Useful Essay Words and Phrases

Useful Essay Words and Phrases

Certain words are used to link ideas and to signpost the reader the direction your line of reasoning is about to take, such as adding more emphasis, or introducing an alternative point of view.

Below is a selection of words used to link ideas, depending on the direction of your argument.

Adding more to a point already made

moreover; furthermore; again; further; what is more; in addition

besides; above all; as well (as)

either; neither…nor; not only…but also; similarly; correspondingly; in the same way; indeed

in fact; really; in reality, it is found that…

as for; as to; with respect to; regarding

Writing in lists

first(ly); second(ly); third(ly)

another; yet another; in addition; finally

to begin with; in the second place

moreover; additionally; also

next; then; and to conclude; lastly; finally

Putting the same idea in a different way

in other words; rather; or; better; in that case

to put it (more) simply

in view of this; with this in mind

to look at this another way

Introducing examples

that is to say; in other words

for example; for instance; namely; an example of this is

and; as follows; as in the following examples; such as; including

especially; particularly; in particular; notably; chiefly; mainly; mostly

Introducing an alternative viewpoint

by contrast; another way of viewing this is; alternatively; again; rather; one alternative is; another possibility is

on the one hand…on the other hand

conversely; in comparison; on the contrary; in fact; though; although

Returning to emphasise your earlier viewpoint

however; nonetheless; in the final analysis; despite x; notwithstanding x; in spite of x

while x may be true, nonetheless

although; though; after all; at the same time; on the other hand; all the same; even if x is true; although x may have a good point

Showing the results of something

therefore; accordingly; as a result

so, (then,) it can be seen that

the result is; the consequence is

resulting from this; consequently; now

we can see, then, that; it is evident that

because of this; thus; hence; for this reason; owing to x; this suggests that; it follows that

in other words; otherwise; in that case; that implies

Summing up or concluding

therefore; so, my conclusion is

in short; in conclusion; to conclude; in all; on the whole

to summarise; to sum up briefly; in brief; altogether; overall; thus; thus we can see that

Useful phrases to introduce quotations

• as X points out,…
• According to X,…
• To quote from X, ‘…’
• X states/suggests that…
• X tells/shows us that…
• In an article entitled ‘Name of Text’, X makes the point that…
• Referring to …, X argues that
• As X stated/wrote/argued/discussed/expressed the concern, …
• In Name of Text, X primarily suggests …
• Whilst acknowledging … X makes the significant claim that …
• Writing in 1926, X argued that …

Useful phrases to follow quotations

• However, Y suggests that
• Yet this does not go far enough
• This seems untenable because
• This theory best fits the known facts, since…

References

Stella Cottrell The Study Skills Handbook (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003)

Useful words and phrases found in research reading