Expressing opinion - I think that...
MY OPINION
In my opinion/view
(Personally,) I strongly believe
It seems to me
I see it
As I see it,
If you ask me,
What gets me is
Well, I must say
Well, to my mind
From my point of view
As far as I’m concerned,
The way I see it,
I’m convinced that
I consider
CONTRASTING VIEWPOINTS
It is argued that
People argue that
Opponents of this view say
Contrary to what most people believe
As opposed to the above
Presenting arguments
- Introduction, sentence starters
First of all
To start with
In the first place
Believe it or not
Everyone knows that
As a general rule
It doesn’t matter where/what/when/who (It doesn’t matter where you go, the FBI agents are always following you.)
- Similarity, introducing additional information, giving example - Also…
Not only… but also
Such as
Such things as these
In the same way
This is/could be supported by
As well as (that)
Moreover /furthermore
Evidence to support this
This can be found in
Apart from that
Besides (this)
What is more
Not to mention (introducing something that makes the situation more interesting/surprising/worse… Climbers have to carry all their equipment on their backs, not to mention their tents and bedding.)
An illustration of this is
By way of illustration
For example/for instance
e.g./eg (an example or series of examples)
Be a case in point (a very good or typical example American presidents are stupid. A case in point is George Bush.)
- Contrast information - But…
On the contrary
In/By contrast
In/By comparison
Compared to/with
Conversely
On the one hand… on the other hand
However
Nevertheless/nonetheless
Looking at it from the opposite point of view
Against this could be argued that
It might be objected that
Yet (a fact that seems surprising after what you have just say The sun was shining, yet it was quite cold.)
As against (comparing two pieces of information in order to show how they are different Last year there were 468 industrial accidents as against 245 in 1984
Regardless of (when what s done is not affected by different situations, problems etc The rate of contribution to the pension plan is the same for all employees, regardless of age.)
In spite of /despite / in spite of the fact / despite the fact that (even though something happens or is true, especially something bad In spite of the language difficulty, we soon became friends. Many people give quite a bit of money to charities, despite the fact that they do not have that much them selves.)
Despite yourself (despite efforts to behave or feel differently At the end of the movie, Suzie began to cry despite herself.)
Pale in/by comparison with (to look worse or much less important in comparison Forecasters say this year’s floods could make that of 1999 pale by comparison.)
- Summarising and concluding an argument
To summarise
To sum up
On balance
In conclusion
To conclude
On the whole
All things considered
All in all
