What Is a Linking Sentence in an Essay?

By Staff Writer | Last Updated August 4, 2015

A linking sentence coherently connects two other sentences together in an essay. It is placed between the two sentences in order to provide them with more context, allowing the paragraph to proceed in a logical fashion. A linking sentence found at the end of a paragraph or the beginning of a new paragraph is known as a transitional sentence. It serves to link paragraphs together, rather than sentences.

Beginning writers often use common linking sentences for practice until they become more confident. A linking sentence differs from a linking word, the latter being used to form a complete thought. A linking word, such as “however,” “furthermore” or “also,” links other words together and often comes at the beginning of a sentence. Linking words can also exist as phrases, such as “the reason for” or “as such.”

Essay writers who receive notes on their submitted work like “choppy” or “hard to follow” should understand that these comments point to a lack of transitional material. Writers can evaluate how well their linking sentences and words work by rereading their content and writing a short summary or outline of the work. If the outline or summary has a logical flow, the work likely features good transitions.