Academic Writer
academic writer: argument: advance your own argument
Advance your own argument
This section contains the sorts of useful phrases skilled writers use to
put forward their own arguments.
Adding points
Arguing tentatively
Asking questions
Comparing
Concluding
Describing by repeating pronouns
Distinguishing
Exemplifying
Explaining
Focussing
Qualifying
Referring to own evidence
Reformulating
Again,...
Another possibility is that…
At the same time it is true to say...
Beyond x there were further...
In addition...
In any case…
In other words…
It should also be emphasized that…
It should also be noted that…
Mention should also be made of…
Related to these arguments is the critique that…
The corollary of this is that…
The key point to note is that…
The same can be said of…
The same is true of…
There were other factors which arguably counted for more.
This in turn means that...
At the same time it could be argued that…
For one thing it could be argued that…
Indeed, it might be argued that…
It is interesting to speculate on what would happen if...
It is tempting to pose another question.
It may well be asked how…
It might be argued that…
Nor is it entirely fanciful to suggest that…
Of course it could be argued that…
Still, there is no denying that…
This is not to say that there are not...
Though it may seem a stretch to compare x with y...
How can we explain x?
More controversial is the question as to whether…
One way to answer this question is to try to see if…
The crucial question may therefore be…
The question remains…
Was it such a bad thing to allow y? Not necessarily.
Was x unique in doing y? Certainly not.
What are the arguments on the other side?
What sort of picture do these considerations allow us to construct?
Why for example did x happen?
In sharp contrast to x, y is not...
Though it may seem a stretch to compare x with y...
While x are large, y are much more important
All things considered then…
Events show us that…
Finally,
Hence the paradox that…
How can we account for…?
If one considers x it becomes clear that…
In any case it seems clear that…
In general, however...
In short,…
In the final analysis this may be the best explanation of all.
It is difficult to escape the conclusion that…
It seems clear that…
It seems not implausible to link x with y
Judged by this criteria…
Judged by this measure…
More generally it seems hard to deny that…
Nothing can detract from the central fact that…
The extent of x is hard to quantify. Suffice it to say that…
The most popular explanation remains that…
Thus the circle from x to y seems complete.
To put it crudely…
To put it simply…
To sum up:
What is really remarkable is that…
Describing by repeating pronouns
Early liberalism was a product of England and Holland and had certain well defined characteristics. It stood for religious toleration, it regarded the wars of religion as silly. It valued commerce and industry; it had immense respect for the rights of property, especially when accumulated by the individual.
The outlook of the discoverer is individualistic: When he arrives at a theory he does so because it seems right to him. He does not bow to authority. He hopes to persuade other people, not by his authority but by arguments which are convincing to them as individuals.
The majority of people supported the Long Parliament. They wished to abolish the King's right to grant trade monopolies. They desired liberty within the Church of England. They supported the position that Parliament should be held at regular intervals, and should not be terminated arbitrarily by the King. They objected to arbitrary arrest, and to the fact that the judges always supported the Crown. But many, while prepared to agitate for these ends, did not want to fight a civil war.
This whole theory seems to be incredible to a modern mind. We are not used to deriving political rights from the story of Adam and Eve. We think it obvious that a parent's rights should cease at the age of their childrens' eighteenth birthday. We recognize that the mother has equal rights to the father.
Another important distinction between x and y is that...
I would like to distinguish between x and y.
On the other hand...
The big difference between x nad y is that...
The essential difference is that...
The essential point on which I differ is that...
There is however an important difference between x and y.
There are some respects in which x differs from y.
This difference clearly cannot be explained by...
We must here make a distinction.
In x there is a similar division between the two schools.
A classic illustration often cited is…
Another example of this may be given.
In the x case this was perhaps the most obvious.
More detailed studies show that…
Only in one respect does the advantage seem to be with…
Or let us take another example.
That x happened illustrates the point that…
The evidence of x is even more obvious in the case of…
The following passage may be taken as typical of this kind of evidence.
The origins of x can be traced back to…
This was by no means unique.
This was typified by…
To take yet another illustration...
Typical of x was…
A general explanation remains difficult to find/elusive.
As a result…
As for x, that would not have delivered y.
Despite the fact that x happened, it is not clear that…
For all these reasons, what x has to say needs to be treated with caution.
How are we to explain x?
If one looks at x in historical perspective, one finds that/ it is clear that...
Moreover it is at least arguable that…
Partly for this reason it was inevitable that…
The first thing we notice is the...
The main reason it happened was that…
The reality was at best that…
The reasons for x cannot be traced to either y or z.
The tendency of x is not necessarily a disadvantage.
This achievement was primarily due to…
This applies especially to…
This in turn means that...
This problem has two aspects. As regards x... As regards y... For these two reasons...
This was a product of...
What these cases show is that...
An important point sometimes overlooked is that…
Essentially we need to look at…
I do not mean to say x, but I do mean to say y.
In this respect it is important to note...
It is important in this context to try to distinguish between x and y.
It is important to realize that...
More importantly
Of these points, the first needs to be discussed in more detail.
One of the most important points is that...
The essential point is that...
The essential thing about x is that it has y.
The facts of the matter therefore seem clear.
The importance of this lies in the fact that...
The importance of this lies in...
The real problem was not x but y.
The significance of this is that...
There are three key points in the above theory.
There is another possibility which has received too little attention. This is the thesis that…
This is arguably the most important point:
This is the key to the problem.
This means that...
This takes us to the heart of the matter
This was one of the most important reasons why…
Two questions especially interest me. The first of these is...
Two types of x need to be distinguished: The one is... The other kind is...
Yet the important point to note is that…
But there is a need for qualification…
In part, this might be explained by,...
To some extent it is true to say that...
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…
In other words…
That is...
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Academic Writer 2000