Signal Phrases
Introduction
- Whenever you include a paraphrase, summary, or direct quotation of another writer in your paper, prepare the reader for it with a signal phrase.
- A signal phrase usually names the author of the source and often provides some context.
- It commonly appears before the source material.
- To vary your sentence structure, you may decide to interrupt the content with a signal phrase or place the signal phrase after your paraphrase, summary, or direct quotation.
Model Signal Phrases
- In the words of researchers Greenfield and Davis, “…”
- As legal scholar Jay Kesan has noted, “…”
- The ePolicy Institute, an organization that advises companies about reducing risks from technology, reports that “…” “…,” writes
- Daniel Tynan, “…” “…,” attorney Schmitt claims.
- Kizza and Sanyu offer a persuasive counterargument: “…”
Verbs in Signal Phrases
- acknowledges
- comments
- endorses
- reasons
- adds
- compares
- grants
- refutes
- admits
- confirms
- illustrates
- rejects
- agrees
- contends
- implies
- reports
- argues
- declares
- insists
- responds
- asserts
- denies
- notes
- suggests
- believes
- disputes
- observes
- thinks
- claims
- emphasizes
- points out
- writes