Useful Phrases for Writing

Useful Phrases for Writing Essays This list is not exhaustive, but has been designed to give you the basic 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.

On the one hand, …. on the other hand, … If 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

A. General Essay Phrases

Furthermore, one should not forget that... In addition to... Moreover... It is important to add that…

Developing the argument

Accepting other points of view

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 It would also be interesting to see... One should, nevertheless, consider the problem from another angle. Equally relevant to the issue are the questions of...

Conclusion The arguments we have presented... suggest that.../ prove that.../ would indicate that... From these arguments one must.../ could.../ might... conclude that... All of this points to the conclusion that... To conclude, …

Ordering elements Firstly,.../ Secondly,.../ Finally,... (note the comma after all these introductory words.) As a final point, …

Nevertheless, one should accept that... However, we also agree that...

Personal opinion We/I personally believe that... Our/My own point of view is that... It is my contention that… I am convinced that … My own opinion is …

Others' opinions According to some critics... Critics believe that say that suggest that are convinced that point out that emphasise that contend that go as far as to say that argue for this

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Introducing examples

Moderating, agreeing, disagreeing

For example, … For instance, … To illustrate this point...

By and large... Perhaps we should also point out the fact that... It would be unfair not to mention that fact that... One must admit that... We cannot ignore the fact that... One cannot possibly accept the fact that...

Introducing facts It is... true that.../ clear that.../ noticeable that... One should note here that...

Saying what you think is true

Consequences

This leads us to believe that... It is very possible that... In view of these facts, it is quite likely that...

From these facts, one may conclude that... That is why, in our opinion, ... Which seems to confirm the idea that... Thus,.../ Therefore,...

Certainty

Comparison

Doubtless,... One cannot deny that... It is (very) clear from these observations that...

Some critics suggest..., whereas others... Compared to... On the one hand there is the firm belief that... On the other hand, many people are convinced that...

Doubt All the same, it is possible that... It is difficult to believe that...

B. Phrases For Balanced Arguments

Accepting other points to certain degree

Introduction

One can agree up to a certain point with... Certainly,... However,... It cannot be denied that...

Emphasising particular points The last example highlights that fact that... Not only... but also... We would even go so far as to say that...

It is often said that... It is undeniable that... It is a well-known fact that... One of the most striking features of this text is...

Thesis The first thing that needs to be said is... First of all, let us try to analyse... One argument in support of... We must distinguish carefully between... The second reason for... 2

An important aspect of the text is... It is worth stating at this point that...

was thrown by him" (passive voice). As you can see, passive voice is wordier and less direct.

Antithesis

Sentence variety

On the other hand, we can observe that... The other side of the coin is, however, that... Another way of looking at this question is to...

Make sure there's some variety in the length and types of your sentences. Work at occasionally opening a sentence with something other than the subject. Student writers often tend to write strings of short, simple sentences. This makes the paper choppy and makes the ideas sound simpleminded. If choppy sentences are a problem, combine some of them into longer and more complex sentences.

Conclusion What conclusions can be drawn from all this? 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 Verbs The quickest way to improve your writing is by paying attention to verbs. •

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English is a language rich in verbs, so the use of vague verbs or long verb phrases is unnecessary. Simply converting "takes a look at" to "examines," "talks about in detail" to "analyzes," etc. will make a difference in your prose. Weak action verbs (such as do, get, have, go, make, say, etc.) can often be replaced by stronger ones ("has," for example, can be replaced by words like "displays," "exemplifies," "demonstrates," etc.). Weak action verbs paired with an adverb can usually be treated similarly ("talk heatedly," for instance, becomes "argue"), as can those paired with a noun ("make an argument" becomes "argue," "give an explanation" becomes "explain," etc.). And as much as possible, make sure your verbs are in the active voice: "He threw the ball" (active voice) rather than "The ball 3