Using Verbs Carefully

By Annie Pezalla, Dissertation Editor

Many of us who are passionate about social science research are also passionate about writing creatively. This passion for creative writing might stem from an innate love of language, or from a class taken long ago in poetry or fiction. Alternatively, it might stem from reading too many published articles that seem, well, like a snooze fest, and the subsequent resolve to write something more engaging. Wherever that zest originated, there’s no denying that it exists. And it often guides the language choices we use in our scholarly writing.

In an effort to marry those two passions, it feels only natural to be creative with the language choices in our scholarly writing. Instead of writing that a researcher found a relationship between two constructs, for example, we might instead write that a researcher declared a relationship or, even better, opined a relationship. After all, declared and opined are much more creative than the boring old verb found, right? In other efforts to keep our readers engaged, we might be tempted to introduce additional creative verbs into our work: proclaimed, protested, or harangued. After all, we want to engage our readers, right?

Yet caution should be used when those creative temptations start to rise. This advice might sound like a buzz kill, but in scholarly writing, verbs should be unembellished and straightforward. For example, if I wanted to report the findings from Zuckerman’s (2009) study on the impact of gender on the preference for the Twilight vampire series, I should stick with the straightforward verb of found to discuss his results:

Zuckerman (2009) found a relationship between gender and preference for Twilight.

Any other verb choice would be unclear here. Zuckerman (2009) stated that there was a relationship… suggests that Zuckerman didn’t actually carry out a study on gender and Twilight; he simply thought about it and made some proclamation about it. Similarly, Zuckerman (2009) argued that there was a relationship… suggests that Zuckerman engaged in some philosophical debate about the topic but didn’t collect any empirical evidence on it. The verb found clearly conveys to readers that Zuckerman carried out this study and generated findings based on the resulting evidence.

In your own writing, a helpful guideline for choosing verbs could stem from the type of research—theoretical or empirical—on which you are reporting. Theoretical research is generally contemplative or speculative, and the verbs to describe such research should reflect the tentative nature of that kind of knowledge.

Sigmund Freud (1932) speculated that all behaviors are reflective of unconscious urges from the id.

B.F. Skinner (1930) hypothesized that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning.

Empirical research, on the other hand, is based on direct observation or experiment; hence, the verbs used to describe empirical research should reflect that sort of discovery.

Anna Freud (1941) tested her father’s psychoanalytic theory on her adolescent patients.

Behavioral researchers have assessed the validity of Skinner’s (1930) claims by studying the role of partial reinforcement in the likelihood of compulsive gambling.

In your scholarly writing, remember to use your verbs carefully, with attention given to the type of research you are reporting. And when it comes to those creative urges, channel those into the findings you are reporting, not into the verbs associated with them.