28 Attribution Verbs in Summaries
Author’s citation:
- According to Smith…
- Smith discusses…
- Smith states that…
- …according to Smith…
Frequently Used Verbs of Attribution
analyze, argue, asserts, assume, claim, conclude, contend, demonstrate, describe, develop, discuss, examine, expand, explain, find, focus, give, hypothesize, maintain, note, observe, present, propose, provide, recommend, report, show, speculate, state, study, suggest, support, theorize, use
Important Considerations
- Verbs of Attribution are not all interchangeable. You will need to select the verb carefully for a particular context. The verb must fit nicely with the specific main idea that you are summarizing (see the diagram above). For example, if you are summarizing an article by Daniel Smith that has specific information on a theory by Robert Jones, you can not say “Smith theorizes that a, b, c,”. If you do it, you are misinterpreting the article’s main idea, distorting its meaning. Since Smith only reports on Jones’ research, you should say “Smith reports a theory by Robert Jones, who theorizes that,….”.
- In academic writing, many verbs of attribution will need to be followed by a “that-clause”, which includes a subject and a verb. For example, “Smith suggests that Jones’ research may have been misleading.”
- After you have established who is being summarized in a particular paragraph, other sentences may need summary reminder phrases. These may be framed in this way:
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- Smith goes on to say that…
- Smith further states that…
- He also argues that…
- Additionally/further/furthermore, Smith …
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