Academic Writer

academic writer:  argument: internal reference

Internal reference or 'signposting'
This section offers you help with the sort of referencing used inside papers. This is sometimes called 'signposting' because it points the reader backwards or forwards inside the text. It may also refer to evidence such as tables or statistics given in the paper.

Limiting the scope
Referring back
Referring forward

Referring to own evidence

Limiting the scope

But I will not consider this in the present discussion.

Given the time/space available I will be unable to go into...

This isn't the place to go into detail...

Without going into technical detail, it is possible to explain the broad principles of the theory.

back to top

Referring back

As we have seen…

As noted already…

The view put forward above explains why...

We have already seen that… However (make additional point)

We saw in the above definition that...

back to top

Referring forward

As will be argued in the next section…

Assuming x is the case, it remains to ask...

I would now like to have a look at...

The previous section considered only x options. Now we are going to look at…

There are various ways in which we might attempt to tackle this problem.

What are the arguments on the other side?

Without going into technical detail, it is possible to explain the broad principles of the theory.

Leaving the topic of x on one side, let us examine the differences between x and y.

back to top

Referring to own evidence

According to the best available statistics…

As table x shows…

Figure x combines y and z

However these are of all the figures the least reliable.

However, these figures omit large numbers of people who…

If one ignores x, the figure rises to…

It will be seen at once that...

My own rough calculations summarized in table x confirm that…

One estimate puts it as high as…

Similar evidence can be found to support the view that…

Table x summarizes the best available data. It will be seen that…

The evidence is however ambiguous.

The figures show clearly that…

These figures suggest that…

We must of course treat these figures with caution.

When x is combined with y it seems that…

Find out more about writing Arguments

back to top

Academic Writer 2000