APPENDIX 2

WRITING AN ESSAY

 

Expressing personal opinions:

In my opinion, …

Personally, I think that …

It seems to me that ...

I must admit that …

I believe/suppose that ...

I cannot deny that …

As I see it, …

As far as I'm concerned, …

I would argue that ...

I'd like to point out that …

In my experience, ...

 

Very strong opinions:

I am sure that …

I am convinced that ...

I am certain that ...

Example: I would argue that computers are rather beneficial for kids.

 

Proving your arguments

to attest, ...

to prove, ...

this (fact) is attested/proven by ...

this (fact) is evidenced by ...

this (fact) is testified by ...

this (fact) is endorsed/supported by...

this (evidence) establishes that ...

Example: Consuming moderate amounts of sweets can be good for health. This is evidenced by a number of cases when people improved their health conditions by eating chocolate.

 

 

Expressing general point of view:

It is (generally) claimed that …

It is (generally) said that …

It is (generally) thought that ...

It is (generally) considered that ...

A common opinion is that ...

A popular belief is that ...

Example: It is considered that rigorous diets are very unhealthy.

 

Outlining facts

The fact is that …

It is obvious that …

It is clear that …

There is no doubt that …

This proves that …

Example: It is obvious that deforestation has no positive effects.

 

Generalizing

Generally speaking, ...

On the whole, ...

Typically, ...

By and large ...

 

Giving examples

For example, ...

For instance, ...

A good illustration of this is ...

Evidence for this is provided by ...

We can see this when ...

 

Concluding

To summarise, ...

In conclusion, ...

Overall, ...

On balance, ...

Taking everything into consideration, ...