When quoting or discussing the opinions or arguments of others, as we often have to do when writing a paper, it can be tempting to write, ‘he said’ or ‘she said’. Whilst the word ‘said’, or in the present tense ‘says’, conveys your meaning well enough, it is not the best word choice.
As it is a colloquial term used in speech, it is not appropriate in academic writing. When repeated often throughout a piece of writing it becomes conspicuous to the reader, marking out the author’s style as unrefined and overly simplistic.
There are plenty of other synonyms which mean much the same thing but sound much better. Instead of ‘Johnson says…’ you could write ‘Johnson…:
-states;
-asserts;
-argues;
-alleges;
-believes.
There are many more nuanced ways to describe ‘says’. If, for example, you want to be slightly derogatory about someone’s opinion and imply that you think it is incorrect, you could use ‘claims’ instead. If you want to highlight two differing opinions, you might write: ‘Whilst Johnson claims…, Jameson contends that…’.
Whenever you find yourself using ‘said’ or ‘says’ in your writing, stop and consider if there might be a more suitable word. However you choose to express it, avoid repetition of the same word throughout your paper and keep it interesting!
As it is a colloquial term used in speech, it is not appropriate in academic writing. When repeated often throughout a piece of writing it becomes conspicuous to the reader, marking out the author’s style as unrefined and overly simplistic.
There are plenty of other synonyms which mean much the same thing but sound much better. Instead of ‘Johnson says…’ you could write ‘Johnson…:
-states;
-asserts;
-argues;
-alleges;
-believes.
There are many more nuanced ways to describe ‘says’. If, for example, you want to be slightly derogatory about someone’s opinion and imply that you think it is incorrect, you could use ‘claims’ instead. If you want to highlight two differing opinions, you might write: ‘Whilst Johnson claims…, Jameson contends that…’.
Whenever you find yourself using ‘said’ or ‘says’ in your writing, stop and consider if there might be a more suitable word. However you choose to express it, avoid repetition of the same word throughout your paper and keep it interesting!