8.5: Using Signal Verbs
Learning Objectives
- Choose effective signal verbs for lead-ins to quoted, paraphrased, and summarized material
What Are Effective Signal Verbs?
Verbs like “”says,” “writes” or “discusses” tend to be commonly over-used to signal a quotation, paraphrase, or summary and are rather vague. In very informal situations, people use “talks about.” These verbs, however, do not provide much information.
The list of signal verbs below offers suggestions for introducing quoted, paraphrased, and summarized material in a way that conveys more information than verbs like “says” or “writes” or “discusses.” When choosing a signal verb, try to indicate the author’s purpose: What is the author doing in the quoted passage? Is the author describing something? Explaining something? Arguing? Giving examples? Estimating? Recommending? Warning? Urging? Be sure the verb you choose accurately represents the intention of the source text. For example, don’t use “concedes” if the writer isn’t actually conceding a point. Look up any words you don’t know and add ones that you like to use.
| Making a claim | Recommending | Disagreeing or Questioning | Showing | Expressing Agreement | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| argue
assert believe claim emphasize insist remind suggest hypothesize maintains |
advocate
call for demand encourage exhort implore plead recommend urge warn |
challenge
complicate criticize qualify counter contradict refute reject deny question |
illustrates
conveys reveals demonstrates proposes points out exemplifies indicates |
agree
admire endorse support affirm verify reaffirm |
responds
assumes speculates debates estimates explains implies uses |
TRY IT
Exercise 8.5.A Use New Signal Verbs
Go back to the work you did for Exercise 8.2.A. Which signal verbs did you use? Try replacing them with new ones from the above table. Be sure to pay attention to the writer’s intent as you decide which signal verb to select.
References & Attributions
Attributions
Content on this page is adapted from Technical Writing Essentials by Suzan Last and Candice Neveu, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
