Writing Citation Language

Academic Writing

Language

Reporting – Paraphrasing and Summarising

Reporting uses paraphrase and summary to acknowledge another author’s ideas. You can extract and summarise important points, while at the same time making it clear from whom and where you have obtained the ideas you are discussing and what your point of view is. Compare, for example:

… Brown (1983, p. 231) states that a far more effective approach is …

… Brown (1983, p. 231) points out that a far more effective approach is …

… Brown (1983, p. 231) claims that a far more effective approach is …

A far more effective approach is … (Brown, 1983, p. 231)

The first one is Brown’s point of view with no indication about your point of view. The second one is Brown’s point of view, which you agree with. The third one is Brown’s point of view which you might want to question and the last one is your point of view, which is supported by Brown

Here are some more expressions you can use to refer to someone’s work that you are going to paraphrase:

If you agree with what the writer says.

The work of X indicates that …

The work of X reveals that …

The work of X shows that …

Turning to X, one finds that …

Reference to X reveals that …

In a study of Y, X found that …

As X points out, …

As X perceptively states, …

As X has indicated, …

A study by X shows that …

X has drawn attention to the fact that …

X correctly argues that …

X rightly points out that …

X makes clear that …

If you disagree with what the writer says.

X alleges that …

X claims that …

X states erroneously that …

The work of X asserts that …

X feels that …

However, Y does not support X’s argument that …

If you do not want to give your point of view about what the writer says.

According to X…

It is the view of X that …

The opinion of X is that …

In an article by X, …

Research by X suggests that …

X has expressed a similar view.

X reports that …

X notes that …

X states that …

X observes that …

X concludes that …

X argues that …

X found that …

X discovered that …

If you want to report that one source agrees with what anotheer writer says.

X accepts that …

The work of X agrees that …

X concurs with that …

X supports …

If you want to report that one source argues against what another writer says.

The work of X contradicts …

X criticises Y …

The work of X disagrees with Y that …

Turning to X, one finds that …

If you want to report a writer’s conclusions.

The work of X concludes that …

X finds that …

Quoting

Sometimes you may want to quote an author’s words exactly, not paraphrase them. If you decide to quote directly from a text, you will need an expression to introduce it and quotation marks will need to be used:

As X said/says, “… …”

As X stated/states, “… …”

As X wrote/writes, “… …”

As X commented/comments, “… …”

As X observed/observes, “… …”

As X pointed/points out, “… …”

To quote from X, “… …”

It was X who said that “… …”

This example is given by X: “… …”

According to X, “… …”

X claims that, “… …”

X found that, “… …”

The opinion of X is that, “… …”

Concluding

After quoting evidence you reach a conclusion:

The evidence seems to indicate that…

It must therefore be recognised that…

The indications are therefore that…

It is clear therefore that …

Thus it could be concluded that…

The evidence seems to be strong that…

On this basis it may be inferred that…

Given this evidence, it can be seen that…

References