In Other Words

The Art of Metacommentary

Use Metacommentary to Clarify and Elaborate
Try to inserting the following types of metacommenatry:
· In other words, ______.
· What ______ really means is ______.
· My point is ______.

Titles as Metacommentary

Use Other Moves as Metacommentary
· Entertaining objects
· Adding transitions
· Framing quotations
· Answering “so what?” and “who cares?”

Templates for Introducing Metacommentary

To Ward Off Potential Misunderstandings

· Essentially, I am arguing that ______.
· My point is not that we should ______, but that we should ______.
· What ______ really mean is ______.

To Alert Readers to an Elaboration of a Previous Idea

· In other words, ______.
· To pull it another way, ______.

To Provide Readers with a Roadmap to Your Text

· Chapter 2 explores ______, while Chapter 3 examines ______.
· Having just argued that ______, let us now turn our attention to ______.

To Move From a General Claim to a Specific Example

· For example, ______.
· ______, for instance, demonstrates ______.
· Consider ______, for example.
· To take a case in point, ______.

To Indicate that a Claim is Especially Important or Less Important

· Even more important, ______.
· But above all, ______.
· Incidentally, ______.
· By the way, ______.

To Help You Anticipate and Respond to Objection

· Although some readers may object that ______, I would answer that ______.

To Guide Reader to Your Most General Point

· In sum, then, ______.
· My conclusion, then, is that ______.
· In short, ______.