Common Verbs in Academic Writing

In research articles signaling verbs serve several purposes:

1. Making specific references to literature on the subject or previous research. e.g. report that/state that/indicate that/say that 2. Reporting findings of the study at hand or explaining phenomena that arise. e.g. show that/demonstrate that/means that

Signal Words can be grouped according to the subjects they are commonly used with:
Subject
A researcher e.g. Ur (1989) She/he An institution or group of people e.g. Nations policy makers, several teachers They We

Signal Verb
Accept Acknowledge Agree Add Admit Advance Advice Affirm Agree Announce Answer Anticipate Argue Assume Aver Believe Caution Charged Cited Claimed Clarified Commented Concluded Confessed Confided Conjectured Considered Contended Corroborated Decided

frequency
That

Declared Deemed Demanded Demonstrate Deny Denounced Described Determined Disagreed Discovered Documented Elaborated Emphasize Established Estimated Explained Expressed Feared Take it for granted Posited Proclaimed Proposed Reasoned Recalled Recognized Recommended Remarked Reported Responded Speculated Stated Stressed Suggested Surmised Suspected Theorized Uncovered Warned Appeared Demonstrate (Have/has) demonstrated Proved

It Responses This/empirical research Tests His writing Relationship Data examination Research (on teacher beliefs) The data Studies (on)

That That

(have) determined

That

Interviews Constant recording The results We They (e.g. economists) have largely The teachers comments/it/this/he/they The study /recent research (has)/Brent(1990)/these results We He/ Brent(1990) They/ jamaal and Zack Amber (2000), the majority of the participants We/he/Oberman (1990)/several Studies have We We (have)/ he It should be It is now widely Several respondents The analyses / 80 percent of the sample Findings of the studies/interviews / the sample The OECD It The sample One third of the respondents The findings

Ensured Established Hypothesized Ignored Implied Indicated Judged Maintained Mentioned noted observed Postulated Realized Reasoned Recognized reflected Confirmed Reported Revealed Showed Required Seemed Showed Stated Suggested

That That That That That That That That That That That That That That That That That

That That That That That

Signal Words Commonly used with passive constructions Subject It is It can be We were Students were He is It has been No data were It might be Most people are A measure It has been It cannot be Signal Word Assumed

That

Assured Astonished Calculated collected Concluded Convinced Created Demonstrated Denied

That That That That (could discofirm) That That That (can be used) That That

Quantitative methods can be It was It should be It was It is It can be It was It is It is It should not be It should be It should not be It should be It has been It has been It could be It was It is It should be It should be It should be The reader is/the students are often /the audience is It is It should be

Designed Determined Emphasized Envisaged Estimated Expected Feared Hoped Hypothesized Ignored Mentioned neglected noted observed Predicted Presumed Proposed recommended Reiterated Remarked Remembered Reminded Required Stressed

That (may permit) That That That That That That That That That That That That That That That That That That That That That That That

Accept that Nationspolicy makers have accepted that rationing is inevitable. Ur (1989) accepted that the three conditionals are not even the most frequent or useful but argued that they occurfrequently enough to be considered useful.