TE TARI ĀWHINA

The Learning Development Centre

He Korowai
Tools to help the writing process.
Some students find it useful to have some sentence beginnings because often we
have the ideas but the words won’t come. The following is a list of sentence beginnings
that you might want to use in your essay:

This essay will discuss……

Firstly it is important to …
The themes/factors/elements/ideas/aspects that will be discussed at length are…
…..has been defined as..
Views on …range from…
The advantages of …
The evidence shows that…
It is apparent that…
Much can be gained from…
Considering that…we can assume that…
It is clear that…
Based on the notion of…
In theory…
In practice…
With regard to…
Whereas…
In the matter of…
The traditional interpretation…
However…
Comparing this with…
In comparison…
A clear case for…
A leading tenet of…(principle/opinion)
Given that…
In the end…
Specifically…
For the period…

From He Korowai: A Study Guide for Maori Tertiary Students, Hawke E and Morrison A
Te Tari Āwhina UNITEC
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2007_he_korowai_sentence_structure.doc Page 1 of 3
Another aspect of…
It can be seen that…
All these factors contribute to…
Essentially…
Thus it is…
Accordingly…
The major concern…
Another essential point…
In contrast…
At this point…
After examining…
The notion that…
In conclusion…
One could conclude…
The evidence suggests…
In summary…
Finally…

Some phrases to use when quoting other authors

…claims that…
As explained by…
…states that…
According to…
…theory of…states that

Write the introduction, conclusion and references

Here is a list of commonly used instruction words and their meanings.

Account for… an explanation of why something is as it is.

Analyse…Examine in detail the components that make up the whole and if relevant,
also their relationship to each other.

Compare…Describe the similarities.

Contrast…Describe the differences.

Compare and contrast…Firstly describe the similarities, then the differences.

Define…Give a description of something in detail.

Discuss…Examine various points of view then draw a conclusion.

Evaluate…Assess something backing up your kōrerō/ argument with supporting

evidence.

From He Korowai: A Study Guide for Maori Tertiary Students, Hawke E and Morrison A
Te Tari Āwhina UNITEC
__________________________________________________________________________________________
2007_he_korowai_sentence_structure.doc Page 2 of 3
 Examine…Investigate or inspect in detail the various parts that make up your
topic.

Explain...Clarify, give reasons or possible causes.

Illustrate… Give examples to make something of what you are describing.

Justify…Back up your argument with sound reasons.

Outline…Give main points in a brief explanation.

Suggest…Give an idea with supporting evidence.

Summarise…Give a concise summary of the main points.

As you can, while there are small similarities between some of the instruction words
above, there are also differences. You need to get this part spot on. Don’t illustrate
something if it says outline.

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From He Korowai: A Study Guide for Maori Tertiary Students, Hawke E and Morrison A
Te Tari Āwhina UNITEC
__________________________________________________________________________________________
2007_he_korowai_sentence_structure.doc Page 3 of 3