Verbs in Academic Writing

In spoken English we often use a verb + preposition in sentences. For example, "I looked at how students plan their writing." However, in formal English, we often use a single verb that came from Latin. For example, "I examined how students plan their writing."

Exercise: Choose a verb from the list at the beginning to replace the underlined verbs in the sentences. You may need to change the tense.

assist	establish	create	investigate	raise
reduce	increase	determine	fluctuate	eliminate

1. Teachers can help out students by explaining a text.
2. This programme was set up to help slow learners.
3. Education expenses have gone up to nearly ¥100 billion.
4. The use of computers should cut down the amount of marking for teachers.
5. Researchers have found out that students know this.
6. Schools cannot get rid of bullying completely.
7. Researchers have been looking into this problem.
8. Overtime pay was brought up during the discussion.
9. Teachers must come up with fair assignments.
10. Examination results have been going up and down.

Check your answers here.

Adapted from J.M. Swales & C.B. Feak Academic Writing for Graduate Students. The University of Michigan Press, 1994.