How to talk about an article in English

Hello, everyone. I'm Jade. What we're talking about today is phrases you can use when you

need to talk about an article, a report, or maybe it could be a book or something like

that in a university context, but maybe also as well in a meeting you might need to say

something about some literature you were supposed to read before that meeting. So, by watching

today's lesson, I'll give you some phrases that you can build up and make some sentences

where you can sound very informed, and very opinionated, and say all the right things

in a business or academic context.

So, let's take a look at these different phrases and sentences we can use. You can make direct

statements of opinion about the article or what you've read. And to do that, you can

use "I". So you can say: "I thought". If we're talking about an article, you can say: "I

thought the article was thorough". "Thorough" means that something takes a look at all the

important things, all the necessary things that it should cover for that kind of topic.

Nothing is left out if it's thorough.

If we're talking about the introduction, that means the beginning, the beginning part of

the article, perhaps you've got something interesting to say about the beginning. "The

introduction was insightful." If it's insightful, you learnt something. "Yes, it was insightful.

It was... It was... You know, I approve of it. It was insightful."

Perhaps the rest of the article isn't very good, but you've got something good to say

about the introduction. Another variation of: "I thought", or: "I think", you could

use it present tense as well, is: "In my opinion". "In my opinion, because I know about these

things, the case studies were too short." A case study is where you get an example.

Or you could say it's like a story of someone who's been through a particular situation,

and usually case studies are put together to show how a business or organization helps

somebody or solves a problem. So, you'll often encounter case studies in the world of work.

They're meant to be persuasive, and they're meant to move you to action or make you want

to do something, or prove to you how something works or how something doesn't work.

So, you could say: "The case studies were too short." We use "too" for a negative opinion.

So this wasn't good about the case studies. We could use any other adjective. We could

say: "too long". We can build the sentence like that.

Next, you could use the same building block there: "The case studies were fairly persuasive."

Here, we're using adverb, and then adjective. "Fairly" means quite, but "fairly" is the

more formal version. And it's a word that feels more academic, and it feels more like

you're giving a serious opinion if you say "fairly". "It was fairly persuasive." So they

were good, but you know, maybe they could have been better. Here, you're softening your

praise. If you're saying: "The case studies were persuasive", that's stronger. That's

like you approve of them more. But if you put "fairly" there, little bit less than without "fairly."

Again, we're still talking about "in my opinion". "In my opinion, the findings". "Findings"

is another word for "conclusion". "The findings were inconclusive." If something is inconclusive,

you're not quite sure if the thing has been proven. It's undecided. We're not quite sure

of the result or the outcome. Maybe more research needs to be done. If it's inconclusive, we

need to wait and see.

Moving on now, this is another way to give your opinion. You can say: "As I see it",

you're using yourself, and your knowledge, and your way of viewing the world. You can

look at it like that to pass your opinions and your knowledge to others. "The recommendations

are unworkable." So, many reports will make recommendations. So, they'll analyze a situation.

At the end, they'll say: "We think this needs to happen." Those are the recommendations.

The recommendations are made by experts, experts who researched and made a report. You, on

the other hand, may think that their recommendations are unworkable; they simply won't work. They're

not as good as my recommendations on my report. They're unworkable. They would not work in

real life.

And you could say, as well: "As I see it, the report is first-rate." That's quite a

formal way of saying excellent. It can't be better. It's excellent research and very well

done, it's first-rate.

Let's have a look at some verbs we can use when talking about these articles, reports,

that kind of thing now. So, here's some different verbs that we can use. As I mentioned, some

reports or most reports, I suppose, were written for a purpose. They want to propose something

happens, they've got a particular agenda and a particular reason for writing the report,

and they want to show that. So, you can use these verbs to describe that.

You can say: "The verb argues that". The verb... Why did I say "verb"? I think I said "verb".

I mean: "The report argues that...", "The report proposes that..." Or: "The report advocates

that..." They have related meanings. "Argue" is like a strong way of saying they want something

to happen. "The report argues that traffic should not be allowed in Central London after

9pm." I mean, that's quite a strong argument, but it just came to my head.

"To propose" something is more like a recommendation. It's saying that this would be a good idea.

"The report proposes that children should not eat junk food." It's a good proposal,

isn't it? And, we could say: "The report advocates that..." Oh, it's really hard to improvise

sentences. "The report advocates that children should not play more than four hours of computer

games a day." That's a really bad report. "The report advocates that time spent playing

computer games should be limited." Okay. That's what I meant. Not all the time. So, we use

those verbs to show the degree of how strong something is being argued or recommended.

Let's have a look at some more verbs now. Again, we can talk about the author of the

report or we can name them. Perhaps the report writer is Professor Smith, and then we can

use these verbs to talk about their claims and what they're saying. So, we can directly

say: "Professor Smith suggests that", blah, blah, blah. A suggestion is based on your

knowledge and your experience. Again, it's not as strong. It's not as strong as a recommendation,

but it's related. Profesha... Professor. "Professor Smith recommends that...", "Professor Smith

recommends that students do extra homework at the weekends in his report."

And if you just want to say what was said, you can use: "states". This is quite a formal

verb, which sounds good when you're talking about written text. "Professor Smith states

that..." Improvising sentences, I don't like doing it. "Professor Smith states that the

English language is the best language in the world." So, you can say anything there in

the present simple when you're using "states". And, also, because people who write reports

are like authorities and they know about things, they're very clever people, they can give

us advice. So, we can say "advises". "Professor Smith advises that teachers should not improvise

sentences in lessons."

Ooh. "Useful Phrases for Suggesting Improvements". A lot of the time, when we're talking about

somebody else's work, we need to be careful about the way we give our opinions because

we could upset other people, and they might think that we're like a really annoying person,

or a stronger word we could use. So, we need to watch our language. It's important to get

it right so that you don't... I keep saying that. Anyway...

You can say this: "I would have expected to see..." I wouldn't necessarily say that directly

to the person who wrote the report or article, but if you're just talking generally among

classmates or something, or colleagues, or other people who have also read the report,

you can make the statement with "I" and be direct and give your opinion. But as I said,

if the person who actually wrote the report is there, it could feel like you're challenging

them. "I would have expected to see more information regarding sales figures." "I would have expected",

it's like... It's like you're making a recommendation there, how it could be better. This report

was not as good because it did not do this. It did not have this information.

"I would have expected to see more commentary on..." Improvising. "I would have expected

to see more commentary on the sales figures for London stores." Okay? And again: "I would

have expected to see additional data on purchases over Christmas time." So, these are direct

opinions. The positive thing about giving direct opinions is you're putting your own

subjectivity in there, that's your voice with "I" and it sounds like you're confident enough

to say something about it. The negative thing about it is that it can be very, very strong.

So, how do we avoid coming across as somebody who is like just throwing around their opinions?

Well, if you need or wish to do that, you can distance your sentences by taking your

subjectivity out of it. We're not using "I" anymore. You make the subject of the sentence

the report or the article, whatever. That way, you can give your opinions indirectly.

"The report could be improved by including interviews with experts.", "The report could

be improved by proposing solutions to the problem." I didn't put a full stop there,

that's very naughty of me. Needs a full stop. A proposal, again, is like a suggestion. "The

report could be improved by providing recommendations." These are all different ways to improve that

report, because you're showing from your reading experience that not only have you taken in

all the information, but you've analyzed it and you're now able to say: "Well, actually,

if that were my report, it would be better because these things would be in it." That

makes you sound really clever.

So, what to take away from today's lesson, you can learn these stock phrases just to

make it a little bit easier when you need something to say maybe in a seminar situation,

a university situation, or it could be a work situation if you sometimes discuss articles

and reports in your meetings.

So, yes, from this, what you do now is you go to the engVid website and you do the quiz

there, and then that will teach you so much more about this kind of stuff. You'll be really,

really clever, and I really think you should do that. That would be good for you. And before

you go, though, it's really necessary, important that you subscribe to my channel here, my

engVid channel because I'd like you to come back and watch more of my videos. So, yeah,

I'm finished now. So, yeah, come... Please come back and see me soon. Bye.