What are these extra phrases added to the beginning of sentences called?
I find that my students are using a lot of these phrases at the beginning of their sentences:
- First...
- First of all...
- To begin with...
- All in all...
- The other reason is that...
- Above all...
- At last but not least...
- Taking all the reasons and examples into consideration...
- In a word...
Do these phrases have a common name?
Is there a special term for such phrases when they do not add any meaning to the sentence they are added to?
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The term is metadiscourse, or communication about the communication. Sometimes they help guide the reader through a complex line of reasoning. Sometimes they add emphasis or rhythm. Sometimes they're just noise.
"Use them liberally" (from your other post) seems like coarse advice, perhaps useful until students can distinguish for themselves whether the text requires such orientation, or until they can write the text so that less orientation is necessary.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/8957. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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I would see these as transitions, bits which help move the reader smoothly from one thought (spread over one or several paragraphs) to the next.
I think presenting it that way will give your students a clear reason whether to use this literary tool:
- Am I introducing a new thought?
- Am I wrapping up the previous thought?
If not, then remove the phrase.
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