7. Firstly… Secondly… Boringly... Please do not lead off every paragraph with a linking word. Pretty please with sugar on it. Even when I beg, plead, and threaten, a hardy few hand in essays with this structure: PARAGRAPH ONE: (come to think of it, you can’t start with a linking word. Let’s move on…) PARAGRAPH TWO: “Firstly,...” PARAGRAPH THREE: “Secondly,...” PARAGRAPH FOUR: “Thirdly,...” PARAGRAPH FIVE: “In conclusion,...” When I forget to beg, plead, and threaten students, about half the class in first year hands in essays with the above structure. There are several solid reasons for not building starting each paragraph with a linking word. Here are three: 1) Very few English-language newspaper and other essays do this, which means that your essay will probably sound unnaturally foreign. 2) Usually you can do without the linking words; use “Firstly,..., Secondly,..., Thirdly,...” when you need to help the reader keep track of arguments. 3) (The Big One) It is crushingly dull to mark essays that all look the same, that all look like a high school exercise. Your paper will not seem unique and will not be in the running for a top grade. (See “Linking Words” in Writing Short Literature Essays, 90-95) 8. “While” vs. “Whereas” “Whereas” establishes a more marked contrast, than “while” does. The reader might understand “Sarah goes to university, while John goes shopping” to mean “Sarah goes to university [every day], and John goes shopping [every day].” If “while” is in the first position, there is more ambiguity: “While Sarah goes to university, John goes shopping.”
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