Transitional phrases at the beginning of topic sentences

A topic sentence is the first sentence of a paragraph in the essay body. When you write a topic sentence, try to begin with a transitional phrase. Here are some examples that you can use at the beginning of your first topic sentence:

first of all, first and foremost, for starters, in the first place, for one thing, to begin with.

Here are some possible transitions for the second topic sentence:

second, second of all, more importantly, another key point is that…