Useful expressions to write an essay

Making points Generalizing

Many people feel that ... on the whole
First and foremost, ... in general / generally
It is widely believed that ... speaking as a rule
It would be ideal if ... to some extent
Another argument in favour is ... to a large extent
It is clear from the facts that ... in many ways
The benefits of ... outweigh the disadvantages. in all respects
On the whole, I think ... in most / many cases
basically

Enumerating arguments Making conclusion

in addition to / additionally What conclusions can be drawn from all this?
besides / moreover / furthermore
above all The most satisfactory conclusion that we can come to
is...
To sum up... we are convinced that.../ ...we believe
that.../ ...we have to accept that...
 In conclusion/ To conclude/ To sum up
 The arguments we have presented... suggest
that.../ prove that.../ would indicate that...
 From these arguments one must.../ could.../
might... conclude that...
 All of this points to the conclusion that...

Weighing up arguments Giving examples

on the one hand..... on the other hand for example / for
to consider the advantages and disadvantages instance
arguments for and against such as / including
to discuss the pros and cons in particular / particularly
in theory ... in reality to give you an example of what I
both... and.... mean to illustrate this point
not only ... but also what I mean is
anyway / at any rate / in any case et cetera / and so on / and so
in fact / actually / as a matter of fact forth that is to say / i.e
up to a point
so to speak
by no means / not at all

Comparisons Giving reasons

compared to / in comparison with because as /
to draw / make a comparison between ...and because of
similarly the reason for this is the
as well as reason why
for some reasons or another
I have every reason to believe that
Restrictions Personal point of view
however / though I think that
nevertheless in my opinion/ in my view / to my mind this is
whereas a matter of opinion
although / though / even though in my experience as far
in spite of / despite as I know
unlike as far as I am concerned
in contrast to / with sth. to be aware / unaware of a problem to tell
on the contrary the truth
sth is contrary to sth the fact is that
I am convinced that I
firmly believe that
I feel sth should be done about that

Refering to Modifying adverbs

with reference to totally / entirely / completely
regarding mostly / mainly / chiefly partly
as regards comparatively / relatively
as far as ... is concerned extremely / incredibly
according to (according to is used to introduce
someone else's opinion. Don't say "according to
me")

Emphasizing Consequences
I’d like to point out that therefore
I’d like to emphasize consequently / as a result
for this reason / all these reasons

Agreeing Lack of interest

I entirely / absolutely agree with
that’s exactly my own view
I’m of exactly the same opinion
that’s perfectly true
I’d like to support this view
I find … rather uninteresting / boring
I don’t take any interest in
It’s all the same to me whether
It means nothing to me

Summarizing and drawing conclusions Disagreeing

finally I partly disagree with
last of all I don’t entirely agree with
last but not least I agree in principle, but
in conclusion / to conclude That’s not the way I see it
we can draw the conclusion I see things rather differently myself
to sum up / to summarize we can say I’m not at all convinced that
all in all I’m not absolutely sure
in short / in brief / briefly
all things considered
the subject under discussion
I find it difficult to reach a conclusion but I’m
tempted to say
 Emphasising particular points Thesis

 The last example highlights that fact

that...  The first thing that needs to be said is...
 Not only... but also...  First of all, let us try to analyse...
 We would even go so far as to say  One argument in support of...
that...
 We must distinguish carefully
between...
 The second reason for...
 An important aspect of the text is...
 It is worth stating at this point that...

Developing the argument

 The first aspect to point out is that...

 Let us start by considering the facts.

Research on __ has a long tradition

For decades, one of the most popular ideas in __ literature is the idea that __
Recent researches have revealed that __
A common strategy used to study __ is to __
This research constitutes a relatively new area which has emerged  from __
These approaches have been influential in the field because of __
In the past several decades, __ have played an important  role in __
There are growing appeals for __
This is the field of study that deals with __
Most of the theories of __ are however focused on explaining __
One of the major topics to be investigated in this field is __
The field has met with great success in many problems __
This is not particularly new and has been used for many years in the field of __
Widely considered to be a good way to __
This is more widely used at the time of __
This phenomenon has been widely observe