Signalling transition

Previewing what is to follow in a paper or dissertation is like showing a map to a driver; it enables them to see where they are going. So it is useful to think of a preview section as a ‘road map’ for the reader. It must be accurate, but it must be easy to follow.

Writers are also expected to indicate to the reader when they are moving from one topic to another, or from one section of text to another. These are known as transition statements and examples of these, together with some previewing statements, are given below.

Previewing sections of text

The section below describes …
What follows is an account of …
In the following pages, I will present …
The following is a brief description of …
In the section that follows, it will be argued that …
The problem of X is discussed in the following section.
A more detailed account of X is given in the following section.
The structure and functions of X will be explained in the following section.
The following part of this paper moves on to describe in greater detail the …

 

The section below
The section that follows
discusses …
provides a brief overview of …
establishes the framework for …
reviews the literature related to …
explores the relationship between …
presents two influential theories which …
Introducing a new topic

Regarding X, …
As regards X, …
In terms of X, …
In the case of, X …
With regard to X, …
With respect to X, …
On the question of X, …
As far as X is concerned, …

Reintroducing a topic

As discussed above, …
As explained earlier, …
As previously stated, …
As indicated previously, …
As described on the previous page, …
As was mentioned in the previous chapter, …
Returning (briefly) to the (subject/issue) of X, …
As explained in the introduction, it is clear that …
As was pointed out in the introduction to this paper, …

Moving from one section to the next

Turning now to …
Let us now turn to …
Let us now consider …
Moving on now to consider …
Turning now to the experimental evidence on …
Before proceeding to examine X, it is important to …
Before explaining these theories, it is necessary to …
Having defined what is meant by X, I will now move on to discuss …
So far this paper has focused on X. The following section will discuss …
This chapter has demonstrated that … It is now necessary to explain the course of …
Having discussed how to construct X, the final section of this paper addresses ways of …
This section has analysed the causes of X and has argued that … The next part of this paper will …

Moving from one section to the next, indicating addition or contrast

Another significant aspect of X is …
In addition, it is important to ask …
Unlike Smith, Jones (2014) has argued …
In contrast to Smith, Jones (2014) maintains …
Despite this, little progress has been made in the …
However, this system also has a number of serious drawbacks.
On the other hand, in spite of these recent findings about the role of …,

Summarising a section or chapter

Thus far, the thesis has argued that …
The previous section has shown that …
To conclude this section, the literature identifies …
This section has reviewed the three key aspects of …
In summary, it has been shown from this review that …
This chapter has described the methods used in this investigation and it has …
This section has attempted to provide a brief summary of the literature relating to …
This chapter began by describing X and arguing that … It went on to suggest that the …
In this section, it has been explained that … The chapter that follows moves on to consider the…

Previewing a following chapter

In the chapter that follows, I present …
The next chapter describes the synthesis and evaluation of …
A summary of the main findings, together with …, is provided in the next chapter.
The next chapter describes the procedures and methods used in this investigation …
In the next section, I will present the principal findings of the current investigation …
These analytical procedures and the results obtained from them are described in the next chapter.

 

The next chapter
The following chapter
moves on to consider …
provides an account of …
presents a case study of …
establishes the framework for …
reviews the literature related to …
explores the relationship between …
summarises the main themes that emerged …