10 Phrasal Verbs for Academic Writing in English

Phrasal verbs are a part of everyday English language. But they can and should be used in academic writing as well, such as in essays, and reports. The key is to use more formal phrasal verbs, like “do without”, “account for”, “follow through”, “carry out”, “look into”, and others. In this lesson, we will look at some formal phrasal verbs to give your academic writing a touch of style. This lesson will help you become a confident writer, and as a result, you will appear to be more experienced to your reader. And if you are taking the IELTS or the TOEFL, then these will be certainly help you get a better score in the writing section of those exams.

After the lesson, take the quiz: https://www.engvid.com/10-phrasal-ver...

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TRANSCRIPT

Hi. Welcome to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. In today's video I want to talk to you about academic writing. So this is especially for those of you who will be taking the IELTS or TOEFL, or any English exam where you have to write an essay. Okay?

Now, before I get into this, a lot of you have been told by teachers, by classmates, by whoever that you should not use phrasal verbs in your academic writing, in your essays, because you think that they are too informal. Well, what I want to tell you today is that not only can you use phrasal verbs, you should use phrasal verbs in your writing. Phrasal verbs are part of the English language. We use them in everyday situations, as well in very formal situations; in academics, in business, etc.

So what I have here, I have a few phrasal verbs to show you that are very common, but are very useful for academic writing. And some of them are a little bit more rare, but if you can use them properly in your essays, your scores should go up; you'll actually impress the graders a little bit. But, again, if you're using them correctly. Okay?

So just before we begin, what is a "phrasal verb"? You have a verb in conjunction with a preposition; and together, the two words have a slightly different meaning or slightly different meanings - most of them have more than one.

So, today we're going to look at: "account for", "take into account" or "take into consideration", but the actual phrasal is: "take into". Okay? With something else. "Carry out"; "look into" or "find out" - these are kind of synonyms, you can use them one or the other. "Cut down" or "cut back on" - these are also generally synonymous; you can use them in certain... In same situations; slightly different usage. And... Just so you know, "cut back" can also become a noun: "cutback" or "cutbacks". "Do without", "follow through", "frown upon" which is a little bit one of the rare ones, "resort to" which should be used more but people don't use it enough, "rule out", and "put off". Okay? So, let's go through each one separately.

"Account for". "To account for something" means to consider it; to make it part of your thought process when you're thinking about something, especially making a plan or maybe making a budget, etc. And basically it means the same thing as: "Take into account". Now, you have "account" and "account". This is a noun; this is a verb. So, be very careful not to mix the two expressions up somehow. So, "account for", and it's also part of your calculations. That's why we have "account", like accountant does.

"Take into consideration" and "account" - same idea. When you're making a plan or you're thinking about something, don't forget to include whatever it is... Whatever the topic is into that thinking process. Right? So, if you're creating a budget... Let's say you have limited money, and you have to make yourself a budget for each month. So, make your budget for, like, school, work, going out, food, rent, etc. but don't forget to take into account or don't forget to account for emergencies or surprise expenses; things that you weren't planning for that inevitably happen. So: "Account for surprises in your budget calculations." Okay? Put a little bit extra money aside.

Now: "carry out". "Carry out" essentially means do. Okay? But we use it with specific collocations. And "collocations" are groupings of words that generally go together to create a particular expression. So, for example, you would carry out an experiment. You don't do an experiment; you carry out an experiment. Okay? So, it means do or make happen. So, for example, you have plans, you create plans for the weekend, and then the weekend comes and now it's time to carry out those plans; make them happen, do them. Okay?

"Look into" or "find out" is essentially the same meaning. […]