Connectives
Connectives are how we create complex, compound and complex-compound sentences and also how we follow on from the end of a sentence or paragraph.
If you are using a connective in order to create a longer sentence you could use lexis such as ‘because’, ‘and’, or ‘but’. For example…
I like reading because it is fun and interesting but sometimes it can take a while.
You don’t need to use multiple connectives in your sentences, often this can make the sentence run on and lose clarity. However, if you do want to use multiple connectives in the same sentence try to use varying connectives rather than saying ‘this and this and this and this’ – it’s repetitive.
See that last line in the paragraph above? It starts with ‘however’. This is a good connective to begin a sentence with as it addresses the sentence before and shows that this next sentence will have an alternate view. Other connectives that can be used for this are ‘although’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘nevertheless’ or ‘in contrast’. You will notice that some of these are phrases rather than words but they are still classed as connectives.
If you wanted to show that the following sentence or paragraph will agree with the point made previously you could use ‘in addition’, ‘moreover’, or ‘similarly to this’