Every reporting verb takes a position. The moment you write Rahman (2023) claims that instead of Rahman (2023) demonstrates that, you have told your examiner you doubt the source — whether or not you meant to. Most literature review chapters get returned not because the reading is thin, but because the verbs are chosen at random, so the chapter never adds up to a position. This guide gives you a six-step method, a 48-verb bank grouped by commitment, and the specific verbs that damage an FYP or thesis in Malaysia.
Step 1: Decide What the Source Actually Did
Before you can choose a verb, answer one question about the source: did it find something, argue something, build something, or review something? Those are four different contributions and they take four different verb families.
- Empirical study that collected data — found, measured, observed, reported, recorded.
- Theoretical or conceptual paper — argues, proposes, theorises, conceptualises, distinguishes.
- Design, model or system paper — develops, implements, designs, validates, tests.
- Review or meta-analysis — synthesises, surveys, compares, concludes.
Getting this level right eliminates most errors before stance even enters the picture. Writing that a conceptual paper found something is simply inaccurate, and an examiner who has read the source will notice.
Step 2: Decide How Much You Believe It
Now the second axis. English reporting verbs sit on a ladder of commitment, from complete acceptance to open distance. Choose the rung deliberately.
| Rung | You are signalling | Verbs |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Factive | You accept this as established | demonstrates, shows, establishes, confirms, reveals, proves |
| 2. Endorsing | You agree and are building on it | identifies, highlights, points out, notes, explains, clarifies |
| 3. Neutral reporting | You are reporting without judging | reports, states, describes, examines, investigates, presents, defines, outlines |
| 4. Tentative | The source itself was cautious | suggests, indicates, implies, proposes, posits, hypothesises |
| 5. Distancing | You are reserving judgement | claims, asserts, contends, maintains, alleges, purports |
| 6. Critical | You are about to disagree | assumes, overlooks, disregards, conflates, fails to account for |
Two rules govern this ladder. First, never place your verb higher than the source placed itself. If the authors wrote that their results suggest an association, you may not write that they demonstrated one — that is misreporting, and it is the kind of thing a panel checks when a claim looks too convenient. Second, rung 6 obliges you to follow through. If you write that a study overlooks something, the next sentence must say what.
Step 3: Add the Third Axis, Which Is Discipline
Conventions differ, and Malaysian faculties inherit the conventions of their fields. A verb that reads as normal in a management dissertation can read as overstated in an engineering FYP.
| Field | Verbs that dominate | Verbs to use sparingly |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering, computer science | developed, implemented, tested, validated, achieved, measured | argues, contends, maintains |
| Business, management | found, examined, investigated, proposes, suggests | proves, establishes |
| Education, social sciences | explored, described, identified, argues, highlights | proves, confirms |
| Health and life sciences | reported, observed, associated, demonstrated | claims, contends |
The pattern behind the table is simple: the more a field relies on measurement, the more it prefers verbs of doing and observing over verbs of arguing. If you are unsure where your field sits, take three articles from the journal your supervisor recommends most often, highlight every reporting verb in their literature sections, and copy the distribution rather than inventing your own.
Step 4: Match the Verb to the Study Design
This is the error that most often costs marks in a Malaysian FYP, because it looks like a wording problem and is actually a methods problem.
- Cross-sectional survey — the study found an association. It did not prove, cause or demonstrate the effect of anything.
- Experiment with random assignment — here demonstrated an effect is fair, and worth using precisely because it is rarer.
- Qualitative interview study — it described, explored, or identified themes. It did not show that most respondents anything, because it did not sample to be representative.
- Systematic review — it synthesised or concluded. It did not find, because it collected no new data.
Whether a design licenses a strong verb at all is the same judgement you have to make about your own results, which is set out separately in the guide to writing the results chapter.
Step 5: Use One Verb for a Group, Not One per Source
A literature review reads as a list when each sentence introduces one author with one verb. It reads as a synthesis when a single verb carries several sources at once.
List: Rahman (2023) found that training improves retention. Lee (2022) found that training improves retention. Abdullah (2024) also found that training improves retention.
Synthesis: Three studies report the same association between training and retention (Rahman, 2023; Lee, 2022; Abdullah, 2024), though only Abdullah measured it beyond twelve months.
Note what the second version does with its verb budget: one neutral verb for the group, then the sentence spends its remaining space on the thing that distinguishes one source from the others. That is the shape of a paragraph that earns its place, and it fits directly into the chapter structure described in the guide to writing a literature review.
Step 6: Run the Verb Audit Before You Submit
Fifteen minutes, four passes through the chapter:
- Count how many paragraphs begin with an author name. Ideally none. A paragraph that opens with Rahman (2023) states is tied to one source for its whole length.
- Search for said, talked about, mentioned and told. These report speech. Replace every one.
- Search for proves, proved and proof. Check the design of every source you attached them to.
- Count your distinct verbs. If a thirty-source chapter uses fewer than eight, your sources are being flattened into one voice.
The Four Verbs That Quietly Cost Marks
- Proves. Almost never accurate outside mathematics. It tells an examiner you have not thought about what a p-value licenses.
- Claims. Fine when you mean it, damaging when you do not. Students often reach for it as a neutral synonym for says, and it reads as a sneer.
- Said. Not incorrect, just empty. It wastes the one word in the sentence that could have told the reader what kind of contribution this was.
- Talks about. Informal register, and vague on top of it. If the source examined something, say examined.
Two Habits That Transfer from Bahasa Melayu
Malay-speaking writers tend to bring across two patterns that are perfectly natural in Malay and read oddly in academic English. Neither is a grammar mistake, which is why proofreading software rarely flags them.
The first is the repeated according to, mirroring menurut. In Malay, Menurut Rahman (2023)… is unremarkable at the start of successive sentences. In English, According to three times on a page starts to sound like a citation of an authority rather than an evaluation of evidence. Convert most of them into a verb: Rahman (2023) reports…
The second is treating the study as a person: This researcher found…, mirroring Pengkaji ini mendapati…. English academic prose usually puts the study or the paper in subject position — The study found…, The paper argues… — which is shorter and keeps the focus on the work rather than the individual.
The Verb Bank, Ready to Copy
Forty-eight verbs, grouped so you can pick by intention rather than by memory.
- Reporting findings: found, reported, observed, recorded, measured, identified, detected, documented.
- Reporting method: examined, investigated, analysed, surveyed, tested, compared, evaluated, assessed.
- Reporting argument: argues, contends, maintains, proposes, posits, theorises, distinguishes, conceptualises.
- Reporting caution: suggests, indicates, implies, hypothesises, speculates, anticipates.
- Reporting strength: demonstrates, establishes, confirms, validates, verifies, corroborates.
- Reporting agreement between sources: concurs, supports, echoes, extends, replicates, corroborates.
- Reporting disagreement: challenges, disputes, questions, contradicts, refutes, departs from.
- Reporting a gap: overlooks, omits, neglects, fails to address, leaves open, does not distinguish.
The last two groups are the ones that turn a chapter into an argument. A literature review made entirely of the first five groups is a competent summary; adding the sixth, seventh and eighth is what shows an examiner you have a position of your own.
Where a Tool Helps, and Where It Does Not
Tesify can flag repeated verbs, suggest alternatives at the commitment level you specify, and catch the speech verbs that slip through. What it cannot do is decide how far you believe a source, because that judgement rests on reading the source itself — and you remain the author responsible for the chapter. Read every suggested replacement against the original paper before accepting it. If you are still building the reading pile, the tools compared in AI tools for literature search handle discovery; verb choice happens afterwards, once you know what each paper actually did. When the same sentences reappear in your proposal and later in your thesis, the reuse rules are covered in can you plagiarise yourself.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a reporting verb?
A reporting verb is the verb you use to introduce someone else’s work, as in Rahman (2023) argues that. It does two jobs at once: it attributes the idea, and it signals how much weight you give it.
Is it wrong to use said in academic writing?
It is not wrong, but it is almost always a wasted opportunity. The verb said reports speech, and a journal article is not speech. Pick a verb that tells your reader what kind of contribution the source made.
How many different reporting verbs should one chapter use?
There is no rule, but a literature review that uses only two or three verbs across thirty sources reads as though every source did the same thing. Aim to use a verb because it is accurate, not to avoid repetition.
Does the tense of the reporting verb matter?
It carries meaning in English, and the convention differs by discipline. Present tense presents a claim as currently standing, while past tense frames it as something that was done at a particular time. Check what your faculty handbook and your target journal use.
Can I use the same verb for a source I disagree with?
You can, but you lose the chance to signal your position economically. Distancing verbs such as claims, asserts and assumes let your reader know you are about to push back, before you spend a sentence saying so.
Is claims always negative?
Not always, but Malaysian examiners generally read it as sceptical. If you do not intend scepticism, use states, reports or proposes instead.
Should the verb match qualitative or quantitative studies differently?
Yes. Quantitative studies usually found, measured, or reported something. Qualitative studies described, explored, or identified something. Writing that a qualitative study proved a relationship misdescribes what it did.
What do I do when several sources agree?
Use one verb for the group and cite them together, for example: Three studies report the same pattern. Repeating a separate verb for each source is what makes a paragraph read as a list rather than a synthesis.
Do reporting verbs matter in the abstract?
They matter more there than anywhere else, because the abstract has no room for qualifying clauses. The verb has to carry the whole degree of caution on its own.
Are these verbs the same in Bahasa Melayu?
The categories transfer but the individual verbs do not map one to one. If you write in Bahasa Melayu, build a parallel list with your supervisor rather than translating this one word by word.
Where should I put the citation in the sentence?
Either position is acceptable in APA. Putting the author in the sentence foregrounds who made the claim; putting the citation at the end foregrounds the finding itself. Use the second form more often in a synthesis paragraph.
Can AI tools choose reporting verbs for me?
A tool can suggest alternatives and flag repetition, but choosing the verb means deciding how much you believe a source, and that judgement is yours as the author. Read every suggested replacement before accepting it.