THE WRITING CENTER
Templates for Introducing Quotations
-X states, “not all steroids should be banned from sports.”
-As the prominent philosopher X puts it, “______.”
-According to X, “______.”
-X himself writes, “______.”
-In her book, ______, X maintains that “______.”
-Writing in the journal Commentary, X complains that “______.”
-In X’s view, “______.”
-X agrees when she writes, “______.”
-X disagrees when he writes, “______.”
-X complicates matters further when she writes, “______.”
Templates for Explaining Quotations
**Get in the habit of following every major quotation by EXPLAINING WHAT IT MEANS.
-Basically, X is warning that the proposed solution will only make the problem worse.
-In other words, X believes ______.
-In making this comment, X urges us to ______.
-X is corroborating the age-old adage that ______.
-X’s point is that ______.
-The essence of X’s argument is that ______.
Templates for Disagreeing, with Reasons
-X is mistaken because she overlooks recent fossil discoveries in the South.
-X’s claim that ______rests upon the questionable assumption that ______.
-I disagree with X’s view that ______because, as recent research has shown, ______.
-X contradicts herself/can’t have it both ways. On the one hand, she argues ______. On the other hand, she also says ______.
-By focusing on ______, X overlooks the deeper problem of ______.
Templates for Agreeing
-I agree that diversity in the student body is educationally valuable because my experience at Central University confirms it.
-X is surely right about ______because, as she may not be aware, recent studies have shown that ______.
-X’s theory of ______is extremely useful because it sheds light on the difficult problem of ______.
-Those unfamiliar with this school of thought may be interested to know that it basically boils down to ______.
Templates for Agreeing and Disagreeing Simultaneously
-Though I concede that ______, I still insist that ______.
-X is right that ______, but she seems on more dubious ground when she claims that ______.
-While X is probably wrong when she claims that ______, she is right that ______.
-Whereas X provides ample evidence that ______, Y and Z’s research on ______and ______convinces me that ______instead.
Templates for Establishing WHY Your Claims Matter
-Although X may seem trivial, it is in fact crucial in terms of today’s concern over ______.
-Ultimately, what is at stake here is ______.
-These findings have important implications for the broader domain of ______.
-If we are right about ______, then major consequences follow for ______.
-These conclusions/This discovery will have significant applications in ______as well as in ______.
Templates for Introducing What “They Say”
-A number of sociologists have recently suggested that X’s work has several fundamental problems.
-It has become common today to dismiss ______.
-In their recent work, Y and Z have offered harsh critiques of ______for ______.
Templates for Introducing “Standard Views”
-Americans have always believed that individual effort can triumph over circumstances.
-Conventional wisdom has it that ______.
-Common sense seems to dictate that ______.
-The standard way of thinking about topic X has it that ______.
-It is often said that ______.
-Many people assume that ______.
Templates for Introducing Something Implied or Assumed
-One implication of X’s treatment of ______is that ______.
-X apparently assumes that ______.
-While they rarely admit as much, ______often take for granted that ______.
BASIC Template for Opening With a Debate
-In discussions of X, one controversial issue has been ______. On the one hand, ______argues ______. On the other hand, ______contends ______. Others even maintain ______. My own view is ______.
-When it comes to the topic of ______, most of us will readily agree that ______. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of ______. Whereas some are convinced that ______, others maintain that ______.
RETURN Sentences
**Even when presenting your own claims, you should keep returning to the motivating “they say.”
-In conclusion, then, as I suggested earlier, defenders of ______can’t have it both ways. Their assertion that ______is contradicted by their claim that ______.
Template for Introduction of Argumentative Paper
-In recent discussions of ______, a controversial issue has been whether ______. On the one hand, some argue that ______. From this perspective, ______. On the other hand, however, others argue that ______. In the words of ______, one of this view’s main proponents, “______.” According to this view, ______. In sum, then, the issue is whether ______or ______.
My own view is that ______. Though I concede that ______, I still maintain that ______. For example, ______. Although some might object that ______, I would reply that ______. The issue is important because ______.