Useful phrases
The lists below offer general phrases that can be used in many kinds of research papers. For
mastering the terminology and phraseology specific to a field, regular reading of the relevant
literature is necessary.
Note: The numbering below follows the numbering of the parts in the Guidelines for writing
a paper.
3. Abstract
As the Abstract is a short version of the paper, some of the phrases used in the other parts
of the paper are also used in the abstract and are not mentioned here. You can find them
below under each section of the paper. Some hints on how to start the Abstract follow:
Introductory sentences
The paper/article
discusses/deals with/analyses/considers/explains/describes/establishes/introduces …..
develops/presents/provides/studies/represents/features/contains/concentrates on …..
covers/suggests/proposes/shows …..
demonstrates the feasibility of …..
opens up a new field/issue
gives/aims to give a comprehensive account of …..
offers a solution to …..
serves as an introduction to …..
The main objective/goal/purpose of the paper/article is …..
Common mistakes:
Wrong: Right:
In this paper there/it is presented a novel This paper presents a novel method of …..
method of ….. In this paper, a novel method of ….. is
presented
4. Sections of the paper
4.1. Introduction
In most cases, the Introduction section is treated as a whole and is not divided into
subsections. The subheadings below should only help you organize the information.
4.1.1. Problem background, state of the art
….. plays an important/vital role in …..
….. is an important issue for …..
….. is extensively/widely used in …..
….. is a very effective method for …..
In the last few years there has been a growing interest in …..
Quite recently, considerable attention has been paid to …..
….. have/has been gaining importance in recent years …..
….. have/has been utilized in many applications such as …..
4.1.2. Literature review/Summary of previous research
- Referring to the sources in general
Current research on ….. is focused on …..
Previous studies indicate that …..
The literature on ….. shows a variety of approaches
Much research on ….. has been done.
The focus of recent research has been on …..
….. has/have been widely researched/investigated.
In recent years, research on/into ….. has become very popular.
In the last decade ….. has attracted much attention from research teams …..
For several years great effort has been devoted to the study of …..
Several publications have appeared in recent years documenting …..
Previous research has documented/shown/demonstrated that …..
To solve this problem/issue, many researchers have proposed various methods of (+-ing)
In the literature, several theories have been proposed to explain …..
- Referring to individual authors
….. and …. are discussed in [3] and [6].
X [4] and Y [3] indicate that …..
X et al. [1] argue that …..
One of the first examples of ….. is presented in [2].
Another/The latest solution is described in [3].
The results obtained/offered by X in [5] suggest that …..
Recently, several authors [4], [5], [7] have proposed (a new theory) …..
X [2] and X [5] have demonstrated that …..
A/The most interesting approach to this issue has been proposed by [2].
X [6] has also found that ….. . However, our researchers have arrived at the conclusion/have
concluded that …..
….. was experimentally measured by [7].
X et al. [7] studied ….. and showed that …..
X [11] developed a novel sensor using …..
In this work and in related references it was observed that …..
In [8] it was shown that …..
As reported by X [2], …..
In a recent paper by X [9], …..
- Saying that little research has been done in a particular field
However, to the author´s/authors´ best knowledge, very few publications can be found/are
available in the literature that discuss/address the issue of ….
To the author´s/authors´ knowledge, ….. has/have been scarcely investigated from the point
of view of …../from the theoretical point of view.
- Pointing out limitations of previous research
A key limitation of this research is that (it does not address the problem of …..)
The major drawback of this approach is …..
However, most of the previous studies do not take into account …..
This approach may not be practical/orthodox/conventional in all situations.
Reference [3] analyses and compares various aspects of ….. . Nevertheless, there are still
some interesting and relevant problems to be addressed.
However, studies on ….. are still lacking.
The problem with this approach is in that it …..
Although several studies have indicated that ….., little attention has been paid/given to …..
4.1.3. Problem statement, purpose/main objective of the paper
- Problem statement and description of the objective of the paper are very specific parts of
the paper and the phrases used depend on the nature of the problem. Examples showing
how closely this part is related to the literature review and previous research are given
below.
(A ….. theory of ….. ) has recently been presented in [..…]. However, several practical
questions arise when dealing with .….: 1) It is important to (identify …..). 2) It is key to
(predict …..). 3. It is crucial to (establish when …..). To answer all these questions, we present
an original approach which ….. .
Even though (the efficiency of …..) has been improved in recent years, most improvements
have been achieved by (minimizing the amount of energy lost in …..). Nonetheless, it is
possible to further improve (the efficiency by …..). With this goal, this work (explores, seeks
to …..).
Based on the approach presented in [3], the purpose of this paper is to ….
In this paper, while we refer to our earlier work [2], [3], and [4], the focus is different.
Like most authors, we …..
The objective/aim of this paper/study is to propose …..
The paper presents/proposes a new approach to …..
This article introduces a new type of …..
In this paper, we/the authors offer …..
In this paper, we explore the possibility of …..
In this study, a new technique that improves ….. is suggested.
See also Abstract, Introductory sentences.
4.1.4. Framework of the paper (usually the last part of the Introduction)
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows/into ….. sections:
Section II describes/outlines ….., Section III discusses/analyses ….. . (Experimental results)
are presented in Section IV; Section V concludes the paper.
In Section II, ….. will be discussed. Section III is devoted to ….. . Section IV presents (the
experimental results). The conclusion is reported in Section V.
The proposed (design) is discussed in Section II (The implementation of the proposed
design) is presented in Section III. Section IV shows (the experimental results of
…..). Finally, Section V concludes with a summary.
In Section II we explain ….. . In Section III we introduce our ….. . The measurements are
presented in Section IV. Section V summarizes the results of this work and draws
conclusions.
4.2. Body/Core of the paper
General information
The Body of the paper is very specific in its content. For this reason, the number of generally
applicable phrases is smaller than in the other parts. Examples of some of these phrases are
given below.
There are, however, linguistic means common to all kinds of research papers, i.e. words and
phrases expressing cause, results, addition, similarity, etc. For lists and usage of these words
and phrases see A Remedial Course in English Grammar: Clauses and Guidelines for
Academic Writing: Text structure.
4.2.1. Materials and Methods/Methods of Approach
- Describing what was done and how it was done
We started by investigating …..
We designed a new technique for ……
We used a new approach.
These experiments were carried out to find out …..
In order to verify the validity of the ….. method, we carried out several experiments.
All the tests/measurements were carried out at room temperature.
The (signals) were measured before and after …..
To illustrate ….., a simulation was performed.
The ….. analysis was performed in order to …..
We checked for the presence of …..
(The chemical structure of …..) was examined by (the ….. technique).
A gradual change (in temperature) was observed.
The increase in ….. was not caused by/was not due to a decrease in …...
The (optimized condition) was obtained from ….
- Describing numerical methods
The equation that describes ….. is as follows:
Equation (2) represents/defines/expresses …..
The equation can be written as .…., where …..
Thus, the following equation is obtained:
….. can be computed by the following equation:
Equations (5) and (6) approximate (the original formulas).
….. satisfies equation (3).
Equations (2) and (3) demonstrate that …..
(3) implies that …..
….. is described by (5).
The function f is given/defined by…...
Let f be given/defined by …..
To simplify (3) we can …..
For simplicity we ignore the dependence of ….. on …..
It follows from (3) that …..
Substituting/inserting (4) and (6a) in(to) (6b), we obtain …..
Substitution/Insertion of (4) in(to) (5) yields …..
Now we can derive ….. according to (2)
We can now proceed analogously to …..
This is true for …../This holds for …..
Similarly, (5) is also valid/true for the following relation.
Assume/Let us assume that (3) holds for …..
(6) holds under the condition that …..
We will make the following assumptions: …..
From now on we assume that …..
Let us define the following dependence/relation by/as …..
Let (3) satisfy the following relation …...
Equality holds in (10) if and only if …..
The inequality is satisfied if and only if …..
We shall write the above expression as …..
In this way we obtain …...
According to (5) we have/obtain …..
…. is obtained as .…./can be obtained as …..
….. is denoted (M) and defined as …..
….. takes the form ….. /….. can be written in the form …..
As is clear from (5,) …..
We first prove that …../Let us first prove that …..
It remains to prove that …..
It is clear/evident/obvious that …..
From this we conclude/see/deduce that …..
- Referring to/Describing figures, graphs, tables, diagrams
Fig. 2 shows/presents/depicts/outlines/illustrates/represents …..
Fig. 3 gives an example of …..
Such cases are depicted in the following figures.
This is illustrated in Fig. 5.
….. is/are shown/given in Figs. 3 and 4.
….. can be found in Fig. 8.
Consider Fig. 2, which plots ….. versus/against ….. .
As can be seen from Figs. 5 and 3, …..
As shown in Fig. 1, …..
As follows from the figures shown above, …..
From this figure it can be seen that …..
For the resulting plot, see Fig. 2.
For visual representation of the dependence ….. the reader is referred to Tables V and VI.
Table II summarizes …..
The graph/diagram suggests/indicates that …..
Common mistake
Wrong Right
As shown in the Fig. 1 As shown in Fig. 1
The Fig. 2 presents ….. Fig. 2 presents …..
See also Guidelines for Presentations, Discussions and Chairing: Slides, graphs, tables,
diagrams.
4.2.2. Results
Some of the phrases listed under Materials and Methods may also be suitable for the
Results section, e.g. summarizing what was done, referring to diagrams, graphs, etc.
It has been found that …..
The results show that …..
The results thus obtained are compatible with …..
The overall measurement results are summarized in Table II.
As mentioned earlier/above, …..
The previous sections have shown that …..
This method is based on …..
The method was tested on …..
The method is an effective way to improve …..
The analysis and simulation indicate that …..
The …. analysis plays a crucial role in …..
As may be seen below, …..
We have introduced a new approach to …..
A similar approach is used for …..
This approach may fail if/due to …..
One of the big advantages of (this approach/method) .…. is that …..
To verify this method, ….. is compared with …..
The only disadvantage/drawback of such ….. is …..
There is no evident relationship between ….. and …..
….. are in good agreement/correspond with …..
There is a good match between ….. and …..
To illustrate the result, a simulation of ….. was performed.
The simulation results match the calculations.
The differences in (temperature) result in significant differences in …..
The decrease/increase in ….. can be contributed to …..
To overcome/avoid this problem/difficulty, it is necessary to adopt a …..
One possible solution to this problem is to (use) ……
This solution requires …..
4.2.3. Discussion
For more phrases see also Introduction and Conclusion(s).
- Stating the main objective
In this paper we propose/examine/study …..
This paper proposes/has proposed …..
The purpose of the paper/study is to …..
The paper presents/has presented several solutions to …..
This paper is a modest contribution to the ongoing discussions about/on …..
It was the main purpose of the paper to draw attention to …..
The main concern of the paper was to …..
In our paper, the focus of attention was/is on …..
This study shows/has shown that …..
This experiment/technique/demonstrates that …..
- Specifying the objective
Particular attention is paid to …..
The author´s attention was focused/concentrated not only on ….. but also on …..
We have addressed not only ….. but also …..
We have also considered the consequences of …..
- Pointing out the originality of the solution
Our paper presents an innovative/a novel view of …..
The originality of our solution lies in the fact that …..
This is a novel solution to …..
Our results describe for the first time the …..
To our knowledge, this is the first study to deal with/examine/investigate …..
Only one other study, to our knowledge, has come up with …..
This paper presents a pilot study to find the answer to …..
Our observations that ….. are not new, but …..
- Interpreting the facts
The data obtained is/are broadly consistent with the major trends …..
These results agree/concur/are consistent/are in good agreement with other studies which
have shown that …..
In contrast to some reports in the literature, there were …..
An important implication of these findings is that …..
The finding was quite unexpected/surprising and suggests that …..
The most likely explanation of the negative result is …..
The findings have a number of possible limitations, namely …..
So far, the significance of this finding is not clear.
- Stating the limitations of the research
The main limitation of the experimental result is …..
One question still unanswered is whether …..
The analysis does not enable us to determine …..
These results are not conclusive.
- Suggesting possible applications (possible applications are commonly found in the
Conclusion(s) section; they may, however, be mentioned in this section, too. For useful
phrases see Conclusion(s).
4.2.4. Conclusion(s)
The Conclusion(s) section usually starts with
- Stating the objective
The objective presented in the Conclusion(s) section should agree with the objective stated
in the Introduction. For suitable phrases see Introduction and Discussion.
- Drawing conclusions
From the research that has been carried out/done/conducted/performed/undertaken, it is
possible to conclude that …..
Based on the results, it can be concluded that the research into ….. has been very successful.
From the outcome of our investigation it is possible to conclude that …..
The findings of our research are quite convincing, and thus the following conclusions can be
drawn: …..
Summing up the results, it can be concluded that …..
In conclusion, it is evident that this study has shown …..
This paper has clearly shown that …..
It has been demonstrated/shown/found that …..
The results/data obtained indicate/have indicated/suggest/show that …..
The existence of (these effects ) implies that …..
- Suggesting possible application(s)
The proposed method can be readily used in practice.
The technique/approach/result is applicable to …..
….. can be successfully used for a number of ….. applications.
The/our ….. has great potential for other applications such as …..
This research was concerned with …..; however, the results should be applicable also to …..
The findings suggest that this approach could also be useful for …..
The findings are of direct practical relevance.
- Suggesting further research
In our future research we intend to concentrate on …..
Future work will involve …..
On the basis of the promising findings presented in this paper, work on the remaining issues
is continuing and will be presented in future papers.
The next stage of our research will be (experimental confirmation of our theory).
Further study of the issue would be of interest.
Clearly, further research will be needed/required to prove/validate …..
Several other questions remain to be addressed/resolved.
More research into ….. is still necessary before obtaining a definitive answer to …..
Further study of the issue is still required.
Further research on/into ….. is desirable/necessary (to extend our knowledge of) …..
Continuing/continued research on/into ….. appears fully justified because …..
More tests/experiments/calculations will be needed to verify whether …..
5. Acknowledgement
- Thanking for assistance, acknowledging financial assistance
The authors would like to thank their colleagues/Dr X and Dr Y for
- many useful comments and discussions on …..
- their valuable insights and recommendations
- their technical assistance
- their contribution in conducting some of the experiments
for the research
The authors would like to acknowledge the valuable comments and suggestions of the
reviewers, which have improved the quality of this paper.
Fruitful discussions in the early stages of experiments with Professor X are gratefully
acknowledged.
The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance and support of …..
The authors appreciate the efforts and assistance of ….. regarding ….. .
The authors´ thanks are due to Dr X for kindly granting permission to include Fig. 9.
The authors´ thanks are also extended to Dr Y for his support and help in completing the
paper.
The author would like to extend his/her thanks to (name of institution) for its support in
implementing the project.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the generous financial support of (name of institution).
Financial support from the Czech Science Foundation, Grant No. ….., (project topic), is
gratefully acknowledged.
- Stating financial support
This research/work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund and
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic under Project No.
……………