Essay Acedemic Writing

ACADEMIC WRITING – ESSAY

Er. VIPIN MITTAL JIND HARYANA [email protected] 1

ICFAI BUSINESS SCHOOL GURGAON

1. IntroductionEssay Writing


1.1 Introducing the Subject of an Essay

It is often said/asserted/claimed that... – It is often said that John Wesley saved England from a

French-style revolution.– It is often asserted that America has traded higher

inequality for faster growth.

It is sometimes forgotten that...– It is sometimes forgotten that what we’re talking

about is only the northern half of the country.

The concept of...– The concept of animal rights is founded theologically.


1.1 Introducing the Subject of an Essay

• The idea of…– The idea of creating a powerful financial regulator is

finding growing support.

•The question of whether...– The question of whether the economy is capable of

sustained growth is still very much an open one.

•…is much debated…•…the most interesting features of…


1.2 How the Essay is to be organized

• The first thing that needs to be done is…– The first thing that needs to be done is to

identify those areas where you have, or could have, some problems.

• It is important to try to understand…– To answer this question it is important to

understand first why people are still fleeing the country.

• …at the outset…– The first we need to address, however, is the

one we posed at the very outsetEr. VIPIN MITTAL JIND HARYANA

[email protected] 5


I would like to start with… I/We will begin/start by… This essay/paper/project will begin by… I would like to summarize… I would like to outline… Let us look at… Let us begin/start by/with…



First of all, let us… There are a number of issues… We shall see how…


1.3 Limiting the scope of the Essay

• I will deal with the question of…– I will then deal with the question of whether or

not these requirements are compatible with criminal procedure.

• I will confine myself to…– I will confine myself to a few points

• It is beyond the scope of…– It is beyond the scope of this book to discuss

every aspect of this large problem


2. Building an argumentEssay Writing


2.1 Introducing a topic

• The main issue is…– One of the issues under discussion will be land

degradation.• The at stake here is…

– The issue at stake is an absolutely vital one for the future scope of Scottish politics.

• An important aspect of…is…– An essential aspect of knowledge is its

ambiguity and constant change.


2.1 Introducing a topic

It is worth mentioning that… It is interesting to consider… On the question of

Economists are divided on the question of whether we‘re already in a recession.

We are faced with choice between…and… It is argued… There is the argument that…


2.2 Making a generalization

…tend to believe that Politicians have far too much tended to

believe that television and newspapers were the main game.

…a tendency to There is a tendency for people to divorce

around the fourth year of marriage. It is generally/widely accepted/believed

that…



In the (vast) majority of cases… For most of us… There are numerous examples/instances

of… In many cases… In most cases… On the whole… For the most part…



As a rule… As a rule, we spend at least 30 percent of any

project’s effort and time in testing. In general…

In general, Americans are poorly informed about politics and government.

Usually…


2.3 Being more precise

• In particular…– Rural commodity prices, in particular, had

dragged down the index.• …particularly…

– What has happened in western Europe and particularly the UK will affect the global market.

• More specifically…• … and especially…• …mainly…


3. Dealing with sources and supporting an argumentEssay Writing


Please note that you should always acknowledge other

people’s work when you use it in your writing. Failure to do so is considered to be plagiarism, or

cheating, and is punished severely in English – speaking universities.


PLAGIARISM

3.1 Introducing a quotation or paraphrase

As…claims/points out/remarks/suggests,… Food is intimately related to identity, as

Suzanne Moore points out. According to… In the words of…

In the words of one worried UN official, ‘The fighting today may show that events are slipping away from us again.’


3.2 Paraphrasing and reformulating

• What he is saying is that…– What he is saying is continuity is important

because that is one of the key ingredients of success.

• According to…• In other words…• What this means…• To put in another way…• That is to say…• …or rather…


3.3 Introducing examples

• To take another example…• …for example…

– Consider, for example, the fictional works of the offbeat British writer David Lindsay.

• …for instance…• …serves to illustrate…

– A bitter struggle between the Labor party and one of its own local authorities has served to illustrate how the political landscape, even at local level, has changed


3.3 Introducing examples

By way of illustration… A case in point is… …if we take the case of… …as follows: …

…one example of the many supportive studies is as follows:


3.4 Evaluating an argument

…could be interpreted as … Could be taken to mean that… This leads one to suppose that… It is reasonable to assume that… …weigh up the pros and cons… …a convincing explanation The truth of the matter is that


3.4 Evaluating an argument

• The truth is that…• This raises the question of…• This is true up to a point…• …is somewhat misleading…• …the wrong approach…• …considerable advantages…• It would make sense to…• The advantages outweigh the

disadvantages.


3.5 Agreeing

• …agree wholeheartedly with…• It is hard to disagree with…• One must acknowledge that…• It is quiet right to…• …support this claim…• In support of this theory…• …argument in favor of …• …deserves support


3.6 Disagreeing

I must disagree with… I cannot agree with… This is far from the truth… It is simply not true… It is quite wrong to… …out of the question… …is untenable


3.6 Disagreeing

The opposite is true… It is difficult to share the opinion that… This argument does not hold water This argument does not stand up …not…, …but rather that… The problem with… …unjustified…


3.7 Introducing your own point of view

• In my opinion…• My personal opinion is that…• Speaking personally…• Personally…• My own view is that…• In my view…• From my point of view…• It is my belief that…


3.7 Introducing your own point of view

I feel that… I am convinced that… As far as I’m concerned… It seems to me that… As I see it… I believe that…


3.8 Proposing an alternative and introducing an counter – argument

Another approach… Another way of looking at this… On the other hand… The other side of the coin… It is more accurate to speak of…


4. Referring to dataEssay Writing


4. Referring to data

• From the table/chart/data/diagram/graph it can be seen that…

• As you can see from the table/chart/data/diagram/graph…

• The chart/data/diagram/graph/table shows that…

• According to the chart/data/diagram/graph/table…

• …figures show that…


5. Stages in the argumentEssay Writing


5.1 Transition Markers

• First of all…• Firstly…• First and foremost…• In the first place…• Secondly…• A second problem is that…• Thirdly…• Let us now consider…


5.1 Transition Markers

Let us now look at… Let us now turn to… Finally… Lastly… To conclude this section… This merits closer examination


5.2 Addition Markers

In addition… In addition to… Added to this… An added … is … As well as… Over and above that… Furthermore…


5.2 Addition Markers

Moreover… In the same way… Not only … but also … What is more…. In the same way…


6. Degrees of certaintyEssay Writing


6.1 Expressing Certainty

It is clear that… Indisputably… Undeniably… There can be no doubt that… It is undoubtedly true that… As we all know, … One thing is certain…


6.1 Expressing Certainty

It is certain that… It is true that… It is noticeable that… It can be observed… It can be seen that…


6.2 Emphasizing a point

It is significant that… It should not be forgotten that… It should be stressed that… The important point…


6.3 Expressing doubt and qualifying an argument

It is doubtful whether… It remains to be seen whether… I wonder whether… I have reservations about… It is by no means certain that… It’s difficult to say whether… It is questionable whether…


6.3 Expressing doubt and qualifying an argument

Is there any real substance… This poses/raises fundamental

questions… This raises again the question of… … may well be true but… It is hard to believe that…


7. Making comparisons and contrasts Essay Writing


7.1 Objective Comparisons

• …compared with…• In/by comparison with…• The former… the latter…• Similarly…• Likewise…• Equally…• There is the fundamental difference

between…


7.2 Favorable Comparisons

Far superior to… …have the edge over…


7.3 Unfavorable Comparisons

…cannot compete with… …nowhere near as… as… … no match for… …not measure up to… …cannot compare with… There’s no comparison between … and…


7.4 Comparing similar things

…much/almost/virtually the same as… …not much to choose between… There is no difference between… …equivalent to… …on a par with… …corresponds to… …can be likened to…


7.5 Comparing dissimilar things

…have little/nothing in common with… …bear little resemblance to… …is completely/entirely/quite/totally

different from


7.6 Contrast

…but in reality… In contrast to… …as opposed to… Unlike… Whereas… …differentiate …from… On the one hand, … on the other hand…


7.6 Contrast

Conversely… …on the contrary… In actual fact…


8. Expressing cause and effectEssay Writing


Expressing cause and effect

• The fundamental reason for…• As a result/consequence…• …because of this…• Therefore…• Thus…• Consequently…• …in order to…• For this reason…• …so that…• …leads to…• The consequence of this is…• On this basis…


9. ConclusionsEssay Writing


9.1 Summarizing the arguments

I have demonstrated/shown that… This shows how… So it would appear that… This goes to show that… To sum up… To summarize… In a nutshell…


9.2 Drawing conclusions

• On balance…• We have to conclude that…• This leads to the conclusion that…• In conclusion…• Ultimately…• On the whole…• There is a need for further

investigation/research/study…


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Essay Acedemic Writing