Task 2. Reporting verbs: Significance

Reporting verbs are widely used in academic writing, and can make a considerable contribution in demonstrating your stance and your analytical skills. You can choose to use some information from a text, and show clearly what you think about it from your choice of reporting verb.

2.1 Look at the example below; in which sentence does the writer appear to support the author’s view. And in which sentence does s/he seem to think it is not a valid view?

a) McKeever clearly demonstrates that it is not the number of hours spent studying that guarantees success, but rather the strategies that students use.

b) Quinn claims that it is not the number of hours that students spend studying that guarantees success, rather the strategies they use.

 

Reporting verbs are also an important element of academic style, as you will be using them throughout your word, whether in summarizing, paraphrasing, or synthesizing ideas and in developing an argument. You have done some work on these in Unit 4, but will need to continue to develop your range of reporting verbs throughout your academic career. This stage will introduce you to more of the most common reporting verbs + that and show how you can use them to communicate your opinion about the sources more accurately.

 

Source: Adapted from Vicary, A. (2012) Forthcoming publication, Grammar for Writing. Reading: Garnet Education

Task 3. Reporting verbs + that

As you read academic texts in your subject area, notice the reporting verbs + that which are most commonly used. Make a list of them and try and use them in the correct context in your writing too.

3.1 Study the essay extracts a-d below.

1. Underline the five reporting verbs + that.

2. Which tenses are used in front of one of the reporting verbs for emphasis?

3. Which adverbs are used to emphasis the statement?

 

a) Leki (1990, p. 60) found that(1) there was ‘depressingly little evidence’ in both L1 and L2 research that teacher feedback could lead to improvements.

b) Cohen and Cavalcanti’s (1990) research confirmed that(2) instances of teacher bias were apparent in feedback. Difficult pupils seemed to receive more negative feedback comments than others whose behavior was more attentive in class.

c) Kando (1997) strongly believed that (3) old age was a time of decline, and that older people were less physically active and able and, therefore, required less housing space. However, Groc (2008) argues that many older people are also carers and the first US housing facility for older people who look after grandchildren or other dependants has just been built in New York City

d) Harding (2007) and Lansely et al., (2004) point out that even single older adults make extensive use of their rooms for family visits, leisure and other activities and they may also need room for a live-in carer or aids and adaptations.

 

Task 4. Tense of reporting verbs

Not that the simple present tense can be used even if the source cited was published some years also. This shows that the views of the author are still valid; they have not been disproved by subsequent research, in addition, the present perfect can be used to describe the result now of an activity in the past.

 

1.2 Choose the correct verb from the two given to compete the sentences in the boxes. Be careful to choose either the present or past simple.

1. Calculate/estimate

a) Brown (2004, p. 56) ____________ that ‘the number of storm days per month during the winter increased from 7 to 14 in 2003’. b) Predictions are often inaccurate, but the IPPC (2003) ____________ that the increase in the Earth;s average surface temperature relative to 1991 will be within the range of 1° to 3.5° C by the year 2100.

2. Mention/emphasis

a) Seacott’s research (2008) ____________ that the three main indicators of global warming are temperature, precipitation and sea level. b) In his introduction to the subject, Brown (2003) onlybriefly _____________ that the local innovation projects in Uganda had not been successful.

 

 

3. Agree/disagree

a) Smith (2001) states that there is strong evidence that global warming is increasing, and Jones (2002) clearly __________ that this is highly likely. b) Smith (2001) states that there is compelling evidence that global warming is     c) increasing, but Sutton (2002) strongly ___________ that this is the case.

4. Claim/maintain

4. Claim/maintain

 

Claim/maintain

a) According to Maslin (2004), the climate change expert, skeptics falsely ________ that every data set showing global warming has been corrected or adjusted to achieve a desired result. b) Maslin (2005) impressively _____________that this fact is itself part of the scientific process, whereby knowledge and understanding moves forward incrementally.

 

Hypothesise/explain

Hypothesise/explain

 

Hypothesise/explain

a) In the 1980s, early scientists such as Arrhenius and Chamberlin __________ that ‘human’ activity could substantially warm the Earth by adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere’ (Faulkner, 2000:197). However, it was only in the 1940s and 1950s that modern technology was able to show that this was indeed the case. b) Smith (1997)_______ that the experiment was fundamentally flawed; this view is now open to dispute.

Assert/deny

a) De Witt (2010) rightly ___________ that one of the major obstacles to dealing with the problem of climate change is cost, or more importantly, perception of cost. Indeed, it may cost as much 2% of world GDP. b) Salvesen (2011) ____________ that the experiment had been a failure.