Connectors

 Two of the most important features of any good piece of writing are coherence and cohesion. In order to have a coherent text, we must ensure that our ideas are well organised and that follow a logical progression from beginning to end. Furthermore, to have cohesion in a text, apart from a proper use of syntactical elements, we must make good use of English connectors. These connectors are one of the elements that B1 students (intermediate level) find most difficult to start incorporating into their Writing. For this reason, in this post I’m going to teach you to use B1 connectors in English for intermediate students. Because if you want to improve your writing skills, you must use connectors.

What are English connectors?

These, also called linkers, connectives or linking words, are the glue that holds your sentences together. A text wouldn’t be a proper text if we didn’t use connectors appropriately. However, this is one of the things that lower-intermediate and intermediate English students struggle with most. Sometimes, they don’t know an appropriate one to use or they don’t know how to use it properly. For this reason, in this post, we will go over some essential connectors which are simply perfect for intermediate English learners. I have divided them into 3 groups: reason, purpose and result; contrast, and addition.

Reason, purpose and result connectors

because (of), as, since

We use these three linking words to give a reason for something. “Because” is more common than “as” and “since”.

“She didn’t tell him because/as/since she was afraid to.”

We use “because of” when the reason is a noun, not a sentence.

“Sihab knew Labu because of his brother.”

“We didn’t recognise him because of the sunglasses.”

So & therefore

We use “so” and “therefore” when we give the result of something. “So” is usually in the middle of a sentence, whereas “therefore” usually appears at the beginning and followed by a comma.

“I’m really tired so I won’t go out tonight.”

“I’m really tired. Therefore, I won’t go out tonight.”