The Academic Phrasebank is a 
general resource for academic 
writers. It makes explicit the more 
common phraseological ‘nuts and 
bolts’ of academic writing. 
Academic 
Phrasebank 
A compendium of commonly 
used phrasal elements in 
academic English in PDF format 
2015b enhanced edition 
Personal Copy 
 
Dr John Morley 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PDF Download version  
 
 
©2015 The University of Manchester 
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Preface 
 
 
The Academic Phrasebank is a general resource for academic writers. It aims to provide the 
phraseological ‘nuts and bolts’ of academic writing organised according to the main sections of a 
research paper or dissertation. Other phrases are listed under the more general communicative 
functions of academic writing. 
 
The resource was designed primarily for academic and scientific writers who are non-native speakers 
of English. However, native writers may still find much of the material helpful. In fact, recent data 
suggests that the majority of users are native speakers of English. 
 
The phrases, and the headings under which they are listed, can be used simply to assist you in 
thinking about the content and organisation of your own writing, or the phrases can be incorporated 
into your writing where this is appropriate. In most cases, a certain amount of creativity and 
adaptation will be necessary when a phrase is used.  
 
The Academic Phrasebank is not discipline specific. Nevertheless, it should be particularly useful for 
writers who need to report their empirical studies. The phrases are content neutral and generic in 
nature; in using them, therefore, you are not stealing other people's ideas and this does not 
constitute plagiarism.  
 
Most of the phrases in this compendium have been organised according to the main sections of a 
research report. However, it is an over-simplification to associate the phrases only with the section in 
which they have been placed here. In reality, for example, many of phrases used for referring to 
other studies may be found throughout a research report.  
 
In the current PDF version, additional material, which is not phraseological, has been incorporated. 
These additional sections should be helpful to you as a writer. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Contents 
 
 
About Academic Phrasebank 
 
 
Major Sections  
 
Introducing work 
Referring to literature 
Describing methods 
Reporting results 
Discussing findings 
Writing conclusions 
 
 
General Functions  
 
Being critical 
Being cautious 
Classifying and listing 
Compare and contrast 
Defining terms 
Describing trends 
Describing quantities 
Explaining causality 
Giving examples  as support 
Signalling transition 
Writing about the past    
Writing abstracts 
 
 
Notes on Academic Writing 
 
Academic style 
Commonly confused words 
British and US spelling 
Punctuation 
Using articles 
Sentence structure 
Paragraph structure 
Helpful tips for writers 
 
 
 
 
 
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About Academic Phrasebank 
 
Theoretical Influences 
The Academic Phrasebank largely draws on an approach to analysing academic texts originally 
pioneered by John Swales in the 1980s. Utilising a genre analysis approach to identify rhetorical 
patterns in the introductions to research articles, Swales defined a ‘move’ as a section of text that 
serves a specific communicative function (Swales, 1981,1990). This unit of rhetorical analysis is used 
as one of the main organising sub-categories of the Academic Phrasebank. Swales not only identified 
commonly-used moves in article introductions, but he was interested in showing the kind of 
language which was used to achieve the communicative purpose of each move. Much of this 
language was phraseological in nature. 
 
The resource also draws upon psycholinguistic insights into how language is learnt and produced. It is 
now accepted that much of the language we use is phraseological; that it is acquired, stored and 
retrieved as pre-formulated constructions (Bolinger, 1976; Pawley and Syder, 1983). These insights 
began to be supported empirically as computer technology permitted the identification of recurrent 
phraseological patterns in very large corpora of spoken and written English using specialised 
software (e.g. Sinclair, 1991). Phrasebank recognises that there is an important phraseological 
dimension to academic language and attempts to make examples of this explicit.  
 
Sources of the phrases  
The vast majority of phrases in this resource have been taken from authentic academic sources. The 
original corpus from which the phrases were ‘harvested’ consisted of 100 postgraduate dissertations 
completed at the University of Manchester. However, phrases from academic articles drawn from a 
broad spectrum of disciplines have also been, and continue to be, incorporated. In most cases, the 
phrases have been simplified and where necessary they have been ‘sifted’ from their particularised 
academic content. Where content words have been included for exemplificatory purposes, these are 
substitutions of the original words. In selecting a phrase for inclusion into the Academic Phrasebank, 
the following questions are asked:  
 
•  does it serve a useful communicative purpose in academic text?  
•  does it contain collocational and/or formulaic elements?  
•  are the content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives) generic in nature?  
•  does the combination ‘sound natural' to a native speaker or writer of English? 
 
When is it acceptable to reuse phrases in academic writing?  
In a recent study (Davis and Morley, 2015), 45 academics from two British universities were surveyed 
to determine whether reusing phrases was a legitimate activity for academic writers, and if so, what 
kind of phrases could be reused. From the survey and later from in-depth interviews, the following 
characteristics for acceptability emerged. A reused phrase:  
 
should not have a unique or original construction;  
should not express a clear point of view of another writer;  
• 
• 
•  depending on the phrase, may be up to nine words in length; beyond this 'acceptability' 
declines;  
•  may contain up to four generic content words (nouns, verbs or adjectives which are not 
bound to a specific topic). 
 
Some of the entries in the Academic Phrasebank, contain specific content words which have been 
included for illustrative purposes. These words should be substituted when the phrases are used. In 
the phrases below, for example, the content words in bold should be substituted: 
 
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•  X is a major public health problem, and the cause of ...  
•  X is the leading cause of death in western-industrialised countries.  
 
The many thousands of disciplinary-specific phrases which can be found in academic communication 
comprise a separate category of phrases. These tend to be shorter than the generic phrases listed in 
Academic Phrasebank, and typically consist of noun phrases or combinations of these. Acceptability 
for reusing these is determined by the extent to which they are used and understood by members of 
a particular academic community.  
 
Further work 
Development of the website content is ongoing. In addition, research is currently being carried out 
on the ways in which experienced and less-experienced writers make use of the Academic 
Phrasebank. Another project is seeking to find out more about ways in which teachers of English for 
academic purposes make use of this resource. 
 
 
References 
 
•  Bolinger, D. (1976) ‘Meaning and memory’. Forum Linguisticum, 1, pp. 1–14. 
•  Davis, M., and Morley, J. (2015) ‘Phrasal intertextuality: The responses of academics from 
different disciplines to students’ re-use of phrases’. Journal Second Language Writing 28 (2) 
pp. 20-35. 
•  Hopkins, A. and Dudley-Evans, A. (1988). ‘A genre-based investigations of the discussions 
sections in articles and dissertation’. English for Specific Purposes, 7(2), 113-122. 
•  Pawley, A. and Syder, F.H. (1983). ‘Two puzzles for linguistic theory: nativelike selection and 
nativelike fluency’. In: Richards, J.C. and Schmidt, R.W. (Eds.), Language and Communication, 
pp. 191-226. Longman: New York. 
•  Sinclair, J. (1991) Corpus, concordance, collocation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 
•  Swales, J. (1981). Aspects of article introductions (Aston ESP Research Report No. 1). 
Birmingham: Language Studies Unit: University of Aston. 
•  Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: 
Cambridge University Press. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Major sections 
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Writing Introductions 
 
There  are  many  ways  to  introduce  an  academic  essay  or  short  paper.  Most  academic  writers, 
however, appear to do one or more of the following in their introductions: 
 
indicate an issue, problem, or controversy in the field of study  
•  establish the context, background and/or importance of the topic 
• 
•  define the topic or key terms  
• 
•  provide an overview of the coverage and/or structure of the writing  
state the purpose of the essay or piece of writing 
 
In  very  short  assignments,  it  is  not  uncommon  for  a  writer  to  commence  simply  by  stating  the 
purpose of their writing.  
 
 
Introductions  to  research  dissertations  tend  to  be  relatively  short  but  quite  complex  in  terms  of 
their functional elements. Some of the more common elements or include: 
 
indicating a problem, controversy or a knowledge gap in the field of study  
•  establishing the context, background and/or importance of the topic 
•  giving a brief synopsis of the relevant literature  
•  highlighting the inadequacy of previous research 
• 
•  establishing the desirability of the research  
• 
listing the research questions or hypotheses  
•  providing a synopsis of the research method(s)  
•  explaining the significance or value of the study  
•  defining certain key terms 
•  providing an overview of the dissertation or report structure  
•  explaining reasons for the writer's personal interest in the topic  
 
Examples  of  phrases  which  are  commonly  employed  to  realise  these  functions  are  listed  on  the 
following  pages.  Note  that  there  may  be  a  certain  amount  of  overlap  between  some  of  the 
categories under which the phrases are listed. Also, the order in which the different categories of 
phrases are shown reflects a typical order but this is far from fixed or rigid, and not all the elements 
are present in all introductions. 
 
 
A  number  of  analysts  have  identified  common  patterns  in  the  introductions  of  research  articles. 
One of the best known is the CARS model (create a research space) first described by John Swales 
(1990)1. This model, which utilises an ecological metaphor, has, in its simplest form,  three elements 
or moves: 
 
•  Establishing the territory (establishing importance of the topic, reviewing previous work) 
• 
•  Occupying  the  niche  (listing  purpose  of  new  research,  listing  questions,  stating  value, 
Identifying a niche (indicating a gap in knowledge)  
indicating structure of writing) 
 
                                                            
1 Swales, J. (1990) Genre Analysis, Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press. 
 
 
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