Essential Phrases for Academic Writing and Debates

Useful Expressions for Introductions

• Today, we are repeatedly confronted with the problem of…
• The general public focuses on the question of…
• …seems to be an inexhaustible source of controversy.
• …is a hotly debated topic at the moment.
• Recently, there has been heated controversy on the question of…
• The problem of… has met with a lot of attention lately.
• Therefore, one should discuss the issue, wonder about, or ask the question of whether…
• It is interesting to weigh up the benefits and drawbacks of…
• In the following, I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of…
• Politicians today believe or claim that…
• Some experts state that…
• Whether… will be discussed in the following.
• With this statement, the politician refers to…

Useful Expressions for the Main Part

Presenting Arguments and Examples

• A further argument I would like to present is…
• Thus… / In addition…
• One enormous advantage is…
• Some examples of this are…
• When discussing the issue of…, you must bear in mind how…
• A number of reasons should be mentioned.
• One of the main advantages is…
• The first point I would like to mention is…
• This idea can be best demonstrated by an example.
• To illustrate this idea, I would like to explain…
• Moreover… / On top of that…
• On the one hand… on the other hand…

Expressing Personal Opinion

• In my experience, opinion, or view…
• To my mind…
• I take the view or I hold the view that…
• I firmly believe that…
• It seems to me that…
• As far as I am concerned…

Agreeing and Supporting Arguments

• It is fully justified that…
• I share the view that…
• I agree entirely with the supporters saying that…
• To my mind, this argument is very strong, powerful, convincing, or plausible.
• The author is absolutely right in saying…
• The speaker has my full support when he argues that…

Counter-Arguments and Criticism

• One argument against… cannot be ignored.
• One reason for criticism is that…
• A further argument against… is…
• However, yet, or on the contrary…
• Unlike the author, I find it hard to believe that…
• The author neglects to mention, is not aware of, or ignores the fact that…

Nuanced Agreement and Certainty

• To a certain extent, I can accept…
• I agree in principle, but…
• Although…, we should accept or must admit that…
• Admittedly…
• Actually, or as a matter of fact…
• Certainly, clearly, or obviously…
• I am absolutely convinced of…
• There cannot be any doubt as regards…
• Surely, undoubtedly, or definitely…
• As far as I know…
• Maybe or perhaps…
• Probably, possibly, or apparently…
• I tend to think…

Useful Expressions for Conclusions

• To sum up or to conclude…
• Taking everything into account, I believe…
• As a result, consequently, for this reason, or thus…
• In conclusion, let me say that…
• All things considered…
• Therefore, I think…
• Therefore, I cannot agree with…
• I support the view that…
• My concluding view is that…
• Finally, I wish to point out…
• I would recommend…
• My suggestion is that…
• Perhaps the future will show that…
• One possible consequence of… might be that…
• If we act now, there might be…