Table Of Content2nd edition
vocabulary for writing at university
The Student Phrase Book
www.thestudyspace.com – the leading study skills website
Study Skills Pocket Study Skills
Academic Success 14 Days to Exam Success (2nd edn)
Academic Writing Skills for International Students Analyzing a Case Study
The Business Student’s Phrase Book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and More
Cite Them Right (11th edn) Brilliant Writing Tips for Students
Critical Thinking and Persuasive Writing for Postgraduates Completing Your PhD
Critical Thinking Skills (3rd edn) Doing Research (2nd edn)
Dissertations and Project Reports Getting Critical (2nd edn)
Doing Projects and Reports in Engineering Managing Stress
The Employability Journal Planning Your Dissertation (2nd edn)
Essentials of Essay Writing Planning Your Essay (3rd edn)
The Exam Skills Handbook (2nd edn) Planning Your PhD
Get Sorted Posters and Presentations
Great Ways to Learn Anatomy and Physiology (2nd edn) Reading and Making Notes (2nd edn)
How to Analyze Data Referencing and Understanding Plagiarism (2nd edn)
How to Begin Studying English Literature (4th edn) Reflective Writing
How to Use Your Reading in Your Essays (3rd edn) Report Writing (2nd edn)
How to Write Better Essays (4th edn)
Science Study Skills
How to Write Your Undergraduate Dissertation (3rd edn)
Studying with Dyslexia (2nd edn)
Improve Your Grammar (2nd edn)
Success in Groupwork
The Mature Student’s Handbook
Successful Applications
Mindfulness for Students
Time Management
The Macmillan Student Planner
Using Feedback to Boost Your Grades
The Personal Tutor’s Handbook
Where’s Your Argument?
Presentation Skills for Students (3rd edn)
Writing for University (2nd edn)
The Principles of Writing in Psychology
Professional Writing (4th edn) Research Skills
Skills for Success (3rd edn)
Authoring a PhD
Stand Out from the Crowd
The Foundations of Research (3rd edn)
The Student Phrase Book (2nd edn)
Getting to Grips with Doctoral Research
The Student’s Guide to Writing (3rd edn)
Getting Published
Study Skills Connected
The Good Supervisor (2nd edn)
The Study Skills Handbook (5th edn)
The Lean PhD
Study Skills for International Postgraduates
Studying in English PhD by Published Work
Studying History (4th edn) The PhD Viva
Studying Law (4th edn) The PhD Writing Handbook
Studying Physics Planning Your Postgraduate Research
The Study Success Journal The Postgraduate’s Guide to Research Ethics
Success in Academic Writing (2nd edn) The Postgraduate Research Handbook (2nd edn)
Smart Thinking The Professional Doctorate
Teaching Study Skills and Supporting Learning Structuring Your Research Thesis
The Undergraduate Research Handbook (2nd edn) Career Skills
The Work-Based Learning Student Handbook (2nd edn)
Writing for Engineers (4th edn) Excel at Graduate Interviews
Writing History Essays (2nd edn) Graduate CVs and Covering Letters
Writing for Law Graduate Entrepreneurship
Writing for Nursing and Midwifery Students (3rd edn) How to Succeed at Assessment Centres
Write it Right (2nd edn) Social Media for Your Student and Graduate Job Search
Writing for Science Students The Graduate Career Guidebook (2nd edn)
Writing Skills for Education Students Work Experience, Placements and Internships
You2Uni: Decide, Prepare, Apply
For a complete listing of all our titles in this area please visit www.macmillanihe.com/study-skills
The Student Phrase Book
Vocabulary for Writing at University
Second Edition
Jeanne Godfrey
© Jeanne Godfrey, under exclusive licence to Macmillan Education Limited 2020
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted their rights to be identified as the author of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This edition published 2020 by
RED GLOBE PRESS
Previous edition published under the imprint PALGRAVE
Red Globe Press in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Education Limited,
registered in England, company number 01755588, of 4 Crinan Street,
London, N1 9XW.
Red Globe Press® is a registered trademark in the United States, the United
Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-352-00833-3 paperback
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Contents
Introduction ix
Topic, aim and argument 1
1 Topic 1
2 Aim and scope 8
3 Proposition, argument and premise 17
Definitions and classification 25
4 Brief definitions 25
5 Classification and characteristics 31
Methodology, method and findings 41
6 Methodology, model and method 41
7 Data, findings, problems and anomalies 49
Amount, level and proportion 54
8 Amount, level, proportion and distribution 54
9 Adequate and inadequate amounts 63
Context, norms, risk and threat 68
10 Context, occurrence, norms and deviation 68
11 Advantage, disadvantage, risk and threat 73
Communication, understanding and position 78
12 Communication, expression and portrayal 78
13 Knowledge, understanding and ways of thinking 85
14 Position, point of view, impartiality and bias 92
v
Time, change and movement 102
15 Time, sequence, duration and frequency 102
16 Change, movement, trend and tendency 111
Encouragement, allowance and prevention 120
17 Encouragement and improvement, discouragement and deterioration 120
18 Allowance, prevention, exclusion and elimination 127
Origin, cause, effect and connections 132
19 Origin, cause and effect 132
20 Connection, compatibility, reciprocity and lack of relationship 138
Comparison, similarity and difference 145
21 Comparison, similarity, convergence, equivalence and balance 145
22 Difference, differentiation and diversity 154
Analysis of evidence and arguments 159
23 Analysis of evidence and identification of argument flaws 159
24 Grouping of authors’ ideas and identification of common themes 167
Evaluation of evidence and arguments 171
25 Authors’ evaluations of each other 171
26 Your positive evaluation of evidence and arguments 176
27 Your negative evaluation of evidence and arguments 184
28 Your agreement, disagreement and counterarguments 191
Importance and impact 195
29 Linking evidence to theory and practice 195
30 Importance, significance and dominance 199
31 Influence and impact 205
vi Contents
Conclusions, clarification and future action 211
32 Conclusions, implications and new ideas 211
33 Qualifying conclusions and degrees of certainty 219
34 Summary, clarification and restatement of position 224
35 Recommendations, solutions and future action 229
Appendices 235
Latin abbreviations and phrases 235
Word class: a brief explanation 238
Word table 241
Index 251
Contents vii
Introduction
Why and how you should use The Student Phrase Book
To write successfully at university you need to communicate your ideas, arguments and research clearly
and effectively; using words and phrases imprecisely or incorrectly will lessen the clarity and credibility of
your work.
As examples of unclear writing, below are five essay sentences in which the writers have used either the
wrong word, the wrong word form, or the wrong word before or after the key word.
Essay sentences Corrections
As Collins (1994 p. 2) cites, ‘good ethics is synonymous with good management’. states
By 2050 the US population will be generally 390 million (Statista 2019). approximately
This essay examines the government’s rational for reintroducing capital punishment. rationale
DNA differentiates from RNA in that it is a double helix as opposed to a single- differs
chained structure.
Durrett (2019) gives a detailed account for probability theory, including many account of
useful examples.
Why you might use a word How The Student Phrase Book can help you
incorrectly or imprecisely
• You don’t know enough words. • This book gives you around 2,000 key academic words, with
definitions and important word information given for over
1,000 of these. The words presented are appropriate
for formal and clear writing at university level.
• You can’t learn new words using a • The words are presented within 35 common assignment
dictionary because you don’t know writing functions or contexts, and are listed under these
the words to look them up. sections in the word table at the back of the book. This
means that you can start by looking up what you want to
do and then find the words you need to do it.
ix
Why you might use a word How The Student Phrase Book can help you
incorrectly or imprecisely
• When trying to use your own words, • Using a thesaurus often leads to word mistakes because
you choose an incorrect synonym words rarely have exact, appropriate synonyms. The first part
from a thesaurus. of each section, ‘Words in action’, presents different word
choices in the context of real example sentences, e.g.:
Vaccines imitate / mimic / emulate the natural infection,
tricking the immune system into producing antibodies.
• You partially understand a word • The second part of each section, ‘Information to help you
when you read it but need a fuller use these words correctly’, gives you clear, simple
understanding to use it precisely definitions.
in your writing.
There is also an alphabetical word index at the end of the
book, which you can use to find the definitions and other
important information about words you come across in
your reading.
• You get the main word right but • The ‘Information’ part of each section also tells you what
make a mistake with the words that words are commonly used with the key word, e.g.:
come before or after it.
Widespread (s1.2)
A widespread occurrence // phenomenon // assumption
// belief // (mis)conception.
Stance (s14.2)
A tough // firm // ethical // moral stance on X.
• You sometimes confuse words that • The ‘Information’ part of each section also gives you useful
look similar but have different information about the difference between commonly
meanings, or confuse words that confused words, e.g.:
have a similar but not the same
collate and compile (s6.2)
meaning.
methodology and method (s6.2)
• When you check your writing you • The third part of each section, ‘Nearly but not quite right’,
sometimes don’t spot your mistakes. gives you ten incorrect sentences containing common
errors, followed by the corrected sentences. You can use
these sentences to test your vocabulary knowledge,
improve your proofreading skills and to avoid making simi-
lar mistakes yourself.
x Introduction
