25418468 useful phrases for writing

8/11/2019 25418468 Useful Phrases for Writing

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Useful Phrases for Writing Essays

This list is not exhaustive, but has been designed to give you thebasic phrases that you can use to structure your essays coherently.

Do not overuse these phrases, and make sure that your essays have plenty of interesting and relevant content.

A. General Essay Phrases

Developing the argument

The first aspect to point out is that...Let us start by considering the facts.

The novel portrays, deals with, revolves around…

Central to the novel is…The character of xxx embodies/ epitomizes…

The other side of the argument

t would also be interesting to see...

!ne should, nevertheless, consider the problem from another angle."#ually relevant to the issue are the #uestions of...

Conclusion

The arguments we have presented... suggest that.../ prove that.../would indicate that...

$rom these arguments one must.../ could.../ might... conclude that...%ll of this points to the conclusion that...

To conclude, …

Ordering elements

$irstly,.../ &econdly,.../ $inally,... 'note the comma after all these

introductory words.(

%s a final point, …

!n the one hand, …. on the other hand, …f on the one hand it can be said that... the same is not true for...

The first argument suggests that... whilst the second suggests that...There are at least xxx points to highlight.

Adding elements$urthermore, one should not forget that...n addition to...

)oreover...

t is important to add that…

Accepting other points of view

*evertheless, one should accept that...

+owever, we also agree that...

Personal opinione/ personally believe that...

!ur/)y own point of view is that...t is my contention that…

am convinced that …)y own opinion is …

Others' opinions

%ccording to some critics...Critics believe that

say thatsuggest thatare convinced that

point out thatemphasise that

contend thatgo as far as to say that

argue for this

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ntroducing e!amples

$or example, …

$or instance, …To illustrate this point...

ntroducing factst is... true that.../ clear that.../ noticeable that...!ne should note here that...

"aying what you thin# is true

This leads us to believe that...t is very possible that...

n view of these facts, it is #uite liely that...

Certainty

oubtless,...!ne cannot deny that...

t is 'very( clear from these observations that...

Dou$t

%ll the same, it is possible that...

t is difficult to believe that...

Accepting other points to certain degree

!ne can agree up to a certain point with...Certainly,... +owever,...t cannot be denied that...

Emphasising particular points

The last example highlights that fact that... *ot only... but also...

e would even go so far as to say that...

%oderating& agreeing& disagreeing

0y and large...

1erhaps we should also point out the fact that...t would be unfair not to mention that fact that...

!ne must admit that...

e cannot ignore the fact that...!ne cannot possibly accept the fact that...

Conseuences

$rom these facts, one may conclude that...That is why, in our opinion, ...

hich seems to confirm the idea that...Thus,.../ Therefore,...

Comparison

&ome critics suggest..., whereas others...Compared to...

!n the one hand there is the firm belief that... !n the other hand,many people are convinced that...

B. Phrases For Balanced Arguments

ntroduction

t is often said that...

t is undeniable that...t is a well2nown fact that...!ne of the most striing features of this text is...

Thesis

The first thing that needs to be said is...$irst of all, let us try to analyse...

!ne argument in support of...e must distinguish carefully between...

The second reason for...

3



%n important aspect of the text is...t is worth stating at this point that...

Antithesis

!n the other hand, we can observe that...

The other side of the coin is, however, that...%nother way of looing at this #uestion is to...

Conclusion

hat conclusions can be drawn from all this4

The most satisfactory conclusion that we can come to is...To sum up... we are convinced that.../ ...we believe that.../ ...we

have to accept that...

C. Remarks

(er$s

The #uicest way to improve your writing is by paying

attention to verbs.

• "nglish is a language rich in verbs, so the use of vague verbs or

long verb phrases is unnecessary. &imply converting 5taes aloo at5 to 5examines,5 5tals about in detail5 to 5analyzes,5 etc.

will mae a difference in your prose.

• ea action verbs 'such as do, get, have, go, mae, say, etc.(

can often be replaced by stronger ones '5has,5 for example, can be replaced by words lie 5displays,5 5exemplifies,55demonstrates,5 etc.(.

• ea action verbs paired with an adverb can usually be treatedsimilarly '5tal heatedly,5 for instance, becomes 5argue5(, as

can those paired with a noun '5mae an argument5 becomes

5argue,5 5give an explanation5 becomes 5explain,5 etc.(.

• %nd as much as possible, mae sure your verbs are in the active

voice6 5+e threw the ball5 'active voice( rather than 5The ball

was thrown by him5 'passive voice(. %s you can see, passivevoice is wordier and less direct.

"entence variety

)ae sure there7s some variety in the length and types of

your sentences. or at occasionally opening a sentence withsomething other than the sub8ect. &tudent writers often tend to writestrings of short, simple sentences. This maes the paper choppy and

maes the ideas sound simpleminded. f choppy sentences are a

problem, combine some of them into longer and more complexsentences.

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25418468 useful phrases for writing

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