8 Linking signals, tone units and word order

Linking signals (first, secondly, therefore, in contrast, in conclusion) are the reader's map. In speech, dividing the message into tone units — pauses that group words into meaning — decides whether a sentence is heard as a condition or an assertion; in writing, punctuation does that work. Fronting and inversion ("Subject to clause 4, the buyer may…"; "Not only did the officer refuse, he also…") shift emphasis; the cleft sentence ("It was the manager who signed") points at one element. Use them deliberately, not for ornament.