Academic Phrasebank

Question 1

Describing trends

Answer 1

growth increase rise decrease fall decline drop slight gradual slow steady marked steep sharp

Question 2

Projecting trends

Answer 2

is projected to is expected to is likely to will probably fall grow increase level off remain steady decline steadily drop sharply

Question 3

Identifying a study’s weakness

Answer 3

Smith fails to fully define what … Jones fails to acknowledge the significance of … the author overlooks the fact that X contributes to Y. what Smith fails to do is to draw a distinction between … the paper would appear to be over-ambitious in its claims. another weakness is that we are given no explanation of how … no attempt was made to quantify the association between X and Y. the main weakness of the study is the failure to address how … the study fails to consider the differing categories of damage that … the research does not take into account pre-existing … such as … the author offers no explanation for the distinction between X and Y. Smith makes no attempt to differentiate between different types of X.

Question 4

Identifying a study’s weakness 2

Answer 4

the book fails to/makes no attempt to… specify … quantify … compare … separate … account for … suggest why … analyse how … ascertain whether … distinguish between … explain the meaning of … provide information on … address the question of … assess the effectiveness of … use a standardised method of … give sufficient consideration to … consider the long term impact of … offer an adequate explanation for … engage with current discourses on … determine the underlying causes of … systematically review all the relevant literature.

Question 5

Using evaluative adjectives to comment on research

Answer 5

excellent comprehensive detailed useful thorough ground breaking timely important impressive ———————- limited small-scale analysis (of X), examination (of X), study (of X), survey (of X), investigation (into Y)

Question 6

Introducing lists

Answer 6

This topic can best be treated under three headings: X, Y and Z. The key aspects of management can be listed as follows: X, Y and Z. There are three reasons why the English language has become so dominant. These are: There are two types of effect which result when a patient undergoes X. These are … The disadvantages of the new approach can be discussed under three headings, which are: … The Three Voices for Mass is divided into six sections. These are: the Kyrie, Gloria, …. Appetitive stimuli have three separable basic functions. Firstly, they … Secondly, they … During his tour of Britain, he visited the following industrial centres: Manchester, Leeds, and … This section has been included for several reasons: it is …; it illustrates …; and it describes… The Mass for Four Voices consists of five movements, which are: the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Santus and Agnus Dei.

Question 7

Compare

Answer 7

difference: distinct significant notable considerable major only slight similarity: is similar to that is comparable to that is comparable in complexity to that

Question 8

Describing percentages

Answer 8

70% of those who were interviewed indicated that … Since 1981, England has experienced an 89% increase in crime. The response rate was 60% at six months and 56% at 12 months. In 1960 just over 5% of live births in 1960 were outside marriage. Returned surveys from 34 radiologists yielded a 34% response rate. He also noted that less than 10% of the articles included in his study cited … With each year of advancing age, the probability of having X increased by 9.6% (p = 0.006). The mean income of the bottom 20 percent of U.S. families declined from $10,716 in 1970 to … X found that of 2,500 abortions, 58% were in young women aged 15-24, of whom 62% were …

Question 9

Describing fractions

Answer 9

Over half of those surveyed indicated that … Nearly half of the respondents (48%) agreed that … Approximately half of those surveyed did not comment on … Less than a third of those who responded (32%) indicated that … The number of first marriages in the United Kingdom fell by nearly two-fifths. Of the 148 patients who completed the questionnaire, just over half indicated that …

Question 10

Giving Examples

Answer 10

A/An well-known notable classic useful important example of X is…

Question 11

Reintroducing a topic

Answer 11

As discussed above, … As explained earlier, … As described on the previous page, … As was mentioned in the previous chapter, … As explained in the introduction, it is clear that … As was pointed out in the introduction to this paper, … Returning (briefly) to the (subject/issue) of X, …

Question 12

Reference to another writer’s ideas or position

Answer 12

Smith ..points out argues maintains claims concludes suggests that… argues for offers proposes suggests

Question 13

Commenting on findings

Answer 13

These findings are rather disappointing. However, these results were not very encouraging. The test was successful as it was able to identify students who … The present results are significant in at least two major respects. The results of this study do not explain the occurrence of these adverse events. These findings will doubtless be much scrutinised, but there are some immediately dependable conclusions for …

Question 14

features of academic writing

Answer 14

n1) Complex : complex sentence structure; vocab
n2) Formal:
n3) Objective : stress on the info and arguements
n4) Explicit: clear expression and words
n5) Hedged
n6) Responsible
n7) Precise: facts and figures
n8) Accurate