SENTENCE CONNECTORS

Here are the sentence connectors used to indicate the stages or steps in a sequence. A description of a process would generally have some of these. Sometimes, the sequence is obvious from the order of sentences, but these sentence connectors help to clarify the sequence. Note the comma following them. They may also come later in the sentence, after subject or auxiliary verb or, less commonly, after the sentence if it is short.

words which mark the opening, or initial stage                                                                   implying a long sequence                                   more formal	first first of all initially
words which mark the last, or ultimate stage	finally, lastly
words which mark next or following stages	next, then
expressions which mark events occurring some time later, not neccessarily next step	subsequently later afterwards
Expressions which mark simultaneous events                            if simultaneous event is brief            event coincides with the one mentioned            unspecified time within a longer period	at this stage meanwhile, at the same time, simultaneously during this process
One word which marks an event occurring after a long process (very long laps of time)	eventually
immediately after (often urgency)	as soon as
similar to as soon as, less urgent (e.g. once the bubbles burst)	just after a short while/time after soon after some time after a long time after as soon as possible as soon as possible after once