Synonyms for "It Is Important to Note" and "Research Shows" in Academic Writing

Phrases like "it is important to note," "research shows," and "this paper examines" are not mistakes. They guide the reader. They turn into filler when a writer uses them out of habit.

The linguist Ken Hyland calls this kind of language metadiscourse. His model of it, reproduced in his 2017 review in the Journal of Pragmatics, names the three groups covered here.

In a study of 360 research articles from four disciplines, Ken Hyland and Feng (Kevin) Jiang classify "it is important to recognize that…" as a directive. A directive steers the reader toward an action or an understanding. The authors call directives that tell readers how to understand something "potentially the most risky kind," because they lead readers to a particular interpretation. Use one only where the reader would otherwise miss the point.

The delete test

Cut the phrase and reread the sentence. If nothing is lost, leave the phrase out. If the reader would miss why the point matters, write the reason instead.

• Before: It is important to note that the survey was conducted online.
• Deleted: The survey was conducted online.
• Reason stated: Because the survey was conducted online, it leaves out households without internet access.

"Research shows" asks the reader to trust research they cannot see. The fix is attribution: name the author, the year, and what the study found. In the University of Manchester's Academic Phrasebank, model sentences such as "Smith's comparative study (2017) found that…" put the author and the year up front. The Phrasebank also notes that the present perfect tends to be used for the literature in general ("To date, several studies have investigated…") and the simple past for a specific study. For an author's ideas that are still relevant, the present tense is often used.

• Before: Research shows that peer tutoring improves exam results.
• After: In a semester-long trial at two community colleges, Ortiz (2022) found that students in weekly peer tutoring scored higher on the final exam than students who did not take part.

Once the source is named, choose a verb that matches what the source did.

How strong the verb should be depends on the evidence. Our guide to hedging in academic writing shows how to judge that, including when to use tentative verbs such as suggest and indicate.

"Examines" fits almost any paper, so it tells the reader little. Choose the verb that names what your paper does. The Academic Phrasebank's phrases for stating the aim of a paper use verbs such as analyzes, traces, compares, assesses, and argues.

"In this essay" can often go. Compare "In this essay, I will discuss why the town library closed" with "The town library closed because its funding depended on a single levy that voters rejected." The second sentence states the argument. The first only announces a topic.

Using "I" instead of "this paper"

APA Style tells writers to use first-person pronouns "to describe your work as well as your personal reactions." It also says not to refer to yourself in the third person, as "the author." Other styles and disciplines differ. The UNC Writing Center notes that scientific writers avoided "I" in the past and that the social sciences increasingly accept it. It adds that the rules are changing, so ask your instructor if you are unsure.

The draft below leans on all three kinds of stock phrase. The revision applies the fixes from the sections above.

• Precise verb: "Examines" became "assesses," because the paper weighs a benefit against a cost.
• Attribution: Both "research shows" sentences now name a source. The attention claim is gone, because the cited study measured sleep only.
• Deletion and reason: The first "it is important to note" became a reason. The second was deleted.

Rotating "notably" and "it should be noted" through a draft only spreads the same habit around. Search your draft for each stock phrase, decide which job it does, and apply the fix for that job. Our guides to synonyms for "furthermore" and sentence starters for conclusions cover the connectors between sentences and the final paragraph.

Then read each revised paragraph aloud. Sentences can still sound stiff after the stock phrases are gone. The Certentis AI Humanizer can smooth the wording of a draft you wrote. It is built to keep your claims and citations intact. Check the result against your draft before you use it. If your course has rules on AI tools, follow them. Our guide to AI and academic integrity explains how to disclose that use where it is required.