All Guides: Using Sources: Using Signal Phrases

Signal Phrases

Whether you are quoting, summarizing, or paraphrasing, you can use signal phrases to tell readers that you are about to introduce a source. Signal phrases usually contain the following:

Author's Name
Verb that indicates the author's attitude or approach

The table below shows a list of commonly used signal phrases:

Author is neutral	Author suggests	Author argues	Author agrees	Author disagrees
comments describes explains writes says	concludes finds predicts suggests supposes	claims contends defends insists maintains	admits agrees concedes concurs grants	complains deplores disagrees laments warns

Aaron, J.E. (2016). The little, brown compact handbook: Research and writing. Pearson Education Inc.

Using Sources

Signal Phrases

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