Which academic verbs and phrases are best?

Now that we’ve discussed and exemplified the functions of verbs, how to identify this word class and its various types, and how to follow the rules which are most important for creating grammatical sentences, this fifth and final chapter now focuses on the accurate use of verbs in academic contexts. Because there are particular verbs and associated expressions which are more suitable when studying academically – such as when conducting research or writing university-level assignments, we’ve provided some of the most common academic verbs and expressions for you below. Consider bookmarking or printing these words and phrases so that you can refer back to this language with ease.

150 Common Academic Verbs:

accept, achieve, adapt, advance, affect, allocate, allow, alter, analyse, appear, argue, arise, assert, assess, associate, assist, assume, attempt, avoid, base, benefit, cause, choose, cite, claim, clarify, classify, combine, compare, compete, concentrate, conclude, conduct, connect, consider, consist, constitute, construct, contrast, contribute, correspond, decline, define, demonstrate, depend, describe, design, determine, develop, differ, discuss, display, distinguish, effect, eliminate, emerge, enable, encounter, encourage, enhance, ensure, evaluate, evolve, examine, exceed, exemplify, expand, explain, express, facilitate, favour, focus, form, formulate, function, generate, highlight, identify, illustrate, imply, improve, include, increase, indicate, influence, interpret, introduce, investigate, involve, isolate, lead, limit, locate, maintain, measure, neglect, note, obtain, occur, outline, overcome, participate, perceive, possess, predict, present, prevent, produce, prove, provide, publish, pursue, quote, receive, reduce, reflect, regard, reinforce, relate, remain, remove, replace, report, represent, reproduce, resolve, respond, restrict, result, retain, reveal, select, separate, show, solve, specify, state, strengthen, stress, study, submit, suggest, summarise, support, tend, transform, treat, undermine, undertake, vary

15 Common Academic Phrases:

“The study has achieved a level of insight that was not possible before.”

“These results will have undoubtedly benefitted future research.”

“The experiments were conducted in multiple locations.”

“This demonstrates that the results can be replicated with relative ease.”

“Smith (2010) examines the findings in detail, finding multiple contradictions.”

“This may facilitate the improved efficacy of subsequent studies.”

“Lee and Lee (2012) highlight how air pollution has increased in recent years.”

“By investigating this in more depth, only two conclusions can be drawn.”

“These results can be measured and compared with existing studies.”

“To overcome this problem, methods of triangulation can be used.”

“Jones (2019) predicts that the situation will only get worse over time.”

“By removing the standard deviants, the clarity of the results are improved.”

“These findings work to strengthen the existing data set.”

“Recent studies have tended to ignore these variables.”

“Research by Johnson (2015) may undermine this hypothesis, however.”

Well done on completing our short reader on verbs. You may now wish to check your knowledge and understanding by accessing and completing our professionally made beginner, intermediate and advanced worksheets on this topic.