...")
In summary ("In summary, there are not enough studies to show the correlation…")
In the (first/second/third) place ("In the first place, we found that…")
Incidentally ("Incidentally, no findings showed a positive outlook…")
Initially ("Initially, we noticed that the authors….")
Last ("Last, the most significant growth appeared to happen when…")
Next ("Next, it's important to note that…")
Overall ("Overall, we found that….")
Previously ("Previously, it was shown that…")
Returning to the subject ("Returning to the subject, careful observation of trends…")
Second ("Second, it was impossible to know the…")
Secondly ("Secondly, in looking at variable related to…")
Subsequently ("Subsequently, we found that…")
Summarizing (this) ("Summarizing this, the authors noted that…")
Therefore ("Therefore, the connection is unknown between…")
Third ("Third, when data were collected…")
Thirdly ("Thirdly, we noticed that…")
Thus ("Thus, there was no evidence that…)
To conclude ("To conclude, the findings suggest that…")
To repeat ("To repeat, no studies found evidence that…")
To resume ("To resume the conversation, we began discussing…")
To start with ("To start with, there is no evidence that…")
To sum up ("To sum up, significant correlation was found…")
Ultimately ("Ultimately, no studies found evidence of…")

Adversative Transitions

Adversative transitions show contrast, counter arguments or an alternative suggestion.

Above all ("Above all, we found that…"
Admittedly ("Admittedly, the findings suggest that…")
All the same ("All the same, without knowing which direction the study would take…")
Although ("Although much is to be learned from…")
At any rate ("At any rate, we concluded that...")
At least ("At least, with these results, we can…")
Be that as it may ("Be that as it may, there was no significant correlation between…")
Besides ("Besides, it is obvious that…")
But ("But, the causal relationship between…")
By way of contrast ("By the way of contrast, we note that…")
Conversely ("Conversely, there was no correlation between…")
Despite (this) ("Despite this, the findings are clear in that…")
Either way ("Either way, studies fail to approach the topic from…")
Even more ("Even more, we can conclude that…")
Even so ("Even so, there is a lack of evidence showing…")
Even though ("Even though the participants were unaware of which ….")
However (However, it becomes clear that…")
In any case ("In any case, there were enough reponses…")
In any event ("In any event, we noted that…")
In contrast ("In contrast, the new data suggests that…")
In fact ("In fact, there is a loss of…")
In spite of (this) ("In spite of this, we note that…")
Indeed ("Indeed, it becomes clear that…")
Instead (of) ("Instead of publishing our findings early, we chose to")
More/Most importantly ("More importantly, there have not been any…")
Nevertheless ("Nevertheless, it becomes clear that…")
Nonetheless ("Nonetheless, we failed to note how…")
Notwithstanding (this) ("Notwithstanding this, there was little evidence…")
On the contrary ("On the contrary, no active users were…")
On the other hand ("On the other hand, we cannot avoid…")
Primarily ("Primarily, it becomes significant as…")
Rather ("Rather, none of this is relevant…")
Regardless (of) ("Regardless of previous results, the authors…")
Significantly ("Significantly, there was little correlation between…")
Still ("Still, nothing was noted in the diary…")
Whereas ("Whereas little evidence has been given to…")
While ("While causality is lacking…")
Yet ("Yet, it becomes clear that…")

Additive Transitions

You'll use an additive transition to relate when new information is being added or highlighted to something that was just mentioned.

Additionally ("Additionally, it can be noted that…")
Also ("Also, there was no evidence that….")
As a matter of fact ("As a matter of fact, the evidence fails to show…")
As for (this) ("As for this, we can posit that…")
By the same token ("By the same token, no studies have concluded…")
Concerning (this) ("Concerning this, there is little evidence to…")
Considering (this) ("Considering this, we must then return to…")
Equally ("Equally, there was no correlation…")
Especially ("Especially, the study reveals that…")
For example ("For example, a loss of one's….")
For instance ("For instance, there was little evidence showing…")
Furthermore ("Furthermore, a lack of knowledge on…")
In a similar way ("In a similar way, new findings show that…")
In addition to ("In addition to this new evidence, we note that…")
In fact ("In fact, none of the prior studies showed…")
In other words ("In other words, there was a lack of…")
In particular ("In particular, no relationship was revealed…")
In the same way ("In the same way, new studies suggest that…")
Likewise ("Likewise, we noted that…)
Looking at (this information) ("Looking at this information, it's clear to see how…)
Moreover ("Moreover, the loss of reputation of…")
Namely ("Namely, the authors noted that…")
Not only…but also ("Not only did the study reveal new findings, but also it demonstrated how….")
Notably ("Notably, no other studies have been done…")
On the subject of (this) ("On the subject of awareness, participants agreed that….")
One example (of this is) ("One example of this is how the new data…")
Particularly ("Particularly, there is little evidence showing…")
Regarding (this) ("Regarding this, there were concerns that…")
Similarly ("Similarly, we note that…")
Specifically ("Specifically, there were responses that…")
That is ("That is, little attention is given to…")
The fact that ("The fact that the participants felt misinformed…")
This means (that) ("This means that conclusive findings are…")
To illustrate ("To illustrate, one participant wrote that….")
To put it another way ("To put it another way, there is little reason to…")
What this means is ("What this means is the authors failed to…")
With regards to (this) ("With regards to this, we cannot assume that…")

Making the choice

When deciding which transition would best fit in each instance, keep in mind a few of these tips:

Avoid using the same transition too much, as it could make your writing repetitive.
Check at the beginning of each paragraph to ensure that a) you've included a transition, if one was needed, and b) it's the correct transition to accurately relate the type of logical connection you're forming between ideas.
Be sure that if you are using sequential transitions, they match. For example, if you use "first" to highlight your first point, "second" should come next, then "third," etc. You wouldn't want to use "first", followed by "secondly."