A number of techniques are available to aid paragraph coherence. Careful use of transitional words and phrases is essential.

You can use transitional fl ags to introduce an example or an illustration ( for example, for instance), to amplify a point or add another phase of the same idea (additionally, furthermore, next, similarly, fi nally, then), to indicate a conclusion or result (therefore, as a result, thus, in other words), to signal a contrast or a qualification (on the other hand, nevertheless, despite this, on the contrary, still, however, conversely), to signal a comparison (likewise, in comparison, similarly), and to indicate a movement in time.

Certainly Dickens wrote to entertain, but he also wrote to instruct and, perhaps more important, to provoke readers emotions and inspire reform. It is impossible to read Dickens and not detect his views on many of the issues of his day: child labor, workhouses, factory workers, class structures and divisions, missionary zeal, education, revolution, imagination, virtue, disability, health and sanitation, prison systems, court and legal systems, charity, unions, marriage, orphans, and crime.