When presenting academic information, show, don’t tell, but do try to flag. That is, without being heavy-handed about it, include signal phrases in your writing that alert your reader to the kind of information you are communicating in each part of your paper. For example, it would be awkward for a paper to say something like, “My text is … ,” a flag that could be better stated as, “In this paper, I examine … ”. Likewise, it would be awkward to read, “My occasion for this essay is … ,” or “My methodology is … ,” or “I assert that … ,” or “My analysis of this evidence is that … ”. It would be better to say something like (for occasion), “The problem with [your text] is that … ,” or (for methodology), “This essay looks at [your text] from the perspective of … ,“ or (for assertions and analyses) to give the details specific to your ideas. Show, don’t tell, but do try to flag.

Be careful not to over-flag your introductory material, which can make your paper sound mechanical. For example, if your first sentence were a text statement and your second sentence were a thesis statement, it would sound goofy to say: "In this paper, I explore the problem of Horatio in Shakespeare's Hamlet, especially the fact that Horatio loves to tell stories. In this paper, I argue that, even more than Hamlet and his thoughts on ‘the purpose of playing,’ Horatio emerges in Hamlet as an avatar for Shakespeare and a model for the kind of story-teller Shakespeare wanted to be." This passage could more eloquently be edited as follows: "This paper explores the problem of Horatio in Shakespeare's Hamlet. I argue that, even more than Hamlet..."

When framing a paper in the introduction, alternate between first-person pronoun usage (“I consider,” “I argue,” “I approach this problem from the perspective of,” etc.) and third-person noun usage (“This essay explores,” “This paper draws from the vocabulary of,” “As this paper demonstrates,” etc.). Not to put too fine of a point on it, but I usually use the third-person when giving a “text statement” (e.g., “This essay considers some questions of crime, criminal justice, and criminology in William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure”) and the first-person when giving a “thesis statement” (e.g., “I argue that Shakespeare’s play shows the abuses of power that can occur when individual law enforcement agents receive both a mandate to crackdown on social disorder and the authority to decide for themselves what counts as disorder and how to fight it”).

Additionally, when flagging your information, be careful with pronouns: try to remove from a paper the fact that “you’re” leading “us” through an idea. Doing so draws attention to what you’re doing with the text when the focus should be on what the text is doing. Save those moments of personal pronoun usage for extremely important moments in your paper (e.g., “In this paper, I argue that …”).

 

Text

Focusing on …

This paper examines …

This paper addresses …

This paper discusses …

In this paper, I explore …

In this paper, I outline …

This paper concerns …

This paper attempts to unpack …

… specifically …

… especially the tension between …

… paying particular attention to …

 

Questions and Problems

This paper asks …

I want to ask …

The problem is that …

This paper deals with the question of …

[Text] invites the question, …

The question I ask is …

There is a tension between …

Critics have long recognized that …

Critics have always been fascinated with …

The most fascinating aspect of [text] is that …

The most troubling aspect of [text] is that …

The most problematic aspect of [text] is that …

Arguably there are two ways to see [text]: …

 

Methodology

I address [text] by …

By using [method] to examine [text] …

This essay draws from the vocabulary of …

This essay looks at [text] from the perspective of …

In this paper I read [text] as an example of …

This article treats [text] as an instance of …

… through the lens of …

… with the help of …

With reference to …

I suggest we look at [text] by …

 

Terminology

By [term] I mean …

[Author/Critic/Theorist] defines [term] as …

According to [Author/Critic/Theorist], [term] is …

I refer to [term] as opposed to [term].

 

Argument

In this paper, I argue …

This paper argues …

This paper presents …

I would like to suggest …

As this paper demonstrates, …

As I argue in this paper, …

I argue that …

I suggest that …

This paper suggests that …

I hope to show that …

I contend that …

This reading of [text] … argues that …

The purpose of this paper is …

 

Quotation

[Author] says, “[Quote]” (Cite).

According to [Author], “[Quote]” (Cite).

In [Author]’s words, “[Quote]” (Cite).

For [Author], “[Quote]” (Cite).

As [Author] says, “[Quote]” (Cite).

 

Examples

For example, …

For instance, …

This … can be seen in …

…, such as …

Just look at …

Consider the example of …

 

Analysis

In this passage, …

Here …

Such an idea…

As such, …

In other words, …

Put differently, …

That is, …

That is to say, …

As this [line/statistic/etc.] suggests, …

As this [line/statistic/etc.] demonstrates, …

In essence, …

Given that …

Arguably …

Clearly …

Counters

Some might say …

It is tempting to think …

One could argue …

Of course …

[Author/Critic/Theorist] thinks that …

[Author/Critic/Theorist] feels that …

[Author/Critic/Theorist] would have us think …

According to [Author/Critic/Theorist], …

 

Responses

Nevertheless, …

Still, …

This … notwithstanding, …

I do not want to suggest that …

I do not mean to say that …

It may be true that …, but …

 

Conclusions

In conclusion, …

In summary, …

To summarize, …

All in all, …

Overall, …

On the whole, …

In sum, …

At the end of the day, …

I would like to conclude by …

 

Argument

In this paper, I have argued …

As I have argued, …

This paper has sought to show …

This paper has argued …

I hope to have shown that …

 

Utility

In this paper I aim to offer …

I hope to show that …

Thus …

If true, my argument would mean that …

We can see that …

I believe this analysis can …

Some questions remain, such as …

This approach allows us to see that …

Given [argument], we must consider …

… we should acknowledge …

… we can speculate …

To arrive at this conclusion is to …

 

Transitions

Consequence

Since …

Accordingly, …

Consequently, …

…, hence …

As a result of this …

If …, then …

Clearly, …

Therefore, …

Thus, …

 

Resemblance

Likewise, …

Similarly, …

By the same token, …

Not only…, but also…

 

Contrast

On the one hand, … .

On the other hand, …

In contrast, …

On the contrary, …

Rather, …

… as opposed to …

…; conversely, …

…; instead …

…, whereas …

Sequence

First of all, …

To begin, …

In the first place, …

Second, …

Next, …

At the same time, …

Finally, …

Lastly …

Continuation

Furthermore, …

Further …

Moreover, …

Subsequently, …

In addition, …

Additionally …

Also, …

In turn, …

More importantly, …

For the same reason …

… as well, …

… as well as …

Equally important

 

Opposition

…, but …

…, nor …

…, yet …

,,,, however, …

…; however, …

…, though, …

Although … , ….

Still,