Wow, look at all that research. And now you have to use it. That's right. Whether you're writing an undergraduate research paper, a master's thesis, or even a doctoral dissertation, you know that you must support your claims and conclusions with those outside sources. In other words, your job is to synthesize or integrate outside research into the fabric of your own writing. One important tool to accomplish this very important task is signal phrases. Huh? What are signal phrases? They're words that simply introduce information from a source, whether that information is quoted, or summarized in your own words. Here's a typical example. One explanation for the coyote's successful invasion of urban centers is their advanced communication skills. According to animal behaviorist Philip Lerner, coyotes possess a vocabulary of 11 distinct sounds used with family members. Okay, what just happened? I first made a claim about coyotes' communication skills. Then, I backed up that claim with source material. But to blend the two together, I used a signal phrase: "According to animal behaviorist Philip Lerner." Now, keep in mind for variety sake, I could have positioned that signal phrase elsewhere in the sentence, either at the end or at the beginning. For example, coyotes possess a vocabulary of 11 distinct sounds used with family members. Now comes a signal phrase, according to animal behaviorist Philip Lerner, and also it could have been put in the middle. Now, what if instead of a quote, I chose to summarize that source? What happens then? No difference whatsoever, you would still use a signal phrase. For example. One explanation for the coyotes increasing range is their advanced communication skills. According to animal behaviorist Philip Lerner--And now comes the paraphrase--Coyotes can emit 11 different sounds to communicate with each other. So although that was a paraphrase or summary, I still used a signal phrase to introduce it. Now, another common way to blend the signal phrase with your source information is with the simple four letter word "that." Let's take a look at an example of that. A recent study by Martinez et al. (which means and others) 2021 reconfirms that--there is our signal phrase--breakfast is still the most important meal of the day. Remember, if you look at that sentence, "that" is not followed by a comma. Okay, so these examples, clarify for us the two major roles played by signal phrases in your research writing. First, they introduce and integrate those sources into the flow of your writing. Without a signal phrase, a quote, especially, can seem to come out of nowhere, fall from the sky, blindsiding the reader. Let's take a look of an example of a quote that's not properly signaled, and you'll see what I mean. A compassionate communicative leader can create a positive work environment, quote, a distant manager can make the workplace gloomy end quote, in either case, the manager's attitude makes a difference. Whoa, who is that quote from? More importantly, how does that quote relate to the sentence before it? That error is called a ghost quote. In other words, it's a quotation that appears without attribution in your writing. Like a ghost, it appears out of nowhere. Okay. Next point. Signal phrases, along with citations, help you avoid plagiarism, by clearly identifying what is the source material and what belongs to you. And not only does it help you avoid plagiarism, it also helps clarify for the reader, who's trying to read along with you, what's yours and what is support material and not have them all kind of jumbled up. Take a look at this example. Leadership generosity is about more than pay raises. Generosity in leadership means giving someone a chance to innovate, providing praise and showing respect. In short, good leaders are guided by a generous heart. Okay, without a signal phrase, what am I, the reader, supposed to assume, that everything in that paragraph was yours, it belongs to you. I don't know of anything that came from a source in that paragraph. But if something did come up from a source and a paragraph, and you didn't signal it, or flag it, you could be accused of unintentional plagiarism. That's why a careful research writer will use a signal phrase along with a citation to clearly differentiate between source material and your material, the writer's material. Here's that here's a rewrite of that paragraph that we just read. Leadership generosity is about more than pay raises. Here's the signal phrase. Indeed, a recent report found that generosity and leadership means giving someone a chance to innovate, providing praise, and showing respect, citation Nierbaum, 2020. You see how the signal phrase and the citation work together to clearly set off that information from Nierbaum's. as belonging to that particular source? Okay, then I would finish out the paragraph with my own words. In short, good leaders are guided by a generous heart. And now we know that great last sentence comes from me, not from the source. Also remember this about signal phrases, they don't have to be long and involved. Short and effective works just fine for a signal phrases. According to John Smith, Smith claimed that, in their report about leadership, the researchers found that the work of Jane Doe provides, Jane Doe acknowledged. Those kind of short phrases are really all that is required most times in signal phrases. I want to point out something really important here. Those verbs that you just heard and saw there like claimed, found and acknowledged, those are called reporting verbs. And for convenience, they can be categorized into three groups that you can see in this PDF that I'm providing. Those three groups are strong, neutral, and tentative. Let's take a look at each one to kind of get a better handle on them. Strong reporting verbs are usually used when the source that you're using is one that is making a strong claim at that point. So that source can assert, refute, challenge, argue, and so forth, really strong stuff. In contrast, neutral reporting verbs are used when the source merely is describing a reporting and a kind of objective viewpoint. That's why you want to be sure to use neutral reporting verbs whenever you are explaining methodology. And especially when you're explaining another source's methodology. In that case, you want to use neutral verbs, such as describes, reports, examines, states-- see all of those are neutral. Lastly, are the tentative reporting verbs. They're used when you're using a source that doesn't claim and isn't neutral, rather, it is exhibiting a kind of sense of uncertainty. So that source would imply and would postulate and would hypothesize. And again, I've tried to collect as many of these reporting verbs as I can, and I put them into this PDF. You can download this PDF for free by using the link in the description below this video. One last point about signal phrases and I promise you I'll shut up. Sometimes a signal phrase just isn't enough by itself. In other words, you need an additional transition sentence or transition word. You may even need a thought bridge--that's where you add in your own content that is designed to help weave together sources. Let me give you an example. Let's say you're writing this--the impact of diversity of workplace communication can be addressed with a variety of techniques. For example, signal phrase Barker and Gower examine storytelling as a way to improve communication skills. However, this approach may not be suitable for all companies. That's our transition. And then after that transition, we're going to write an additional thought bridge to help connect the two sources. For example, when linguistic differences are an issue, for example, translators play a crucial role. Teoderescu addresses this need for trained translators, by highlighting the negative effects of tada, da, da. And now you're into the next source. But more importantly, you've joined them together, you've shown the relationship, you've done some stitching to put them together. Okay. To sum up, signal phrases really are essential tools for you whenever you become the research writer, whether it's a report, thesis or dissertation. Signal phrases need to be used along with transitions, and sometimes thought bridges, in order to put you in control of the research, because you want to be using that research to build a convincing argument, which is, of course, your final goal in writing. Okay, as always, thank you very, very much for watching. If this video you feel like it's helped you, please give it a thumbs up and hit the like button. Doing those two simple things really does help spread this information to more students. Okay, thanks again for watching. I'll see you in the next video.
