Discourse Markers Communication with Dr Ruth

Discourse markers (3)
known phrases – ‘for example’, ‘for instance’, and ‘to illustrate’. In the sentences that follow, see how these phrases are used to illustrate some points.
1.The quality of fabric in the market is on a steady decline. Take the 4 by 6 bedding sets, for example. They used to be of very high quality, but now I can’t vouch for them any longer.
2.Children like to throw tantrums, and if they are often obliged, it portends problems for their parents. For instance, if a two-year- old insists on having chocolates every time the parents go shopping, it may affect the family budget.
Do come up with better examples to illus- trate the use of those expressions, will you?
Now, let’s move on to how we can show in discourse the logical consequence of a thing or action. To show that what is said follows logically from what was previously said, use expressions like ‘so’, ‘as a result’, ‘therefore’, and ‘consequently’. Sentence examples now follow.
1. His marriage wasn’t supported by his children; therefore, he wasn’t welcome to their home.
2. I am extremely famished, so I have to go look for an eatery.
3. Henry read a lot for his exams. Conse- quently, he passed with flying colours.
I’m sure you got that, right?
Great. Let’s now proceed to see how we sum up our thoughts when writing. The fol- lowing phrases work well – to conclude; to sum up; in short; in conclusion; and all in all. Sentence examples:
1.In conclusion, wall papers are beautiful to install in the living room of your apart- ments because they add to the finesse and aesthetics of your home.
2.She’s beautiful, she’s strong, and she’s bold. In short, she’s dynamic!
3.To conclude, I would like to reiterate the three key points I have discussed in this thesis. They are ….
Now you know better how to conclude your formal writeups, don’t you?
The next discourse marker under consideration is that which helps us when we need to show a contradiction of a point made earlier. Use these two phrases – on the contrary, and quite the opposite – when you need to show a different viewpoint from an earlier one.
Examples:
1. Did you say that presentation was successful? In my opinion, it was quite the opposite. It was a total disaster. I think we should call a spade a spade.
2. Men love to be respected; on the con- trary, women prefer to be loved.
3. I do not allow myself to feel weighed down by the unreasonable decisions made by
those around me; on the contrary, I simply forge ahead.
Alright. Let’s now have transition markers that aid showing additions as we write. They help your paragraphs stand out and link your sentences beautifully. Such linking words include the following: also; additionally; in addition; furthermore; more so; moreover; what is more; besides; on top of that; another thing (after using ‘one thing’ or having stated something); again.
Examples:
1. Artificial intelligence is known by many people nowadays; moreover, people can ac- cess it if they pay a little amount of money.
2. ChatGPT is a model that was trained to interact in a conversational way. In addition, it has a dialogue format that makes it possible for questions to be answered by the model, and it can reject any inappropriate requests sent to it.
3. Furthermore, it is a model that was trained using RLHF, which stands for Rein- forcement Learning from Human Feedback.
And we can go on and on like that! Link sentences and paragraphs using those con- nectives to help your expressions stand out and convey the intended meaning.
So far in this series we have considered how different discourse markers can serve different purposes. We have seen that there are discourse markers for adding, contradict- ing, generalising, giving examples, dismissing of previous discourse, changing of subject, returning to previous subject, structuring, conceding and counter arguing, softening and correcting, showing logical consequence, making things clear, and giving details.
I hope you will not only read this post but go on to improve your writing by using the discourse markers shared.
hegemony, winning in a landslide and leaving people with the question “how did it happen?” In Abuja, Nigeria’s current political capital, he won convincingly trouncing the two other es- tablished political parties with all their sterile structures. What a feat! As I write this piece, there are reports that the Labour Party has won 36 seats in the House of Representatives and six seats in the Senate. Yet the party does not have any structure. Ordinary people are winning elections without bribing anybody. Okada riders and taxi drivers are winning elections. The mindset in Nigeria now is that once anybody prints a poster with Peter Obi
by the side, victory is assured. Obidients have become a formidable army across the country. From “four people tweeting in a room,” it has become a strong political movement bigger than a political party. Today, PDP politicians are begging Obidients. APC politicians are begging Obidients. Current governors of other parties are begging Obidients. “Please save my political career, vote for me”. Peter Obi, you are an enigma.
Political Science scholars and students of Sociology have a responsibility to study the person of Obi to understand the secret behind his success. What did he do differently or what is he doing differently? Why do millions of people, especially youths, across religious and ethnic lines love him? Why do they believe in him and embrace anybody who identifies with him? The answer to the question is simple
– he personifies honesty, transparency and genuine dedication to the plight of the com- mon man. At no time did Nigerians believe and trust a politician the way they believe and trust Peter Obi. Even his political detractors acknowledge that something has changed in Nigeria’s politics with Peter Obi’s emergence on the national scene. INEC may have clan- destinely, like a thief in the night, while people slept, announced APC as the winner of the last presidential election but Nigerians have their hearts somewhere. They are convinced Peter Obi of the Labour Party won the election. Elec- tion aside, Peter Obi is winning. Let the victory continue.
•Adiele, PhD, writes from Mountain Top University; [email protected]; Twitter: @Drpee4
Explaining Peter Obi’s victory
SPEAKING & WRITING
With Dr. Ruth K.B