other words for our in an essay

10 Better Ways To Say “Our” And “We” In Formal Essays

When writing formal essays, there are rules of English grammar that we need to follow. Sometimes, we need to change perspective, and instead of writing in the first person and saying ‘we,’ we need to stay in the third person. So, what are the best alternatives to saying ‘we?’

There are many alternatives to saying ‘we.’ The most preferred alternatives we use are ‘they,’ ‘the group,’ and ‘the team.’ These three alternatives are the more general alternatives that seem to be applicable in almost all contexts, especially ‘they’ as we simply remove ourselves from the narrative by using it.

‘They’ is the most general and preferred alternative to ‘we’ and ‘us.’ By using ‘they,’ we replace our first-person pronoun with a third-person pronoun that simply excludes ourselves from the narrative, making the essay sound more objective and formal. ‘They’ is also a pronoun that is applicable in all contexts.

Take a look at these examples below.

Original: Humans are incredible creatures. We have so much creativity.
Alternative: Humans are incredible creatures. They have so much creativity.
Original: Our group will report tomorrow. We will talk about this month’s sales.
Alternative: Their group will report tomorrow. They will talk about this month’s sales.
Original: We simply hope the audience learned something from us.
Alternative: They simply hope the audience learned something from them.
Original: We’ve done our research, but we don’t have precise predictions yet.
Alternative: They’ve done their research, but they don’t have precise predictions yet.

‘The group’ is a good, general alternative to saying ‘we’ in formal essays. However, this alternative specifies that we refer to ‘we’ as a group of individuals. Therefore, this alternative does not apply to populations of large scale like nations, humans, or races.

Original: We were able to conclude the following findings.
Alternative: The group was able to conclude the following findings.
Original: We could not administer the test today due to certain circumstances.
Alternative: The group could not administer the test today due to certain circumstances?
Original: Our experimental set-ups did not yield any significant difference.
Alternative: The group’s experimental set-ups did not yield any significant difference.
Original: It is beneficial for us if more people participate in the study.
Alternative: It is beneficial for the group if more people participate in the study.

‘The team’ is synonymous with ‘the group.’ It is another alternative to saying ‘we’ but implies that ‘we’ refers to a team or a group of individuals that are together for the same purpose. However, ‘the team’ does not apply to bigger populations, like an entire race or human population.

Original: We are composed of individuals with a passion for learning.
Alternative: The team is composed of individuals with a passion for learning.
Original: The results of our work do not define our identity.
Alternative: The results of the team’s work do not define the team’s identity.
Original: We poured our best efforts into this project.
Alternative: The team poured their best efforts into this project.
Original: We do not tolerate any misconduct and violent behavior.
Alternative: The team does not tolerate any misconduct and violent behavior.

‘The body’ is another alternative for saying ‘we’ in formal essays. We mostly use ‘body’ when referring to large groups of individuals like the audience, spectators, or students. However, we do not use it for extreme scales such as a race population, and the like.

Original: We didn’t find the presentation interesting.
Alternative: The body didn’t find the presentation interesting.
Original: We have a lot of questions we want to ask the speaker after the talk.
Alternative: The body has a lot of questions they want to ask the speaker after the talk.
Original: We listened to different opinions on the issue.
Alternative: The body listened to different opinions on the issue.
Original: We were only able to watch the latter part of the program.
Alternative: The body was only able to watch the latter part of the program.

The Organization

‘The organization’ is a more specific alternative for ‘we.’ In using this alternative, we refer to ‘we’ as an organization in the context we are talking or writing. This alternative is most applicable for organization-related things. However, do not use this alternative if the context does not involve an organization.

Original: We will push through with the planned fundraising project.
Alternative: The organization will push through with the planned fundraising project.
Original: Our accomplishments this year are something we should be proud of.
Alternative: The organization’s accomplishments this year are something they should be proud of.
Original: We plan on collaborating with other organizations to plan the event.
Alternative: The organization plans on collaborating with other organizations to plan the event.
Original: We only accept people who have a passion for our advocacy.
Alternative: The organization only accepts people who have a passion for their advocacy.

The Researchers

‘The researchers’ is a specific alternative to ‘we’ that we only use when we refer to ‘we’ as a group of researchers. We mostly use this alternative in writing research papers that need to be in the third-person perspective. However, we don’t use this alternative outside the scope of research.

Original: We administered a total of three set-ups for the study.
Alternative: The researchers administered a total of three set-ups for the study.
Original: We encountered circumstances that provided the limitations of our research.
Alternative: The researchers encountered circumstances that provided the limitations of their research.
Original: After three months of observation, our conclusion is as follows.
Alternative: After three months of observation, the researchers’ conclusion is as follows.
Original: Our study would not be successful if not for the help of our research adviser.
Alternative: The researchers’ study would not be successful if not for the help of their research adviser.

The Company

‘The company’ is another specific alternative for ‘we.’ We only use this alternative, if we are in the context that ‘we’ refers to a company. We use this mostly in business-related reports or presentations. Other than that, we don’t use this alternative for purposes that do not involve a company.

Original: Our sales for this month are higher than last month.
Alternative: The company’s sales for this month are higher than last month.
Original: We only sell organic, vegan-friendly, and cruelty-free products.
Alternative: The company only sells organic, vegan-friendly, and cruelty-free products.
Original: We need to continuously track our demand and supply levels.
Alternative: The company needs to continuously track its demand and supply levels.
Original: Our vision and mission should guide us in all our endeavors.
Alternative: The company’s vision and mission should guide the company in all its endeavors.

The Association

‘The association’ is also a specific alternative to ‘we.’ We only use this alternative if we are in a context to talk as part of or within an association. However, we do not use this alternative if we are not talking about, for, or as part of an association.

Original: We will hold meetings every Friday to discuss weekly matters.
Alternative: The association will hold meetings every Friday to discuss weekly matters.
Original: Our job is to advocate and uphold democracy in our country.
Alternative: The association’s job is to advocate and uphold democracy in our country.
Original: Our goal directs the objectives of every endeavor we take care of.
Alternative: The association’s goal directs the objectives of every endeavor it takes care of.
Original: We are open to expanding the scope of its initiatives.
Alternative: The association is open to expanding the scope of its initiatives.

‘Humans’ is a specific alternative for ‘we’ that we use only when we refer to ‘we’ as the entire human population. We cannot use ‘humans’ for small-scale groups like researchers or a company. We use this alternative only when we regard ‘we’ as the entire human population.

Take a look at the examples below.

Original: We have so much potential inside us.
Alternative: Humans have so much potential inside them.
Original: Sometimes, even 24 hours isn’t enough for what we want to do in a day.
Alternative: Sometimes, even 24 hours isn’t enough for what humans want to do in a day.
Original: All of us have a desire to accomplish something in our lives.
Alternative: All humans have a desire to accomplish something in their lives.
Original: We cannot live without one another.
Alternative: Humans cannot live without one another.

‘Society’ or ‘the society’ is an alternative to ‘we’ that we use when referring to ‘we’ as the society we are part of, or we are in. Like ‘humans,’ we do not use ‘society’ for small-scale groups, and we can only use this alternative for anything that involves our society.

Original: We are so cruel towards others sometimes.
Alternative: Society is so cruel towards others sometimes.
Original: We have reached far and accomplished a lot collectively.
Alternative: Society has reached far and accomplished a lot collectively.
Original: Sometimes, we put up unrealistic standards for ourselves and for others.
Alternative: Sometimes, society puts up unrealistic standards for oneself and for others.
Original: We should start accepting everyone for who they are.
Alternative: Society should start accepting everyone for who they are.

Is It Appropriate To Use ‘Our’ And ‘We’ In Formal Essays?

Whether to use ‘we’ or not depends on how formal you want your essay to be or how formal it needs to be. Some formal essays allow the use of first-person pronouns like ‘we’ and ‘us.’ However, omitting these pronouns do make your essays sound more professional, formal, and objective.

Martin holds a Master’s degree in Finance and International Business. He has six years of experience in professional communication with clients, executives, and colleagues. Furthermore, he has teaching experience from Aarhus University. Martin has been featured as an expert in communication and teaching on Forbes and Shopify. Read more about Martin here .

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Tips & Guides

How To Avoid Using “We,” “You,” And “I” in an Essay

Posted on October 27, 2022 October 27, 2022

Maintaining a formal voice while writing academic essays and papers is essential to sound objective.

One of the main rules of academic or formal writing is to avoid first-person pronouns like “we,” “you,” and “I.” These words pull focus away from the topic and shift it to the speaker – the opposite of your goal.

While it may seem difficult at first, some tricks can help you avoid personal language and keep a professional tone.

Let’s learn how to avoid using “we” in an essay.

What Is a Personal Pronoun?

Pronouns are words used to refer to a noun indirectly. Examples include “he,” “his,” “her,” and “hers.” Any time you refer to a noun – whether a person, object, or animal – without using its name, you use a pronoun.

Personal pronouns are a type of pronoun. A personal pronoun is a pronoun you use whenever you directly refer to the subject of the sentence.

Take the following short paragraph as an example:

“Mr. Smith told the class yesterday to work on our essays. Mr. Smith also said that Mr. Smith lost Mr. Smith’s laptop in the lunchroom.”

The above sentence contains no pronouns at all. There are three places where you would insert a pronoun, but only two where you would put a personal pronoun. See the revised sentence below:

“Mr. Smith told the class yesterday to work on our essays. He also said that he lost his laptop in the lunchroom.”

“He” is a personal pronoun because we are talking directly about Mr. Smith. “His” is not a personal pronoun (it’s a possessive pronoun) because we are not speaking directly about Mr. Smith. Rather, we are talking about Mr. Smith’s laptop.

If later on you talk about Mr. Smith’s laptop, you may say:

“Mr. Smith found it in his car, not the lunchroom!”

In this case, “it” is a personal pronoun because in this point of view we are making a reference to the laptop directly and not as something owned by Mr. Smith.

Why Avoid Personal Pronouns in Essay Writing

We’re teaching you how to avoid using “I” in writing, but why is this necessary? Academic writing aims to focus on a clear topic, sound objective, and paint the writer as a source of authority. Word choice can significantly impact your success in achieving these goals.

Writing that uses personal pronouns can unintentionally shift the reader’s focus onto the writer, pulling their focus away from the topic at hand.

Personal pronouns may also make your work seem less objective.

One of the most challenging parts of essay writing is learning which words to avoid and how to avoid them. Fortunately, following a few simple tricks, you can master the English Language and write like a pro in no time.

Alternatives To Using Personal Pronouns

How to not use “I” in a paper? What are the alternatives? There are many ways to avoid the use of personal pronouns in academic writing. By shifting your word choice and sentence structure, you can keep the overall meaning of your sentences while re-shaping your tone.

Utilize Passive Voice

In conventional writing, students are taught to avoid the passive voice as much as possible, but it can be an excellent way to avoid first-person pronouns in academic writing.

You can use the passive voice to avoid using pronouns. Take this sentence, for example:

“ We used 150 ml of HCl for the experiment.”

Instead of using “we” and the active voice, you can use a passive voice without a pronoun. The sentence above becomes:

“150 ml of HCl were used for the experiment.”

Using the passive voice removes your team from the experiment and makes your work sound more objective.

Take a Third-Person Perspective

Another answer to “how to avoid using ‘we’ in an essay?” is the use of a third-person perspective. Changing the perspective is a good way to take first-person pronouns out of a sentence. A third-person point of view will not use any first-person pronouns because the information is not given from the speaker’s perspective.

A third-person sentence is spoken entirely about the subject where the speaker is outside of the sentence.

Take a look at the sentence below:

“In this article you will learn about formal writing.”

The perspective in that sentence is second person, and it uses the personal pronoun “you.” You can change this sentence to sound more objective by using third-person pronouns:

“In this article the reader will learn about formal writing.”

The use of a third-person point of view makes the second sentence sound more academic and confident. Second-person pronouns, like those used in the first sentence, sound less formal and objective.

Be Specific With Word Choice

You can avoid first-personal pronouns by choosing your words carefully. Often, you may find that you are inserting unnecessary nouns into your work.

Take the following sentence as an example:

“ My research shows the students did poorly on the test.”

In this case, the first-person pronoun ‘my’ can be entirely cut out from the sentence. It then becomes:

“Research shows the students did poorly on the test.”

The second sentence is more succinct and sounds more authoritative without changing the sentence structure.

You should also make sure to watch out for the improper use of adverbs and nouns. Being careful with your word choice regarding nouns, adverbs, verbs, and adjectives can help mitigate your use of personal pronouns.

“They bravely started the French revolution in 1789.”

While this sentence might be fine in a story about the revolution, an essay or academic piece should only focus on the facts. The world ‘bravely’ is a good indicator that you are inserting unnecessary personal pronouns into your work.

We can revise this sentence into:

“The French revolution started in 1789.”

Avoid adverbs (adjectives that describe verbs), and you will find that you avoid personal pronouns by default.

Closing Thoughts

In academic writing, It is crucial to sound objective and focus on the topic. Using personal pronouns pulls the focus away from the subject and makes writing sound subjective.

Hopefully, this article has helped you learn how to avoid using “we” in an essay.

When working on any formal writing assignment, avoid personal pronouns and informal language as much as possible.

While getting the hang of academic writing, you will likely make some mistakes, so revising is vital. Always double-check for personal pronouns, plagiarism , spelling mistakes, and correctly cited pieces.

You can prevent and correct mistakes using a plagiarism checker at any time, completely for free.

Quetext is a platform that helps you with all those tasks. Check out all resources that are available to you today.

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40 Useful Words and Phrases for Top-Notch Essays

To be truly brilliant, an essay needs to utilise the right language. You could make a great point, but if it’s not intelligently articulated, you almost needn’t have bothered.

Developing the language skills to build an argument and to write persuasively is crucial if you’re to write outstanding essays every time. In this article, we’re going to equip you with the words and phrases you need to write a top-notch essay, along with examples of how to utilise them.

It’s by no means an exhaustive list, and there will often be other ways of using the words and phrases we describe that we won’t have room to include, but there should be more than enough below to help you make an instant improvement to your essay-writing skills.

If you’re interested in developing your language and persuasive skills, Oxford Royale offers summer courses at its Oxford Summer School , Cambridge Summer School , London Summer School , San Francisco Summer School and Yale Summer School . You can study courses to learn english , prepare for careers in law , medicine , business , engineering and leadership.

General explaining

Let’s start by looking at language for general explanations of complex points.

1. In order to

Usage: “In order to” can be used to introduce an explanation for the purpose of an argument. Example: “In order to understand X, we need first to understand Y.”

2. In other words

Usage: Use “in other words” when you want to express something in a different way (more simply), to make it easier to understand, or to emphasise or expand on a point. Example: “Frogs are amphibians. In other words, they live on the land and in the water.”

3. To put it another way

Usage: This phrase is another way of saying “in other words”, and can be used in particularly complex points, when you feel that an alternative way of wording a problem may help the reader achieve a better understanding of its significance. Example: “Plants rely on photosynthesis. To put it another way, they will die without the sun.”

4. That is to say

Usage: “That is” and “that is to say” can be used to add further detail to your explanation, or to be more precise. Example: “Whales are mammals. That is to say, they must breathe air.”

5. To that end

Usage: Use “to that end” or “to this end” in a similar way to “in order to” or “so”. Example: “Zoologists have long sought to understand how animals communicate with each other. To that end, a new study has been launched that looks at elephant sounds and their possible meanings.”

Adding additional information to support a point

Students often make the mistake of using synonyms of “and” each time they want to add further information in support of a point they’re making, or to build an argument. Here are some cleverer ways of doing this.

6. Moreover

Usage: Employ “moreover” at the start of a sentence to add extra information in support of a point you’re making. Example: “Moreover, the results of a recent piece of research provide compelling evidence in support of…”

7. Furthermore

Usage:This is also generally used at the start of a sentence, to add extra information. Example: “Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that…”

8. What’s more

Usage: This is used in the same way as “moreover” and “furthermore”. Example: “What’s more, this isn’t the only evidence that supports this hypothesis.”

9. Likewise

Usage: Use “likewise” when you want to talk about something that agrees with what you’ve just mentioned. Example: “Scholar A believes X. Likewise, Scholar B argues compellingly in favour of this point of view.”

10. Similarly

Usage: Use “similarly” in the same way as “likewise”. Example: “Audiences at the time reacted with shock to Beethoven’s new work, because it was very different to what they were used to. Similarly, we have a tendency to react with surprise to the unfamiliar.”

11. Another key thing to remember

Usage: Use the phrase “another key point to remember” or “another key fact to remember” to introduce additional facts without using the word “also”. Example: “As a Romantic, Blake was a proponent of a closer relationship between humans and nature. Another key point to remember is that Blake was writing during the Industrial Revolution, which had a major impact on the world around him.”

12. As well as

Usage: Use “as well as” instead of “also” or “and”. Example: “Scholar A argued that this was due to X, as well as Y.”

13. Not only… but also

Usage: This wording is used to add an extra piece of information, often something that’s in some way more surprising or unexpected than the first piece of information. Example: “Not only did Edmund Hillary have the honour of being the first to reach the summit of Everest, but he was also appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.”

14. Coupled with

Usage: Used when considering two or more arguments at a time. Example: “Coupled with the literary evidence, the statistics paint a compelling view of…”

15. Firstly, secondly, thirdly…

Usage: This can be used to structure an argument, presenting facts clearly one after the other. Example: “There are many points in support of this view. Firstly, X. Secondly, Y. And thirdly, Z.

16. Not to mention/to say nothing of

Usage: “Not to mention” and “to say nothing of” can be used to add extra information with a bit of emphasis. Example: “The war caused unprecedented suffering to millions of people, not to mention its impact on the country’s economy.”

Words and phrases for demonstrating contrast

When you’re developing an argument, you will often need to present contrasting or opposing opinions or evidence – “it could show this, but it could also show this”, or “X says this, but Y disagrees”. This section covers words you can use instead of the “but” in these examples, to make your writing sound more intelligent and interesting.

17. However

Usage: Use “however” to introduce a point that disagrees with what you’ve just said. Example: “Scholar A thinks this. However, Scholar B reached a different conclusion.”

18. On the other hand

Usage: Usage of this phrase includes introducing a contrasting interpretation of the same piece of evidence, a different piece of evidence that suggests something else, or an opposing opinion. Example: “The historical evidence appears to suggest a clear-cut situation. On the other hand, the archaeological evidence presents a somewhat less straightforward picture of what happened that day.”

19. Having said that

Usage: Used in a similar manner to “on the other hand” or “but”. Example: “The historians are unanimous in telling us X, an agreement that suggests that this version of events must be an accurate account. Having said that, the archaeology tells a different story.”

20. By contrast/in comparison

Usage: Use “by contrast” or “in comparison” when you’re comparing and contrasting pieces of evidence. Example: “Scholar A’s opinion, then, is based on insufficient evidence. By contrast, Scholar B’s opinion seems more plausible.”

21. Then again

Usage: Use this to cast doubt on an assertion. Example: “Writer A asserts that this was the reason for what happened. Then again, it’s possible that he was being paid to say this.”

22. That said

Usage: This is used in the same way as “then again”. Example: “The evidence ostensibly appears to point to this conclusion. That said, much of the evidence is unreliable at best.”

Usage: Use this when you want to introduce a contrasting idea. Example: “Much of scholarship has focused on this evidence. Yet not everyone agrees that this is the most important aspect of the situation.”

Adding a proviso or acknowledging reservations

Sometimes, you may need to acknowledge a shortfalling in a piece of evidence, or add a proviso. Here are some ways of doing so.

24. Despite this

Usage: Use “despite this” or “in spite of this” when you want to outline a point that stands regardless of a shortfalling in the evidence. Example: “The sample size was small, but the results were important despite this.”

25. With this in mind

Usage: Use this when you want your reader to consider a point in the knowledge of something else. Example: “We’ve seen that the methods used in the 19th century study did not always live up to the rigorous standards expected in scientific research today, which makes it difficult to draw definite conclusions. With this in mind, let’s look at a more recent study to see how the results compare.”

26. Provided that

Usage: This means “on condition that”. You can also say “providing that” or just “providing” to mean the same thing. Example: “We may use this as evidence to support our argument, provided that we bear in mind the limitations of the methods used to obtain it.”

27. In view of/in light of

Usage: These phrases are used when something has shed light on something else. Example: “In light of the evidence from the 2013 study, we have a better understanding of…”

28. Nonetheless

Usage: This is similar to “despite this”. Example: “The study had its limitations, but it was nonetheless groundbreaking for its day.”

29. Nevertheless

Usage: This is the same as “nonetheless”. Example: “The study was flawed, but it was important nevertheless.”

30. Notwithstanding

Usage: This is another way of saying “nonetheless”. Example: “Notwithstanding the limitations of the methodology used, it was an important study in the development of how we view the workings of the human mind.”

Giving examples

Good essays always back up points with examples, but it’s going to get boring if you use the expression “for example” every time. Here are a couple of other ways of saying the same thing.

31. For instance

Example: “Some birds migrate to avoid harsher winter climates. Swallows, for instance, leave the UK in early winter and fly south…”

32. To give an illustration

Example: “To give an illustration of what I mean, let’s look at the case of…”

Signifying importance

When you want to demonstrate that a point is particularly important, there are several ways of highlighting it as such.

33. Significantly

Usage: Used to introduce a point that is loaded with meaning that might not be immediately apparent. Example: “Significantly, Tacitus omits to tell us the kind of gossip prevalent in Suetonius’ accounts of the same period.”

34. Notably

Usage: This can be used to mean “significantly” (as above), and it can also be used interchangeably with “in particular” (the example below demonstrates the first of these ways of using it). Example: “Actual figures are notably absent from Scholar A’s analysis.”

35. Importantly

Usage: Use “importantly” interchangeably with “significantly”. Example: “Importantly, Scholar A was being employed by X when he wrote this work, and was presumably therefore under pressure to portray the situation more favourably than he perhaps might otherwise have done.”

Summarising

You’ve almost made it to the end of the essay, but your work isn’t over yet. You need to end by wrapping up everything you’ve talked about, showing that you’ve considered the arguments on both sides and reached the most likely conclusion. Here are some words and phrases to help you.

36. In conclusion

Usage: Typically used to introduce the concluding paragraph or sentence of an essay, summarising what you’ve discussed in a broad overview. Example: “In conclusion, the evidence points almost exclusively to Argument A.”

37. Above all

Usage: Used to signify what you believe to be the most significant point, and the main takeaway from the essay. Example: “Above all, it seems pertinent to remember that…”

38. Persuasive

Usage: This is a useful word to use when summarising which argument you find most convincing. Example: “Scholar A’s point – that Constanze Mozart was motivated by financial gain – seems to me to be the most persuasive argument for her actions following Mozart’s death.”

39. Compelling

Usage: Use in the same way as “persuasive” above. Example: “The most compelling argument is presented by Scholar A.”

40. All things considered

Usage: This means “taking everything into account”. Example: “All things considered, it seems reasonable to assume that…”

How many of these words and phrases will you get into your next essay? And are any of your favourite essay terms missing from our list? Let us know in the comments below, or get in touch here to find out more about courses that can help you with your essays.

At Oxford Royale Academy, we offer a number of summer school courses for young people who are keen to improve their essay writing skills. Click here to apply for one of our courses today, including law , business , medicine and engineering .

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100 Words and Phrases to use in an Essay

Thomas Babb

Writing a compelling essay involves much more than simply putting your thoughts on paper. It demands the use of a precise vocabulary that not only enriches your content but also structures it in a way that is both logical and engaging. The right words and phrases can transform your essay from a basic assignment to an insightful and persuasive piece of writing.

This guide introduces you to 100 essential words and phrases recommended by expert English tutors that will help you convey your ideas more effectively. From adding information to expressing contrasts, and from illustrating examples to summarising your points, these carefully selected terms will enhance the clarity and impact of your essays.

Adding Information

When crafting an essay, integrating additional details effectively can enrich the written content and present a well-rounded argument. Here's how you can use each phrase under this category:

1. Furthermore - Use this to add weight to a point already mentioned, providing further evidence without redundancy.

2. Moreover - Similar to "furthermore," it introduces information that not only adds to the argument but enhances it.

3. Similarly - This indicates that the upcoming point shares notable characteristics with the previous one, aiding in drawing parallels.

4. Additionally - Introduces extra information or arguments that augment the current discussion.

5. Also - A simpler form of "additionally" that integrates extra facts smoothly.

6. Likewise - Indicates similarity and supports points by showing how they relate to each other in terms of qualities or actions.

7. In addition - This phrase is useful for contributing additional supportive details in a clear manner.

8. As well as - Functions to include another subject or item into your discussion without diverging from the main topic.

9. Not only... but also - A powerful structure for emphasizing not just one, but two important points, enhancing the depth of the argument.

10. Alongside - Implies that the information being added runs parallel to the already established facts, reinforcing them.

These phrases, when used correctly, help to build a strong, cohesive narrative flow in your essays, guiding the reader through a logical progression of ideas. For more on enhancing your writing with effective information addition, explore resources like Oxford Royale's Essay Writing Tips .

Introducing Examples

Introducing concrete examples is crucial in illustrating and supporting your claims effectively in an essay. Here’s how to use each word or phrase linked to this category:

11. For instance - Introduces a specific example that illuminates a broader point, helping to clarify complex ideas.

12. For example - Functions similarly to "for instance," offering a direct illustration to support or demonstrate a claim.

13. Such as - Prepares the reader for an example that is part of a larger category, typically used to list items or concepts.

14. Like - Introduces comparisons or examples in a casual and relatable manner.

15. Particularly - Highlights an example that is especially relevant to the argument, focusing attention on significant details.

16. In particular - Similar to "particularly," but often used to introduce a standout example that underscores a critical point.

17. Including - Serves to add examples to a list that may already be understood to be part of the topic being discussed.

18. Namely - Specifies and introduces exact and often multiple examples or details directly related to the point.

19. Chiefly - Points to the most important or significant examples or reasons in support of an argument.

20. Mainly - Indicates that the examples provided are the primary ones to consider, focusing on the most relevant instances.

Effective use of these phrases not only clarifies your points but also strengthens your arguments by making abstract concepts tangible. For detailed guidance on how to incorporate examples effectively in your essays, refer to academic resources like Harvard College Writing Center .

Demonstrating Contrast

IB English tutors suggest that Using contrast effectively in your essays can highlight differences that clarify your points or show alternative perspectives. Here’s how to use each phrase to demonstrate contrast:

21. Conversely - Signals a stark contrast to what has just been discussed, often introducing an opposing viewpoint.

22. However - A versatile tool to introduce a contradiction or counterpoint, breaking from the previous line of reasoning.

23. Nevertheless - Indicates persistence of a stated fact or opinion despite the contrasting information that follows.

24. On the other hand - Used to present a different perspective or an alternative to the argument previously mentioned.

25. Although - Begins a sentence where the main clause contrasts with the lesser significant, conditional clause.

26. Even though - Similar to "although," but often emphasizes a stronger degree of contrast between the conflicting elements.

27. But - A simple and direct way to introduce a contradiction to the preceding statement.

28. Yet - Suggests a contrast that is surprising or unexpected based on the previous statements.

29. Instead - Introduces an alternative action or thought in response to what has been previously discussed.

30. Rather - Used to correct or propose a different idea from what was initially stated or understood.

These phrases are essential for essays where comparing and contrasting ideas, arguments, or perspectives is necessary to deepen understanding or enhance the argument’s complexity. To learn more about using contrast in writing, visit educational resources such as Purdue Online Writing Lab .

Showing Cause and Effect

A-Level English tutors point out that effectively indicating cause and effect relationships in your essays helps clarify the reasons things happen and the consequences that follow. Here’s how to use each word or phrase to illustrate these relationships:

31. Consequently - Signals a direct result from the action or situation mentioned, highlighting the effect or outcome.

32. Therefore - Used to introduce a logical conclusion or result that follows from the reasoning presented earlier.

33. Thus - Indicates a conclusion or result that is a natural consequence of the facts previously mentioned.

34. Hence - Similar to "thus," it conveys a consequence that is a logical extension from the argument or data presented.

35. Accordingly - Shows that an action or decision is a logical response to the circumstances or facts discussed.

36. As a result - Directly points out the outcome or effect resulting from a specific cause or set of conditions.

37. This leads to - Introduces a sequence where one event or fact causes another, often used to chain multiple effects.

38. It follows that - Used when deducing a conclusion that logically arises from the preceding argument or evidence.

39. Leading to - Connects an initial action or decision directly with its consequences, highlighting a progression of events.

40. Contributing to - Indicates that the action or event adds to a situation, leading to a particular result or effect.

Mastering the use of these phrases can enhance the persuasive power of your writing by clearly linking actions and their consequences.

Adding Emphasis

Effectively emphasising key points in your essays can make your arguments more compelling and memorable. Here’s how to appropriately use each word or phrase to add emphasis:

41. Significantly - Indicates that something is of great importance or consequence, drawing the reader's attention to the gravity of the point being made.

42. Importantly - Prioritises the following information as crucial for understanding the argument or situation.

43. Indeed - Reinforces the truth of a statement, often used to confirm and agree with a previously mentioned point that might be surprising or emphatic.

44. Absolutely - A strong affirmation that leaves no doubt about the veracity or importance of the statement.

45. Definitely - Communicates certainty about a fact or opinion, strengthening the author's stance.

46. Certainly - Similar to "definitely," it expresses a high degree of assurance about the information being provided.

47. Undoubtedly - Suggests that there is no doubt about the statement, reinforcing its truth and relevance.

48. Without a doubt - A more emphatic form of "undoubtedly," eliminating any ambiguity about the point’s validity.

49. Particularly - Highlights specific information as especially significant within a broader context.

50. Especially - Used to indicate that something holds more significance than other elements, often emphasizing exceptional cases or instances.

Using these expressions strategically can enhance the persuasive impact of your writing by underscoring the most critical elements of your argument. To see more words and further explore techniques for adding emphasis in academic writing, visit resources like Cambridge Dictionary Blog .

Explaining and Clarifying

In academic essays, clearly explaining and clarifying complex ideas is essential for effective communication. IGCSE tutors and GCSE tutors suggest that each of these phrases can be used to enhance understanding:

51. That is to say - Used to introduce a rephrasing or elaboration on something that has just been stated.

52. In other words - Helps clarify a statement by expressing it in different terms for better understanding.

53. To put it another way - Similar to "in other words," it offers an alternative explanation or perspective to ensure clarity.

54. To clarify - Directly states the intent to make something clearer or to resolve any misunderstandings.

55. To explain - Introduces a detailed explanation aimed at enhancing understanding of a complex issue or point.

56. This means that - Connects a statement or idea to its implications or necessary interpretations.

57. This implies - Suggests a deeper, often unspoken consequence or meaning behind the given information.

58. Put simply - Introduces a simpler or more straightforward version of what has been discussed, making it more accessible.

59. In simpler terms - Another phrase to ease comprehension by breaking down complex concepts into basic language.

60. Thus - Concludes an explanation by summarizing the logical result or conclusion derived from the argument made.

Using these phrases effectively can help articulate intricate arguments in a more digestible format, aiding the reader’s understanding and engagement.

Summarising and Concluding

Expert IB tutors and A-Level tutors recommend that effectively summarising and concluding your essays is crucial for reinforcing your main points and providing a satisfying closure to any persuasive essay. Here’s how to use each word or phrase to effectively wrap up your discussions:

61. In conclusion - Signals the beginning of the final summary, clearly stating that the argument is drawing to a close.

62. To sum up - Introduces a concise summary of the key points discussed, often used before the final conclusion.

63. Ultimately - Indicates a final, overarching conclusion derived from the arguments and evidence presented.

64. Finally - Marks the introduction of the last point or an additional important point that concludes the discussion.

65. Lastly - Similar to "finally," it is used to introduce the final argument or point in the list.

66. To conclude - Directly states the intent to wrap up the essay, leading into a summary of the main findings.

67. In summary - Offers a recap of the essential elements discussed, reinforcing the thesis without introducing new information.

68. All things considered - Provides an overall conclusion, taking into account all the points made throughout the essay.

69. In the final analysis - Suggests a thorough consideration of all aspects discussed, leading to a concluding viewpoint.

70. After all - Implies that the conclusion takes into account all arguments and evidences previously presented.

Mastering the use of these concluding phrases ensures that your essay ends on a strong note, summarising key points and reinforcing your argument.

Discussing Similarities

Highlighting similarities effectively can enhance your argument by showing connections and parallels between ideas or topics. Here’s how to use each phrase to discuss similarities in your essays:

71. Similarly - Indicates that what follows is in alignment with the previous statement, reinforcing the connection between two points.

72. Likewise - Also used to show agreement or similarity, it confirms that the upcoming point supports the previous one in terms of characteristics or outcomes.

73. Just as - Introduces a comparison, suggesting that the situation or argument is equivalent to another.

74. As with - Used before mentioning another example, indicating that it shares properties or conditions with what has been discussed.

75. Equally - Implies that two or more elements are on the same level in terms of importance, quality, or characteristics.

76. Analogous to - Introduces a more formal comparison, indicating that one situation is comparable to another, often used in more scientific or technical discussions.

77. Comparable to - Suggests that two things can be likened to each other, providing a basis for comparison.

78. In the same way - Confirms that the action, process, or idea mirrors another, reinforcing the similarity.

79. Just like - A more casual phrase used to draw a direct comparison, making the similarity clear and understandable.

80. Similarly important - Asserts that the importance or relevance of two or more aspects is equal, emphasising their comparative significance.

Utilising these phrases allows you to effectively link concepts and arguments, showing how they complement or mirror each other, which can strengthen your overall thesis. For further reading on comparing and contrasting ideas effectively, the University of North Carolina Writing Center offers excellent resources.

Providing Alternatives

Offering alternatives in your essays can demonstrate critical thinking by showing different possibilities or approaches. Here’s how to use each word or phrase to introduce alternative ideas:

81. Alternatively - Introduces a different option or suggestion, providing another route or perspective.

82. On the contrary - Used to present a direct opposition to the previously mentioned idea, emphasising a contrasting point.

83. Rather - Suggests a preference for one choice over another, typically used to propose a different approach or opinion.

84. Conversely - Indicates a reversal of what has been previously stated, introducing an opposing viewpoint.

85. Instead - Specifies a substitute or replacement, clearly stating that one option is to be considered in place of another.

86. On the flip side - Introduces a contrasting scenario or viewpoint in a more informal manner, often used in conversational or less formal writing.

87. Rather than - Presents a comparison between two choices, highlighting a preference for one over the other.

88. As an alternative - Explicitly states the introduction of a different option or method, providing variety to the discussion.

89. Either...or - Sets up a choice between two distinct options, forcing a decision that impacts the argument’s direction.

90. Neither...nor - Used to deny two possibilities simultaneously, often restructuring the argument by excluding common options.

Incorporating these phrases allows you to explore and present multiple facets of an issue, enriching the essay’s depth and persuasiveness. For tips on effectively presenting alternative arguments, visit Harvard College Writing Center .

Expressing Conditions

Effectively expressing conditions in your essays can help outline scenarios where certain outcomes or arguments hold true. Here’s how to use each word or phrase to specify conditions:

91. If - Introduces a conditional statement, setting up a scenario where a specific result depends on a preceding condition.

92. Unless - Specifies an exception to a general rule or statement, indicating that a condition will change the outcome if not met.

93. Provided that - Sets a stipulation or requirement for a scenario to occur, emphasizing that certain conditions must be satisfied.

94. Assuming that - Suggests a hypothesis or a precondition that needs to be accepted before proceeding with an argument or conclusion.

95. In case - Prepares for a situation that might occur, setting up precautions or actions based on potential scenarios.

96. Even if - Acknowledges that even under certain circumstances, the primary argument or conclusion still holds.

97. Only if - Restricts the conditions under which a statement or outcome is valid, narrowing down the scenarios to very specific ones.

98. Whether - Presents alternatives, usually offering a choice between possibilities within the condition stated.

99. As long as - Indicates that a condition is contingent upon the duration or continuation of a specified situation.

100. Given that - Introduces a premise as a fact, assuming its truth for the sake of argument or to advance the discussion.

Final Thoughts

In crafting compelling essays, the strategic use of specific words and phrases can significantly enhance both the clarity and persuasiveness of your writing. By mastering the use of these 100 essential terms, students can effectively structure their essays, convey complex ideas, and articulate contrasts and comparisons with precision. Each category of phrases serves a unique purpose, from adding information to providing alternatives, which empowers writers to construct well-rounded arguments and engage their readers more deeply.

As you continue to refine your essay-writing skills, remember that the power of your arguments often lies in the details—the precise words and phrases you choose to express your thoughts. The power of a well crafted essay introduction and precise essay conclusion should also not be overlooked. By integrating these tools into your writing repertoire, you are better equipped to present clear, persuasive, and engaging essays that stand out in academic settings.

How can I improve my essay planning process?

Effective essay planning begins with a clear understanding of the essay question. Break down the question to identify key terms and the required response. Create an outline to organise your main points and supporting arguments logically. Consider using a mind map to visually plot connections between ideas, which can spur creative thinking. Allocate time for research, writing, and revision within your plan. Practising essay plans for different questions can enhance your ability to organise thoughts quickly and efficiently, a crucial skill especially under exam conditions.

What makes an essay introduction effective?

An effective introduction grabs the reader's attention, sets the tone, and provides a clear thesis statement. Start with a hook such as a provocative question, a startling statistic, or a compelling quote. Provide some background information to set the context, ensuring it's directly relevant to the essay's question. The thesis statement should be concise and outline your main argument or response to the question. This setup not only intrigues but also informs the reader about the essay's focus, establishing your understanding and control of the subject.

How do I choose the best evidence for my essay?

The best evidence is relevant, credible, and supports your thesis directly. Use primary sources where possible as they provide first-hand accounts that you can analyse directly. When primary sources are not available, rely on peer-reviewed journals and reputable publications. Diversify your sources to avoid over-reliance on a single type of evidence, and critically evaluate sources for bias and reliability. Properly integrating this evidence into your argument involves summarising, paraphrasing, and quoting sources while always linking back to your main argument.

How can I make my essay arguments more persuasive?

To make your arguments more persuasive, begin with a clear, assertive thesis statement. Structure your essay so each paragraph introduces a single point supporting your thesis. Use credible evidence and explain how this supports your argument. Address potential counterarguments to show the depth of your understanding and strengthen your position by demonstrating why your approach is preferable. Employing a confident but respectful tone and precise language also enhances the persuasiveness of your essay.

What are common pitfalls in essay writing to avoid?

Common pitfalls in essay writing include poor structure, weak thesis statements, and lack of coherence. Avoiding these starts with a robust plan and clear outline. Stay on topic by linking each paragraph back to your thesis statement. Avoid plagiarism by properly citing all sources. Overly complex sentence structures can confuse readers, so strive for clarity and conciseness. Finally, neglecting proofreading can leave typographical and grammatical errors, which diminish the quality of your work, so always review your essay thoroughly.

How do I manage time when writing an essay under exam conditions?

Time management in exams is crucial. Allocate about 10% of your time for planning, 80% for writing, and 10% for revising. Quickly outline your main points to structure your essay from the start. Write your body paragraphs first, as these contain the bulk of marks, then your introduction and conclusion. Keep an eye on the clock and pace yourself to ensure you have enough time to adequately develop your arguments and conclude effectively.

What are the best practices for editing and proofreading essays?

After writing your essay, take a break before you start editing to give you a fresh perspective. Read your essay aloud to catch awkward phrasing and sentences that don't flow logically. Check for consistency in tense and point of view throughout the essay. Use spell-check tools, but do not rely on them solely—manually check for homophones and commonly confused words. Consider having someone else read your work to catch errors you might have overlooked and to provide feedback on the clarity of your arguments.

How can I develop a strong thesis statement?

A strong thesis statement is clear, concise, and specific. It should express one main idea that is debatable, meaning there is potential for argument. Reflect on the essay prompt and decide on your position regarding the topic. Your thesis should guide the reader through your arguments and indicate the rationale behind your viewpoint. It serves as the backbone of your essay, so ensure it is robust and directly linked to the question asked.

How do I handle counterarguments in my essays?

Handling counterarguments effectively involves acknowledging them and then refuting them with stronger evidence or reasoning. Present them fairly and objectively, then use logical, fact-based arguments to demonstrate why your position remains valid. This not only shows critical thinking but also strengthens your original argument by showing you have considered multiple perspectives.

What is the role of a conclusion in an essay?

The conclusion of an essay should effectively summarise the main arguments discussed while reaffirming the thesis statement. It should synthesise the information presented rather than introducing new ideas. Provide a final perspective on the topic or suggest implications, further research or practical applications to leave the reader with something to ponder. A strong conclusion can reinforce your argument and leave a lasting impression on the reader.

How can I ensure my essay flows logically?

To ensure logical flow, each paragraph should seamlessly connect to the next with clear transitions. Focus on structuring paragraphs around one main idea that supports your thesis. Use transitional words and phrases to show the relationship between paragraphs. Consistency in your argumentation style and maintaining a clear focus throughout the essay will help keep your writing coherent.

What techniques help maintain reader interest throughout an essay?

To maintain reader interest, start with a strong hook in your introduction and use engaging content like relevant anecdotes, striking statistics, or interesting quotes throughout your essay. Vary your sentence structure and use active voice to keep the narrative dynamic. Also, ensure your topic is relevant and your arguments are presented with passion and clarity.

How can I integrate quotes effectively in essays?

To integrate quotes effectively, introduce the quote with a sentence that sets up its relevance to your argument, then follow the quote with analysis or interpretation that ties it back to your main point. Do not rely heavily on quotes to make your points; use them to support your arguments. Ensure that every quote is properly cited according to the required academic style guide.

What are the differences between descriptive and argumentative essays?

Descriptive essays focus on detailing a particular subject to give the reader a clear image or understanding of the topic through vivid language and sensory details. In contrast, argumentative essays aim to persuade the reader of a particular viewpoint or position using evidence and reasoning. The former is more about painting a picture, while the latter is about convincing through argument.

How can I use feedback to improve my essay writing skills?

Feedback is invaluable for improving essay writing skills. Actively seek out feedback from teachers, peers, or tutors and focus particularly on recurring themes in their comments. Reflect on this feedback critically and apply it to your future essays. Regularly revisiting and revising your work based on constructive criticism allows you to develop a more refined and effective writing style over time.

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Written by: Thomas Babb

Thomas is a PhD candidate at Oxford University. He served as an interviewer and the lead admissions test marker at Oxford, and teaches undergraduate students at Mansfield College and St Hilda’s College. He has ten years’ experience tutoring A-Level and GCSE students across a range of subjects.

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Synonyms For 95 Commonly Used Words – A Mini-Thesaurus For Writers

Writers Write creates writing resources and shares writing tips. Use this mini-thesaurus to find synonyms for 95 commonly-used words when you write.

If you do a lot of writing, it’s good to have a selection of synonyms for commonly used words to hand. If you can, keep a thesaurus nearby or use an online thesaurus . Or you could just bookmark this page and use it as needed.

If you are unsure of the replacement word, look it up to see if it has the correct meaning for the sentence you are writing.

Synonyms for 95 Commonly Used Words in the English language

Amazing — incredible, unbelievable, improbable, fabulous, wonderful, fantastic, astonishing, astounding, extraordinary
Anger — enrage, infuriate, arouse, nettle, exasperate, inflame, madden
Angry — mad, furious, enraged, excited, wrathful, indignant, exasperated, aroused, inflamed
Answer — reply, respond, retort, acknowledge
Ask — question, inquire of, seek information from, put a question to, demand, request, expect, inquire, query, interrogate, examine, quiz
Awful — dreadful, terrible, abominable, bad, poor, unpleasant
Bad — evil, immoral, wicked, corrupt, sinful, depraved, rotten, contaminated, spoiled, tainted, harmful, injurious, unfavourable, defective, inferior, imperfect, substandard, faulty, improper, inappropriate, unsuitable, disagreeable, unpleasant, cross, nasty, unfriendly, irascible, horrible, atrocious, outrageous, scandalous, infamous, wrong, noxious, sinister, putrid, snide, deplorable, dismal, gross, heinous, nefarious, base, obnoxious, detestable, despicable, contemptible, foul, rank, ghastly, execrable
Beautiful — pretty, lovely, handsome, attractive, gorgeous, dazzling, splendid, magnificent, comely, fair, ravishing, graceful, elegant, fine, exquisite, aesthetic, pleasing, shapely, delicate, stunning, glorious, heavenly, resplendent, radiant, glowing, blooming, sparkling
Begin — start, open, launch, initiate, commence, inaugurate, originate
Big — enormous, huge, immense, gigantic, vast, colossal, gargantuan, large, sizeable, grand, great, tall, substantial, mammoth, astronomical, ample, broad, expansive, spacious, stout, tremendous, titanic, mountainous
Brave — courageous, fearless, dauntless, intrepid, plucky, daring, heroic, valorous, audacious, bold, gallant, valiant, doughty, mettlesome
Break — fracture, rupture, shatter, smash, wreck, crash, demolish, atomise
Bright — shining, shiny, gleaming, brilliant, sparkling, shimmering, radiant, vivid, colourful, lustrous, luminous, incandescent, intelligent, knowing, quick-witted, smart, intellectual
Calm — quiet, peaceful, still, tranquil, mild, serene, smooth, composed, collected, unruffled, level-headed, unexcited, detached, aloof
Come — approach, advance, near, arrive, reach
Cool — chilly, cold, frosty, wintry, icy, frigid
Crooked — bent, twisted, curved, hooked, zigzag
Cry — shout, yell, yowl, scream, roar, bellow, weep, wail, sob, bawl
Cut — gash, slash, prick, nick, sever, slice, carve, cleave, slit, chop, crop, lop, reduce
Dangerous — perilous, hazardous, risky, uncertain, unsafe
Dark — shadowy, unlit, murky, gloomy, dim, dusky, shaded, sunless, black, dismal, sad
Decide — determine, settle, choose, resolve
Definite — certain, sure, positive, determined, clear, distinct, obvious
Delicious — savoury, delectable, appetizing, luscious, scrumptious, palatable, delightful, enjoyable, toothsome, exquisite
Describe — portray, characterize, picture, narrate, relate, recount, represent, report, record
Destroy — ruin, demolish, raze, waste, kill, slay, end, extinguish
Difference — disagreement, inequity, contrast, dissimilarity, incompatibility
Do — execute, enact, carry out, finish, conclude, effect, accomplish, achieve, attain
Dull — boring, tiring„ tiresome, uninteresting, slow, dumb, stupid, unimaginative, lifeless, dead, insensible, tedious, wearisome, listless, expressionless, plain, monotonous, humdrum, dreary
Eager — keen, fervent, enthusiastic, involved, interested, alive to
End — stop, finish, terminate, conclude, close, halt, cessation, discontinuance
Enjoy — appreciate, delight in, be pleased, indulge in, luxuriate in, bask in, relish, devour, savour, like
Explain — elaborate, clarify, define, interpret, justify, account for
Fair — just, impartial, unbiased, objective, unprejudiced, honest
Fall — drop, descend, plunge, topple, tumble
False — fake, fraudulent, counterfeit, spurious, untrue, unfounded, erroneous, deceptive, groundless, fallacious
Famous — well-known, renowned, celebrated, famed, eminent, illustrious, distinguished, noted, notorious
Fast — quick, rapid, speedy, fleet, hasty, snappy, mercurial, swiftly, rapidly, quickly, snappily, speedily, lickety-split, post-haste, hastily, expeditiously, like a flash
Fat — stout, corpulent, fleshy, beefy, paunchy, plump, full, rotund, tubby, pudgy, chubby, chunky, burly, bulky, elephantine
Fear — fright, dread, terror, alarm, dismay, anxiety, scare, awe, horror, panic, apprehension
Fly — soar, hover, flit, wing, flee, waft, glide, coast, skim, sail, cruise
Funny — humorous, amusing, droll, comic, comical, laughable, silly
Get — acquire, obtain, secure, procure, gain, fetch, find, score, accumulate, win, earn, rep, catch, net, bag, derive, collect, gather, glean, pick up, accept, come by, regain, salvage
Go — recede, depart, fade, disappear, move, travel, proceed
Good — excellent, fine, superior, wonderful, marvellous, qualified, suited, suitable, apt, proper, capable, generous, kindly, friendly, gracious, obliging, pleasant, agreeable, pleasurable, satisfactory, well-behaved, obedient, honourable, reliable, trustworthy, safe, favourable, profitable, advantageous, righteous, expedient, helpful, valid, genuine, ample, salubrious, estimable, beneficial, splendid, great, noble, worthy, first-rate, top-notch, grand, sterling, superb, respectable, edifying
Great — noteworthy, worthy, distinguished, remarkable, grand, considerable, powerful, much, mighty
Gross — improper, rude, coarse, indecent, crude, vulgar, outrageous, extreme, grievous, shameful, uncouth, obscene, low
Happy — pleased, contented, satisfied, delighted, elated, joyful, cheerful, ecstatic, jubilant, gay, tickled, gratified, glad, blissful, overjoyed
Hate — despise, loathe, detest, abhor, disfavour, dislike, disapprove, abominate
Have — hold, possess, own, contain, acquire, gain, maintain, believe, bear, beget, occupy, absorb, fill, enjoy
Help — aid, assist, support, encourage, back, wait on, attend, serve, relieve, succour, benefit, befriend, abet
Hide — conceal, cover, mask, cloak, camouflage, screen, shroud, veil
Hurry — rush, run, speed, race, hasten, urge, accelerate, bustle
Hurt — damage, harm, injure, wound, distress, afflict, pain
Idea — thought, concept, conception, notion, understanding, opinion, plan, view, belief
Important — necessary, vital, critical, indispensable, valuable, essential, significant, primary, principal, considerable, famous, distinguished, notable, well-known
Interesting — fascinating, engaging, sharp, keen, bright, intelligent, animated, spirited, attractive, inviting, intriguing, provocative, though-provoking, challenging, inspiring, involving, moving, titillating, tantalising, exciting, entertaining, piquant, lively, racy, spicy, engrossing, absorbing, consuming, gripping, arresting, enthralling, spellbinding, curious, captivating, enchanting, bewitching, appealing
Keep — hold, retain, withhold, preserve, maintain, sustain, support
Kill — slay, execute, assassinate, murder, destroy, cancel, abolish
Lazy — indolent, slothful, idle, inactive, sluggish
Little — tiny, small, diminutive, shrimp, runt, miniature, puny, exiguous, dinky, cramped, limited, itsy-bitsy, microscopic, slight, petite, minute
Look — gaze, see, glance, watch, survey, study, seek, search for, peek, peep, glimpse, stare, contemplate, examine, gape, ogle, scrutinise, inspect, leer, behold, observe, view, witness, perceive, spy, sight, discover, notice, recognise, peer, eye, gawk, peruse, explore
Love — like, admire, esteem, fancy, care for, cherish, adore, treasure, worship, appreciate, savour
Make — create, originate, invent, beget, form, construct, design, fabricate, manufacture, produce, build, develop, do, effect, execute, compose, perform, accomplish, earn, gain, obtain, acquire, get
Mark — label, tag, price, ticket, impress, effect, trace, imprint, stamp, brand, sign, note, heed, notice, designate
Mischievous — prankish, playful, naughty, roguish, waggish, impish, sportive
Move — plod, go, creep, crawl, inch, poke, drag, toddle, shuffle, trot, dawdle, walk, traipse, mosey, jog, plug, trudge, slump, lumber, trail, lag, run, sprint, trip, bound, hotfoot, high-tail, streak, stride, tear, breeze, whisk, rush, dash, dart, bolt, fling, scamper, scurry, skedaddle, scoot, scuttle, scramble, race, chase, hasten, hurry, hump, gallop, lope, accelerate, stir, budge, travel, wander, roam, journey, trek, ride, spin, slip, glide, slide, slither, coast, flow, sail, saunter, hobble, amble, stagger, paddle, slouch, prance, straggle, meander, perambulate, waddle, wobble, pace, swagger, promenade, lunge
Moody — temperamental, changeable, short-tempered, glum, morose, sullen, modish, irritable, testy, peevish, fretful, spiteful, sulky, touchy
Neat — clean, orderly, tidy, trim, dapper, natty, smart, elegant, well-organized, super, desirable, spruce, shipshape, well-kept, shapely
New — fresh, unique, original, unusual, novel, modern, current, recent
Old — feeble, frail, ancient, weak, aged, used, worn, dilapidated, ragged, faded, broken-down, former, old-fashioned, outmoded, passé, veteran, mature, venerable, primitive, traditional, archaic, conventional, customary, stale, musty, obsolete, extinct
Part — portion, share, piece, allotment, section, fraction, fragment
Place — space, area, spot, plot, region, location, situation, position, residence, dwelling, set, site, station, status, state
Plan — plot, scheme, design, draw, map, diagram, procedure, arrangement, intention, device, contrivance, method, way, blueprint
Popular — well-liked, approved, accepted, favourite, celebrated, common, current
Predicament — quandary, dilemma, pickle, problem, plight, spot, scrape, jam
Put — place, set, attach, establish, assign, keep, save, set aside, effect, achieve, do, build
Quiet — silent, still, soundless, mute, tranquil, peaceful, calm, restful
Right — correct, accurate, factual, true, good, just, honest, upright, lawful, moral, proper, suitable, apt, legal, fair
Run — race, speed, hurry, hasten, sprint, dash, rush, escape, elope, flee
Scared — afraid, frightened, alarmed, terrified, panicked, fearful, unnerved, insecure, timid, shy, skittish, jumpy, disquieted, worried, vexed, troubled, disturbed, horrified, terrorised, shocked, petrified, haunted, timorous, shrinking, tremulous, stupefied, paralyzed, stunned, apprehensive
Show — display, exhibit, present, note, point to, indicate, explain, reveal, prove, demonstrate, expose
Slow — unhurried, gradual, leisurely, late, behind, tedious, slack
Stop — cease, halt, stay, pause, discontinue, conclude, end, finish, quit
Story — tale, myth, legend, fable, yarn, account, narrative, chronicle, epic, sage, anecdote, record, memoir
Strange — odd, peculiar, unusual, unfamiliar, uncommon, queer, weird, outlandish, curious, unique, exclusive, irregular
Take — hold, catch, seize, grasp, win, capture, acquire, pick, choose, select, prefer, remove, steal, lift, rob, engage, bewitch, purchase, buy, retract, recall, assume, occupy, consume
Tell — disclose, reveal, show, expose, uncover, relate, narrate, inform, advise, explain, divulge, declare, command, order, bid, recount, repeat
Think — judge, deem, assume, believe, consider, contemplate, reflect, mediate
Trouble — distress, anguish, anxiety, worry, wretchedness, pain, danger, peril, disaster, grief, misfortune, difficulty, concern, pains, inconvenience, exertion, effort
True — accurate, right, proper, precise, exact, valid, genuine, real, actual, trusty, steady, loyal, dependable, sincere, staunch
Ugly — hideous, frightful, frightening, shocking, horrible, unpleasant, monstrous, terrifying, gross, grisly, ghastly, horrid, unsightly, plain, homely, evil, repulsive, repugnant, gruesome
Unhappy — miserable, uncomfortable, wretched, heart-broken, unfortunate, poor, downhearted, sorrowful, depressed, dejected, melancholy, glum, gloomy, dismal, discouraged, sad
Use — employ, utilise, exhaust, spend, expend, consume, exercise
Wrong — incorrect, inaccurate, mistaken, erroneous, improper, unsuitable

If you are looking for more resources, you might like these posts:

17 Pretentious Words & What to Use Instead
Persuasive Writing – Emotional vs Intellectual Words
106 Ways To Describe Sounds
75 Words That Describe Smells – A Resource For Writers
22 Common Nouns & What You Can Use Instead
16 Old Words for Young People
30 Filler Words To Cut Out Of Your Writing

28 thoughts on “Synonyms For 95 Commonly Used Words – A Mini-Thesaurus For Writers”

very educative

I love this list. I find the use of a thesaurus both helpful and a hindrance, but it is a necessity at times.

Excellent work.

I especially liked the list for “move”. Maybe “like” could be added to the list?

Can you add “awesome”? Now there’s an overused word.

Hang on, how is improbable an alternative to amazing…? Or arouse an alternative to anger? Not to mention arouse is an adjective and anger is a noun… Angry -> excited? That’s as far as I read. Someone must have been really confused reading some books….

Thanks for the list. I have a thesaurus on my computer which my husband found. The one above is for the basic words that pop up all the time and I appreciate being given the list.

move? You left one out. In reflection seismology a synonym is migrate.

This is an awesome list. Great work!

This is really helpful! It can be very frustrating trying to come up with a word.

Guys checkout an awesome motivational blog to boost your moral.

http://motivationalthoughtsforyou.blogspot.in/

I’m sure you will definitely love it.

How I wish everyone would read this. Conversation would be so much more interesting and accurate.

I live by my thesaurus and this one is really handy!

Such an great list to write something which is simple and catchy to eyes. As a writer it would be helps a great deal to make my writing meaningful and understandable to others. Thats stuff is seriously an applauded work by author.

This is very helpful for student and also word power make a strong, if you give a deaily word power so it could be help us.

nice sir it could be help ful for word power for student .

oh! i always need this thing thank you so much

Thank you so much for posting this. I am constantly trying to expand my every day vocabulary. These words are simple enough for daily use, yet not the average choice for most. Love it.

Thank you for the feedback. We appreciate it.

Good look up table for writers .terrific.

Generally useful list, but it ignores some important distinctions. “Notorious” is not a synonym for famous; it refers to fame as ignominy. You can write about notorious bank robbers, notorious swindlers, even notorious celebrities when their reputations have been muddied. But you would, in contrast, call, Adele a notorious singer. Nonetheless, I found most of the list helpful for everyday words.

Oops. I meant to say that you would NOT call Adele a notorious singer. Sorry for the word lapse.

Wow, Its so lovely post, So many vocabularies to know into the knowledge.

Very useful. Thank you!

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Related terms for our - synonyms, antonyms and sentences with our, similar meaning.

willingness

Opposite meaning

bad-looking
distasteful
insignificant
unimportant
unremarkable

Common usage

one's own
become popular
earnestness
family name
on our part

Sentence Examples

Proper usage in context.

Exercise is the chief source of improvement in our faculties Hugh Blair
Laughter springs from the lawless part of our nature Agnes Repplier
Liberty is the most precious gift we offer our citizens Tom Ridge
The first sin in our universe was Lucifer's self conceit Thomas Carlyle
We can't command our love, but we can our actions Arthur Conan Doyle

10 Other Ways to Say “for Example” in An Essay (with Examples)

Writing a well-structured and engaging essay requires more than just presenting information—it’s about guiding your reader through your thoughts and ideas with smooth transitions and clear illustrations . One phrase that often gets overused is “for example,” which can make your writing feel repetitive and dull to read .

Fortunately, the English language offers a wealth of alternative transition phrases that can add variety and sophistication to your essays. In this blog post, we’ll explore other ways to say “for example” in an essay with usage examples to help you seamlessly incorporate these phrases into your writing.

Whether you’re a student crafting a research paper or a professional putting together a persuasive essay, mastering these transitional phrases will elevate your writing style and keep your readers engaged from start to finish .

Get ready to bid farewell to the monotony of “for example” and discover a world of fresh, expressive alternatives .

What to Say Instead of “For Example” in An Essay

Here are 10 other ways to say “for example” in an essay:

For instance
To illustrate
As an illustration
Specifically
In particular
To give an example
Take the case of
Consider the following

1. For instance

The phrase “for instance” is a casual yet clear way to introduce an example that supports your point. It’s like saying, “Here’s a clear example that illustrates what I’m talking about.”

This expression is handy because it seamlessly integrates examples into your narrative without feeling forced or out of place.

It works well in both spoken and written language, offering a smooth transition to your example.

Usage examples:

I’m proud of your dedication to volunteering, for instance , your weekly commitment to the animal shelter shows your compassion and resilience.
Your recent project was outstanding, for instance , the innovative design you came up with was both practical and creative.

2. To illustrate

“To illustrate” is a more formal way to introduce an example. It’s as if you’re saying, “Let me paint you a picture to make my point clearer.”

This phrase is particularly useful in academic or professional settings where clarity and depth of explanation are paramount.

It sets the stage for an example that will shed light on the subject matter in a more detailed and vivid manner.

Your leadership skills have grown remarkably, to illustrate , your handling of the last team project brought out the best in everyone involved.
You’ve made significant improvements in your communication skills, to illustrate , your recent presentation was both engaging and informative.

3. As an illustration

“As an illustration” is akin to “to illustrate” but often introduces a more detailed or complex example.

This phrase suggests that the upcoming example will serve as a clear, almost pictorial representation of the point being discussed.

It’s particularly useful when the example is not just a fact but a scenario that embodies the point.

Your creativity knows no bounds, as an illustration , your art project not only won the competition but also sparked a community-wide conversation about environmental conservation.
Your problem-solving skills are exceptional, as an illustration , the way you navigated the challenges during the software update was both innovative and efficient.

“Such as” is a simple and effective way to introduce examples without making a big shift from your main point.

It’s like casually dropping examples into the conversation or text, making it clear that these are direct instances of what you’re discussing. This expression is versatile and fits well in both formal and informal contexts.

I am impressed by your academic achievements, such as your recent scholarship award and your publication in the student journal.
Your kindness and empathy towards others are truly commendable, such as when you helped your classmate understand a complex math problem.

“Namely” is a way to specify or name examples explicitly. It’s like saying, “I’m going to pinpoint exactly what I mean.”

This expression is useful when you want to be very clear and direct about the examples you’re providing, often following a more general statement with specific, illustrative instances.

Your contributions to the team have been invaluable, namely , your initiative in leading the community outreach program has made a significant impact.
You have a talent for writing, namely , your essays and stories have not only received high praise from your teachers but have also been published in the school newsletter.

6. Specifically

“Specifically” is used to highlight a particular example with precision and focus.

It tells the reader or listener that you are about to provide a distinct, clear-cut instance that underscores your point.

This term is especially useful when narrowing down from a broad category to a singular, notable example, ensuring that your audience understands exactly which aspect or item you’re referring to.

Your athletic achievements are truly impressive, specifically , your record-breaking performance at the state championship was a moment of pride for the entire school.
Your ability to connect with clients is remarkable, specifically , the way you handled the Jones account showed great sensitivity and professionalism.

7. In particular

“In particular” signals that you are singling out an example that is especially noteworthy or relevant among others.

It’s a way of focusing the spotlight on a specific instance, suggesting that while there may be many examples, the one you’re about to mention stands out for some reason.

This expression is useful for drawing attention to a particularly strong or important point.

You have shown a lot of growth in many areas, in particular , your leadership during the community service project was inspiring to everyone involved.
Your artistic talents are diverse, in particular , your work in digital art has opened up new avenues for exploration and expression in our art class.

8. To give an example

“To give an example” is a straightforward and clear way to introduce an example. It’s like directly saying, “Let me show you what I mean by providing a specific instance.”

This expression is versatile and can be used in both formal and informal contexts, providing a clear signal to the audience that an illustrative example is coming up.

You’ve been doing an excellent job with your studies, to give an example , your recent project on renewable energy was not only well-researched but also presented with great clarity.
Your commitment to improving your skills is commendable, to give an example , the extra hours you’ve been putting into practice have paid off in your piano recitals.

9. Take the case of

“Take the case of” invites the audience to consider a specific example as a representative case or scenario.

It’s a more narrative way of introducing an example, almost as if you’re telling a story or presenting a case study.

This expression is particularly effective when the example is a bit more involved or when you want to draw the audience into a more detailed examination of the instance.

Your dedication to helping others is truly admirable, take the case of the time you organized a fundraiser for the local animal shelter, demonstrating your ability to lead and inspire others for a good cause.
Your innovative thinking has led to many improvements, take the case of the new filing system you developed, which has greatly increased efficiency in the office.

10. Consider the following

“Consider the following” is a formal and somewhat scholarly way to introduce an example or a series of examples. It’s like inviting the audience to pause and reflect on a specific instance or set of instances that you’re about to present.

This expression is particularly useful in academic writing or presentations where a deeper level of consideration and analysis is expected.

Your grasp of complex scientific concepts is outstanding, consider the following example: your science fair project on sustainable energy solutions not only showcased your deep understanding but also your ability to apply knowledge in practical ways.
Your contributions to our team are numerous and valuable, consider the following example: the mentoring program you initiated for new hires has significantly improved their onboarding experience and overall job satisfaction.

Using varied transition phrases like these can make your writing more engaging and prevent overuse of the phrase “for example.” They signal to the reader that you are providing a specific instance or evidence to support your point.

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Grammar Guide

Overall Synonyms: List of 25 Examples

Krystal N. Craiker

Overall means to take all parts into account or to look at something as a whole.

In essays and business writing in particular, it is an overused word. Luckily, there are many synonyms for overall that you can use.

For the purpose of this article, we are not talking about the loose protective coverall clothing item called overalls. Instead, we are talking about the adjective and adverb overall .

We have curated a list of 25 words you can use in lieu of overall .

Overall Synonyms in Emails

Overall synonyms in creative writing, overall synonyms in essay writing, final thoughts.

Business emails and other business communications use the word overall to mean “in general.” But there are many related words you can use instead.

Overall synonym examples for business emails

Here are some overall synonyms for business writing:

Principal/principally
All things considered
Comprehensive
Across-the-board

Let’s look at a couple of these synonyms for overall in example sentences.

Original: Overall , the report shows promising results. With a synonym: As a whole , the report shows promising results.

Original: Our overall growth this quarter trended upward. With a synonym: Our across-the-board growth this quarter trended upward.

Overall isn’t as commonly used in creative writing, but it can become a crutch word, which is a word a writer overuses and leans on too heavily.

Creative writers should aim for a more vivid description rather than using a vague adverb or adjective like overall .

If you do need some synonyms for overall in your fiction or creative writing, here are some you could use:

A great degree
Collective/collectively
All-embracing

Here’s an example of how you might use an overall synonym in your creative writing.

Original: The pirates were overall brave and passionate. With a synonym: The pirates were collectively brave and passionate.

Academic writing is another place that overall shows up frequently. It’s often used to make sweeping observations about data or other information.

Freshen up your essays and academic writing by using synonyms for overall . Let’s check out a few general synonyms you can use:

A large extent
A wide scope
For the most part
Global/globally
Universal/universally
Generally speaking
Predominantly

Here is how using a synonym for overall might look in an essay.

Original: Early literacy skills show an overall positive effect on communication skills. With a synonym: Early literacy skills show a predominantly positive effect on communication skills.

You can use any of the synonyms in this article in any situation where they are appropriate. Sometimes, it might be beneficial to rearrange a sentence to avoid using overall altogether.

ProWritingAid can help you with overused words like overall . Simply click on the Overused Report to see which words you use too often.

ProWritingAid overused words check resusult

You can also use our in-tool thesaurus by double-clicking on a word to see synonym suggestions.

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Whether you are writing a novel, essay, article, or email, good writing is an essential part of communicating your ideas., this guide contains the 20 most important writing tips and techniques from a wide range of professional writers..

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Krystal N. Craiker is the Writing Pirate, an indie romance author and blog manager at ProWritingAid. She sails the seven internet seas, breaking tropes and bending genres. She has a background in anthropology and education, which brings fresh perspectives to her romance novels. When she’s not daydreaming about her next book or article, you can find her cooking gourmet gluten-free cuisine, laughing at memes, and playing board games. Krystal lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband, child, and basset hound.

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in other words

adverb as in namely

Strongest matches

particularly
specifically

Strong matches

Weak matches

by way of explanation
in plain English
strictly speaking

adverb as in scilicet

adverb as in videlicet

Strong match

conjunction as in or

as a choice
as a substitute
as an alternative
in preference to
on the other hand
preferentially

Related Words

Words related to in other words are not direct synonyms, but are associated with the word in other words . Browse related words to learn more about word associations.

abbreviation as in that is

adverb as in that is to say

conjunction as in a suggestion of choice

On this page you'll find 68 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to in other words, such as: especially, i.e., particularly, specially, specifically, and videlicet.

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10 Other Ways To Say “In Conclusion”

The phrase “in conclusion” is often overused. We’ll go over synonyms for “in conclusion” (five formal and five casual) and provide examples showing how to use them.

Writing an essay and need an in conclusion synonym? Here are ten other words for in conclusion.

What’s Another Way To Say “In Conclusion”?

There are many other phrases that can be used in place of in conclusion when writing an essay, report, or any other type of text.

A formal synonym you can use instead is in summary .

In summary , the results of the experiment supported our hypothesis.

A casual way of saying in conclusion is to wrap things up .

To wrap things up , that’s everything we had to deal with today.

Need Another Way of Saying “In Conclusion”?

The mighty conclusion : along with the introduction, it’s the most vital piece of your writing. It’s what readers will remember the most, what will be branded into their brains. Do you really want to start this vital paragraph with a lackluster phrase like in conclusion?

Some writers may see no problem with using this phrase, as it might be the one that fits their writing best. But if you’re looking for synonyms for in conclusion, you’ve come to the right place.

Synonyms for “In Conclusion”: Formal Phrases

Below, you’ll find five synonyms for in conclusion that are best suited for formal settings, such as professional and academic writing.

1) In summary

Like in conclusion , the phrase in summary serves as a transition phrase that signals you are starting the last paragraph of your writing. When using in summary , you should briefly review the main points of your text.

In summary , the destruction of natural habitats will soon become a problem not just for the animals but for humans, too.

2) Ultimately

Ultimately is an effective transition word you can use in place of in conclusion. It indicates that you’ve clearly expressed the central idea of your writing, but it’s particularly useful for declaring the importance of a specific call to action.

Ultimately , the decision is up to humans on whether saving the ecosystem is on our list of priorities.

3) As has been demonstrated

As has been demonstrated is a great transition expression that shows that as a writer, you are confident that you’ve thoroughly presented enough evidence or reasoning to prove your point.

As has been demonstrated in this paper, if corporations aren’t held accountable for their role in plastic pollution, millions of different species of fish, dolphins, corals, and more will become endangered.

4) In closing

In closing is another effective transition expression to let your readers know you are at the end of your writing. After using this synonym for in conclusion , you can either summarize the central principle of your text or write a call to action.

In closing , everyone can benefit from transitioning from single-use plastics to eco-friendly alternatives, like stainless steel.

This synonym for in conclusion is especially useful in argumentative or informative essays when you are about to make the last point. It is commonly found in the first or last sentence of the conclusion.

Lastly , you should remember that no change is insignificant. Small changes make a big difference.

Need an in conclusion synonyn for an essay? Try using the synonyms above.

Synonyms for “In Conclusion”: Casual Phrases

Sometimes in conclusion is too lofty for the topic you’re writing about. Here are five casual synonyms you could use instead :

6) In a nutshell

This phrase is a friendly and informal equivalent of to summarize . After this transition expression, you’d review the prominent points of your text.

In a nutshell , the beach clean-up was a fun yet important activity for the kids.

7) Long story short

This synonym for in conclusion is best reserved for writing that carries a conversational tone. It also signals that you will briefly state the essence of what you’ve written.

Long story short , the field trip to the beach was a success, and I’d highly recommend other teachers try it.

8) To sum up

This transition phrase is another informal synonym of to summarize. Again, this phrase is best used for casual writing and signals you’ve reached the end of your text.

To sum up , all the activities showed the kids that living an eco-friendly life is both easy and important.

9) At the end of the day

This is the informal way of saying ultimately . Similarly, it’s helpful in pointing out a call to action.

At the end of the day , it’s up to the adults to teach the children how to live a sustainable life.

10) To wrap things up

Another informal synonym of in conclusion is to wrap things up. These linking words illustrate that you’ve reached the end of your writing and will briefly summarize the main idea.

To wrap things up , a beach clean-up was an effective way of letting the students have fun while learning about the importance of taking care of nature.

Commas are necessary in almost every synonym to in conclusion ; where they are placed depends on the wording.

All In All, Conclusions Are Important

Regardless of how you decide to conclude your writing, the most significant aspect of the conclusion is proper spelling and grammar. A simple typo or incorrect placement of a comma can make readers forget about everything you’ve written.

LanguageTool helps you avoid this by checking for spelling and grammar errors as you type. This intelligent, multilingual text editor will also enhance your writing by providing synonyms and suggesting stylistic improvements. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide whether you want flawless writing or not.

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Synonyms of essay

as in article
as in attempt
as in to attempt
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Thesaurus Definition of essay

(Entry 1 of 2)

Synonyms & Similar Words

dissertation
composition
prolegomenon
undertaking
trial and error
experimentation

Thesaurus Definition of essay (Entry 2 of 2)

have a go at
try one's hand (at)

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Synonym Chooser

How does the verb essay differ from other similar words?

Some common synonyms of essay are attempt , endeavor , strive , and try . While all these words mean "to make an effort to accomplish an end," essay implies difficulty but also suggests tentative trying or experimenting.

When might attempt be a better fit than essay ?

While the synonyms attempt and essay are close in meaning, attempt stresses the initiation or beginning of an effort.

Where would endeavor be a reasonable alternative to essay ?

Although the words endeavor and essay have much in common, endeavor heightens the implications of exertion and difficulty.

When is strive a more appropriate choice than essay ?

While in some cases nearly identical to essay , strive implies great exertion against great difficulty and specifically suggests persistent effort.

How do try and attempt relate to one another, in the sense of essay ?

Try is often close to attempt but may stress effort or experiment made in the hope of testing or proving something.

Articles Related to essay

To 'Essay' or 'Assay'?

You'll know the difference if you give it the old college essay

Thesaurus Entries Near essay

Cite this entry.

“Essay.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/essay. Accessed 18 Jul. 2024.

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Nglish: Translation of essay for Spanish Speakers

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Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about essay

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15 Other Words for “This Shows” in an Essay

Are you worried about including “this shows” again and again in an essay?

After all, the last thing you want to do is sound repetitive and boring.

Fret not! You have found yourself in the right place.

This article will explore other ways to say “this shows” in an essay.

Other Ways to Say “This Shows”

This demonstrates
This indicates
This implies
This portrays
This illustrates
This establishes
This proves
This points to
This highlights

KEY TAKEAWAYS

“This shows” is a common phrase used in essays to demonstrate how one thing leads to another.
“This demonstrates” is a great formal synonym that’ll help to spice up your academic writing.
Try “suggesting” as an alternative that shows how one thing could have created another.

Keep reading to learn different ways to say “this shows.” We’ve covered the two best phrases to help you understand more about how you can improve your essays.

Alternatively, you can read the final section to learn whether it’s correct to write “this shows.” It’s appropriate to check this out before continuing to include it in your essay!

This Demonstrates

If you’re looking for words to use instead of “this shows” in an essay, try “this demonstrates.” It’s a great formal synonym that’ll help to spice things up.

It also comes with two options. You can use it at the start of a sentence as written:

This is option one. This demonstrates how to continue a thought from the previous sentence.

Or, you can include it as part of the same sentence. To do this, you should switch “this demonstrates” to “demonstrating.” For example:

This is option two, demonstrating that it’s part of the same sentence.

Either way, both are correct. The same applies to “this shows,” where you can use “showing” to include it in the same sentence.

It’s a great way to help the reader follow your process . This should make your essay much easier to read, even if the reader isn’t all that familiar with the topic.

You can also refer to these essay samples:

As you can see, we have also gathered all the necessary data. This demonstrates that we were correct about our original hypothesis.

They have created different rules for what we know. This demonstrates that they’re worried someone might try to interfere with them.

Also, you can write “suggesting” instead of “this shows.” It’s another great professional synonym that’ll help you to keep your writing interesting.

As we’ve already stated, you can use “suggesting” as part of the same sentence:

This is how it works, suggesting you can keep it to one sentence.

Or, you can switch it to “this suggests” to start a new sentence. For instance:

This is how it works. This suggests that you can create two sentences.

Both are correct. They also allow you to switch between them, giving you two options to help mix up your writing and keep the reader engaged .

Here are some essay examples if you still need help:

We have many new ideas ready to go, suggesting that we’re on the road to success. We just need more time.

This is the only way to complete the task, suggesting that things aren’t going to be as easy as we first thought.

Is It Correct to Say “This Shows”?

It is correct to say “this shows.” It’s a great word to use in an essay, and we highly recommend it when you’d like to show how one thing leads to another.

It’s a formal option, which is why it works so well in academic writing.

Also, it allows the reader to follow your thought process, which helps keep things streamlined and clear.

For instance:

Here is an example of how we can achieve this. This shows that we have considered every option so far.

“This shows” always starts a new sentence . You can use it whenever you’d like to connect back to the former sentence directly.

Also, makes sure you use “shows” as the verb form. It comes after “this,” so the only correct form is “shows.” To remind you, you can refer to these examples:

Correct: This shows that things are supposed to work this way.
Incorrect: This show that we know what we’re doing.

It’s worth using some extensions if you’re still looking to mix things up as well. Try any of the following:

This evidence shows
This picture shows
This data shows
This graph shows
This study shows

Including something between “this” and “shows” allows you to be more specific . It helps direct the reader’s attention to something from the previous sentence.

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Ashley Judd: I'm calling on Biden to step aside. Beating Trump is too important.

My folks are not bad people, in spite of what you may now think of them. they are facing bad options. we must give them a different choice..

Wednesday evening, I was visiting, as we say in the South, with some of my beloved chosen and biological family. These folks are my roots, my sense of belonging, and meet many of my most intimate human needs.

And some of them, remarkably, feverishly love Donald Trump.

And I love these Trump folks as if my life depended on it, and at times, it literally has. I do not love the beliefs they believe and cling to.

And Wednesday, as I listened to one of my dearest people share some of those beliefs and thoughts, it hurt. I was shaken. My body felt like it was on fire. The words activated in me profound alarm in the aftermath of the recent debate at which President Joe Biden, a deeply decent man, was incapable of countering Trump, while he, unchecked, gushed a firehose of galling lies.

“Those people pouring over our border are less evolved than we are. They are naturally less intelligent. They have criminal natures. They are incapable of respecting the rule of law and order.”

“Men must be strong. They cannot be weak.” We were talking about the wish for boys and men to experience a full range of human emotions without shame or punishment. “It is dog-eat-dog and men will get eaten if they show any weakness. China has a massive, 2-million-man army. They aren’t teaching DEI. Good men must be willing to kill at any moment, but just know how to control that impulse.”

And Trump folks can act on those beliefs. Another one of my closest people, upon arriving at our local mall, came across Black youth hanging out, laughing, sitting on the hoods of cars. She went inside the mall to notify the security person on duty that Black kids were menacingly loafing and up to no good. The security person called the police.

I do not necessarily think all Trump supporters believe, feel, act and speak like this. I know Donald Trump himself does. That is critical. That is why I have come to realize that my private, personal belief is one I should no longer just keep to myself.

And so, I now ask President Joe Biden to step aside.

It's time for Joe Biden to leave the 2024 race

The defense of our cherished rights and freedoms, the moral imperative that we do better by more people, and our bodies, cannot be left to voters who see and are frightened of the consequences of President Biden’s obvious limitations , or who are now not going to vote. We take the risk of an off night and minimize the warning signs at our gravest peril.

You may judge me or be baffled by how and why I can continue to live with and love people who feel and act upon the same harmful beliefs that Trump espouses. And, of course, I wholly realize they feel my beliefs and positions are equally odious. I am humbled and grateful they neither exile me from our family nor allow our significant differences to taint their love for me.

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As Father Richard Rohr has written, we live in a " mixed reality ." I forgive reality for being so mixed. And I do not choose to sanitize reality or my life. I trust real, however messy it is, and however much it hurts to hold this complexity.

My deal breaker is not with my loved ones who are thrilled by Donald Trump. I cannot change them. I tried that, failed at that, damaged our relationships by trying that, and I have had enough loss in my life. I neither want to nor will I lose any more of my folks, especially over politics. My deal breakers with Donald Trump are many, but after listening Wednesday night in that living room, what is searing me is the cruelty. It cannot be America’s future.

Ashley Judd: We have the power to help women and girls caught in crises. Why won't we?

We can't risk a Trump presidency

I feel immense, bereft sadness at the beliefs Donald Trump holds, and that his supporters endorse. But that sadness is trivial compared to the hurt, devastation and loss millions will feel if Donald Trump is reelected. He would wield the power of the presidency with unprecedented, incalculable cruelty and unfairness.

Especially disturbing is his distortion of Christianity, the force of Christian Nationalism advancing him, and the risks for anyone who diverges from that.

Biden? Harris? I don't care. Stopping Trump and Project 2025 is all that matters.

This is not something I wrote easily, quickly or for political convenience. My belief in what President Biden has done for our country runs deep. My hopes for the next term run high. My investment is personal. I bring my body. I show up. I am a Democrat who relishes traveling up to Wisconsin for early voting, bringing coffee and doughnuts at 6 a.m. to first-time voters who have slept overnight on the sidewalk outside their polling place, so eager to cast their ballots for an inaugural experience.

Showing up publicly can cost me, and it absolutely will for far too many if Trump is reelected. When I read the “I am a Nasty Woman” poem at the Women’s March in 2017, I quoted Donald Trump. I was fired for doing so, by a company with whom I had an endorsement.

Trump said it . He was elected. I quoted him, I lose a life-altering paycheck. That is the double standard of American life for women under Donald Trump. And for all who disagree with him.

And writing this essay will cost me. Some, perhaps many, people will scorn me (and worse). Their outrage at me is insignificant compared to the harm that is assured under a second Trump term for, say, our LGBTQ+ families.

With Donald Trump in leadership, speech is chilled. Dissent is punished. Sharing your truth about your life in America can risk your livelihood. When a man raped me in 1998, I was able was have a safe, legal abortion that was accessible right where I live in Tennessee.

We already know many states ban abortions and 10 states have no exceptions for rape and incest , even for adolescent girls. This is reality for girls and women under Donald Trump and it must be the principle on which President Biden chooses to voluntarily, gracefully step aside.

Voters deserve a real choice on the Democratic ticket

Much has been said and printed about the historic progress of this Biden administration. Historic job creation . Visionary investment in America that future generations will feel. I have a deep appreciation and fond regard for him.

Equally, much has been said and printed about what Donald Trump has done and will do. I have been watching and listening.

As my mom’s dear friend Dr. Maya Angelou said , “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Donald Trump, I see you, and I believe you.

Thus, because of the very real hurt millions of people would feel when he is president again, the Democratic Party must not delay in thanking President Biden and supporting a talented, robust Democrat to be our party’s nominee. We do not have another day for distraction or division among ourselves.

Some in Washington may want to wait for the next week, the next press conference, the next network interview. Here, where I sit in rural Tennessee, it is clear that Americans have already made up their minds against President Biden, on top of the majority who love to vote for Donald Trump.

My folks are not bad people, despite what you may now think of them. They are facing bad options. We must give them a different choice from our Democratic Party for president of the United States.

Ashley Judd is a humanitarian, writer and actor.

You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page , on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter .

A black-and-white photo of a crowd waiting to hear former President Donald Trump speak at a Turning Point–sponsored event in Phoenix on June 6.

Trump Is Planning for a Landslide Win

And his campaign is all but praying Joe Biden doesn’t drop out.

Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration.

T he outcome of the presidential campaign, Republicans believed, was a fait accompli. “Donald Trump was well on his way to a 320-electoral-vote win,” Chris LaCivita told me this past Sunday as Democrats questioned, ever more frantically, whether President Joe Biden should remain the party’s nominee in November. “That’s pre -debate.”

LaCivita paused to repeat himself: “ Pre -debate.”

This could be interpreted as trash talk coming from a cocky campaign: If you thought Biden was in trouble before he bombed at the June 27 debate, imagine the trouble he’s in now . But I heard something different in LaCivita’s voice.

One of the two principals tasked with returning Trump to the White House, LaCivita had long conceived of the 2024 race as a contest that would be “extraordinarily visual”—namely, a contrast of strength versus weakness. Trump, whatever his countless liabilities as a candidate, would be cast as the dauntless and forceful alpha, while Biden would be painted as the pitiable old heel, less a bad guy than the butt of a very bad joke, America’s lovable but lethargic uncle who needed, at long last, to be put to bed.

As the likelihood of a Trump-versus-Biden rematch set in, the public responded to the two candidates precisely as LaCivita and his campaign co-manager, Susie Wiles, had hoped. The percentage of voters who felt that Biden, at 81, was too old for another term rose throughout 2023, even as the electorate’s concerns about Trump’s age, 78, remained relatively static. By the end of the primaries, the public’s attitude toward the two nominees had begun to harden : One was a liar, a scoundrel, and a crook—but the other one, the old one , was unfit to be president.

In the months that followed, Trump and his campaign would seize on Biden’s every stumble, his every blank stare, to reinforce that observation, seeking to portray the incumbent as “stuttering, stammering, walking around, feeling his way like a blind man,” as LaCivita put it to me. That was the plan. And it worked. Watching Biden’s slide in the polls, and sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars for an advertising blitz that would punctuate the president’s visible decrepitude, Trump’s team entered the summer believing that a landslide awaited in the fall.

Only one thing could disrupt that plan: a change of candidates atop the Democratic ticket.

There was always a certain danger inherent to this assault on Biden’s faculties. If Wiles and LaCivita were too successful—if too many Democrats decided, too quickly, that Biden was no longer capable of defeating Trump, much less serving another four years thereafter—then they risked losing an ideal opponent against whom their every tactical maneuver had already been deliberated, poll-tested, and prepared. Campaigns are usually on guard against peaking too soon; in this case, the risk for Trump’s team was Biden bottoming out too early.

In my conversations with LaCivita and Wiles over the past six months, they assured me multiple times that the campaign was planning for all contingencies, that they took quite seriously the possibility of a substitution and would be ready if Biden forfeited the nomination.

By mid-June, however, not long before the debate, their tone had changed. Trump was speaking at a Turning Point USA rally in Detroit and the three of us stood backstage, leaning against the wall of a dimly lit cargo bay, a pair of Secret Service vehicles idling nearby. When I asked about the prospect of Trump facing a different Democratic opponent in the fall, LaCivita and Wiles shook their heads. They told me it was too late; the most influential players in Democratic politics had become too invested in the narrative that Biden was fully competent and capable of serving another four years.

“We’re talking about an admission that the Democratic Party establishment would have to make,” LaCivita said. “We’re talking about pulling the plug—”

“On the president of the United States,” Wiles interrupted.

LaCivita nodded. “Who they’ve been saying up to this point in time is perfectly fine.”

No, Wiles and LaCivita agreed, the general-election matchup was set—and they were just fine with that.

“Joe Biden,” Wiles told me, allowing the slightest of smiles, “is a gift.”

But now, as we talked after the debate, it was apparent that they might have miscalculated. Elected Democrats were calling for Biden’s removal from the ticket. When I asked who Trump’s opponent was going to be come November, his two deputies sounded flummoxed.

“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Wiles said.

“Based off of the available public data,” LaCivita added, “he doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere.”

Ronald Brownstein: The Biden-replacement operation

Biden quitting the race would necessitate a dramatic reset—not just for the Democratic Party, but for Trump’s campaign. Wiles and LaCivita told me that any Democratic replacement would inherit the president’s deficiencies; that whether it’s Vice President Kamala Harris or California Governor Gavin Newsom or anyone else, Trump’s blueprint for victory would remain essentially unchanged. But they know that’s not true. They know their campaign has been engineered in every way—from the voters they target to the viral memes they create—to defeat Biden. And privately, they are all but praying that he remains their opponent.

I was struck by the irony. The two people who had done so much to eliminate the havoc and guesswork that defined Trump’s previous two campaigns for the presidency could now do little but hope that their opponent got his act together.

Picture of a crowd waiting in 110 degree heat to attend the Chase the Vote - A Town Hall with Special Guest President Donald J. Trump Sponsored by Turning Point PAC & Turning Point Action at Dream City Church on June 6, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona.

W iles and LaCivita are two of America’s most feared political operatives. She is the person most responsible for Florida—not long ago the nation’s premier electoral prize—falling off the battleground map, having spearheaded campaigns that so dramatically improved the Republican Party’s performance among nonwhite voters that Democrats are now surrendering the state. He is the strategist and ad maker best known for destroying John Kerry’s presidential hopes in 2004, masterminding the “Swift Boat” attacks that sank the Democratic nominee. Together, as the architects of Trump’s campaign, they represent a threat unlike anything Democrats encountered during the 2016 or 2020 elections.

On the evening of March 5—Super Tuesday—I sat down with them in the tea room at Mar-a-Lago, an opulent space where intricate winged cherubs are carved into 10-foot marble archways. As the sun set behind the lagoon that borders the western edge of Trump’s property, the lights were also going out on his primary challengers. Soon the polls would close and the former president would romp across more than a dozen states, winning 94 percent of the available delegates and effectively clinching the GOP nomination. Trump had just one target remaining.

For an hour and 15 minutes, Wiles and LaCivita presented their vision for retaking the White House. They detailed a new approach to targeting and turning out voters, one that departs dramatically from recent Republican presidential campaigns, suggesting that suburban women might be less a priority than young men of color. They justified their plans for a smaller, nimbler organization than Biden’s reelection behemoth by pointing to a shrunken electoral map of just seven swing states that, by June, they had narrowed to four. And they alleged that the Republican National Committee—which, in the days that followed our interview, would come entirely under Trump’s control—had lost their candidate the last election by relying on faulty data and botching its field program.

In political circles, it’s considered a marvel that Trump won the presidency once, and came within 42,918 votes of winning it a second time, without ever assembling a sophisticated operation. Trump’s loyalists, in particular, have spent the past few years haunted by a counterfactual: Had the president run a reelection campaign that was even slightly more effective—a campaign that didn’t go broke that fall; a campaign that didn’t employ unskilled interlopers in crucial positions; a campaign that didn’t discourage his supporters from casting votes by mail—wouldn’t he have won a second term comfortably?

Wiles and LaCivita believe the answer is yes. Both have imported their own loyalists, making the campaign a Brady Bunch configuration led by the oddest of couples. Wiles, who runs the day-to-day operation, is small and self-possessed, a gray-haired grandmother known never to utter a profane word; LaCivita, a Marine combat veteran who charts the macro strategy, is a big and brash presence, famous for profane outbursts that leave Wiles rolling her eyes. They disagree often—staffers joke about feeling like the children of quarreling parents—but Wiles, who hired LaCivita, pulls rank. What unites them, with each other and Trump, is an obsession with winning. To that end, Wiles and LaCivita have never been focused on beating Biden at the margins; rather, their plan has been to bully him, to humiliate him, optimizing Trump’s campaign to unleash such a debilitating assault on the president’s age and faculties that he would be ruined before a single vote is cast this fall.

At one point that March evening, the three of us sat discussing the era of hyperpolarization that Trump ushered in. Given the trench-warfare realities—a vanishing center of the electorate, consecutive presidential races decided by fractions of percentage points, incessant governing impasses between the two parties—I suggested that Electoral College blowouts were a thing of the past.

They exchanged glances.

“You know, I could make a case—” Wiles began.

“I could too,” LaCivita said. He was grinning.

In the scenario they were imagining, not only would Trump take back the White House in an electoral wipeout—a Republican carrying the popular vote for just the second time in nine tries—but he would obliterate entire downballot garrisons of the Democratic Party, forcing the American left to fundamentally recalibrate its approach to immigration, economics, policing, and the many cultural positions that have antagonized the working class. Wiles and LaCivita wouldn’t simply be credited with electing a president; they would be remembered for running a campaign that altered the nation’s political DNA.

It’s a scenario that Democrats might have scoffed at a few months ago. Not anymore. “The numbers were daunting before the debate, and now there’s a real danger that they’re going to get worse,” David Axelrod, the chief strategist for Barack Obama’s two winning campaigns, told me in the first week of July. “If that’s the case—if we get to the point of fighting to hold on to Virginia and New Hampshire and Minnesota, meaning the main six or seven battlegrounds are gone—then yeah, we’re talking about a landslide, both in the Electoral College and in the popular vote.”

Axelrod added, “The magnitude of that defeat, I think, would be devastating to the party. Those margins at the top of the ticket would sweep Democrats out of office everywhere—House, Senate, governor, you name it. Considering the unthinkable latitude the Supreme Court has just given Trump, we could end up with a situation where he has dominant majorities in Congress and, really, unfettered control of the country. That’s not far-fetched.”

In the course of many hours of conversations with the people inside Trump’s campaign, I was struck by the arrogance that animated their approach to an election that most pundits long expected would be a third consecutive cliff-hanger. Yet I also detected a certain conflict, the sort of disquiet that accompanies abetting a man who is both a convicted felon claiming that the state is persecuting him and an aspiring strongman pledging to use the state against his own enemies. People close to Trump spoke regularly of his victimhood but also his own calls for retribution; they expressed solidarity with their boss while also questioning, in private moments, what working for him—what electing him—might portend.

At the center of the campaign, I would come to realize, is a comedy too dark even for Shakespeare: a mad king who shows flashes of reason, a pair of cunning viziers who cling to the hope that these flashes portend something more, and a terrible truth about what might ultimately be lost by winning.

From the January/February 2024 issue: 24 Atlantic contributors on what would happen if Trump wins

Picture of Chris LaCivita, senior advisor to Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.

L ong before Wiles took charge of Trump’s 2024 campaign, she appeared to be caught in a political love triangle. Having helped Ron DeSantis eke out victory in the Florida governor’s race of 2018—no small feat given the “blue wave” that crushed Republicans nationwide—Wiles was presumed to be charting his course as a presidential contender even as she kept ties with Trump, whose Florida campaign she ran in 2016.

But soon after DeSantis’s win, Wiles was suddenly and unceremoniously banished from the new governor’s inner circle. She swears she doesn’t know why. Maybe DeSantis couldn’t stand her getting the credit for his victory. Or perhaps he felt she was ultimately more loyal to Trump. Whatever the case, Wiles told me, working for DeSantis was the “biggest mistake” of her career—and she became determined to make him feel the same way about discarding her.

Her friends had been shocked when she’d agreed to work for Trump the first time around, and relieved when she joined DeSantis a couple of years later. Now, in late 2019, she was adrift—blackballed by the state’s political establishment, recently divorced, and fretting to friends about financial difficulties. (Wiles denied that part, saying, “I was able to pick myself up and get work without too much of a delay.”) She decided to rejoin Trump for the short term, agreeing to run his Florida operations in 2020, but what lay beyond was murky. All she knew, Wiles recalls thinking, is that she couldn’t be “nearly as trusting” going forward.

After Trump lost the 2020 election, Wiles faced a defining professional decision. Trump’s holdover political organization, a PAC called Save America, was fractured by infighting and needed new management. Wiles needed the work. But she knew the former president’s operation was a graveyard for political consultants. The only way she would say yes to Trump, she made it known, was if she took total control—answering to him and him alone. Trump agreed to that condition. Within days, the decree reached all corners of the Republican empire: There was a new underboss at Mar-a-Lago. Wiles, LaCivita told me, had established herself as “the real power behind the throne.”

They didn’t know each other back then; LaCivita had been affiliated with a pro-Trump outside group, but not with the candidate himself. He and Wiles had a mutual friend, though, in Trump’s pollster Tony Fabrizio. When Fabrizio arranged a dinner for the three of them in March 2022 at Casa D’Angelo, an Italian restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, LaCivita figured he was being buttered up to join Save America. But during that conversation, and over another dinner soon after, he realized Wiles wasn’t just looking for help with the PAC; Trump was planning to run again in 2024, and she needed a partner to help her guide his campaign. LaCivita was noncommittal. “You need to come meet the boss,” Wiles told him.

Sitting down with Trump for the first time, on the patio of Mar-a-Lago a few weeks later, LaCivita was overwhelmed. The music was blaring; Trump controlled the playlist from his iPad, sometimes ignoring the conversation at the table as he shuffled from Pavarotti to Axl Rose. Guests approached the table to greet the former president, repeatedly interrupting them. At times Trump seemed less interested in LaCivita’s qualifications than in his thoughts about a competitor, the Republican consultant Jeff Roe, who had sat in “that very chair” LaCivita occupied and shared his own theories about the 2024 election.

LaCivita would later tell me, on several occasions, that he’d had no misgivings about going to work for Trump. But according to several people close to him, that’s not true. These individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve their relationships with LaCivita, told me he’d been torn—appreciating the once-in-a-career opportunity before him while also recognizing that Trump was still every bit the erratic, combustible man who’d renounced his own vice president the moment he ceased to be completely servile. Wiles could sense LaCivita’s reluctance. When Trump decided later that year that he wanted to hire LaCivita, and requested his presence at his Bedminster club in New Jersey, she resorted to deception. “I knew if I said, ‘Chris, you’re going to come up here and the president’s going to put the hard sell on you and you’re going to get hired,’ he might not come,” Wiles told me. “So we tricked him.”

LaCivita went to Bedminster believing that Trump wanted to brainstorm ideas for television ads. Instead, two minutes into the conversation, Trump asked LaCivita: “When can you start?” LaCivita froze; he recalls nodding in the affirmative while struggling to articulate any words. “Susie, make a deal with him,” Trump said. “Let’s get this thing going.”

Almost immediately after he came on board in the fall of 2022, LaCivita’s new boss began to self-destruct. In late November, Trump hosted Ye (the rapper formerly known as Kanye West) and Nick Fuentes, a known anti-Semite and white supremacist, for dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Then, in early December, Trump proclaimed on social media that the supposedly fraudulent nature of Biden’s 2020 victory “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” Adding insult to self-inflicted injury, Trump blamed anti-abortion activists for the GOP’s poor performance in the midterm elections, infuriating an essential bloc of his political base.

“It was rough. Rough ,” LaCivita told me.

In those early days, I wondered, did he regret saying yes to Trump?

“You know, I won’t go—” he stopped himself. “Look, on this level, a campaign is never without its personal and its professional struggles. That’s just the way it is.”

LaCivita wasn’t the only one struggling. When I started to ask Wiles to identify the low point of Trump’s campaign, she cut me off before the question was finished.

“Christmas. He was quiet over Christmas,” she said, alluding to the drubbing he took for the Ye-Fuentes dinner and his post about terminating the Constitution. That week, she told me, Trump asked Wiles a question: “Do you think I would win Florida?’”

He could feel his grip on the party loosening. Trump’s losing streak had coincided with DeSantis winning reelection by a million and a half votes in the fall of 2022. Already some major donors, operatives, and activists had defected to the Florida governor as he built a presidential campaign aimed at toppling Trump in the 2024 GOP primary.

“I said, ‘Yes, of course,’” Wiles recalled, biting her lip. “But I wasn’t sure.”

Picture of a representative from BLEXIT, a conservative campaign founded by Candace Owens to encourage African Americans to quit the Democratic Party, talks to attendees at the Chase the Vote event in Phoenix, Arizona.

W iles and LaCivita knew that DeSantis would stake his entire campaign on the Iowa caucuses. In 2016, Ted Cruz had defeated Trump there by building a sprawling ground game of volunteers and paid staffers who coordinated down to the precinct level. DeSantis was copying that blueprint, hiring Cruz’s senior advisers from that race while raising loads of money to construct an even bigger organization.

Trump had never gotten over being outmaneuvered by Cruz in Iowa. In fact, long before he declared America’s federal elections illegitimate, Trump had claimed that the 2016 caucuses were rigged. So when Wiles and LaCivita sat him down to discuss strategy in the state—warning him of what DeSantis had planned—Trump told them, matter-of-factly, “That can never happen again.”

Over the next year, two things became apparent. First, thanks to the constant suck of Trump’s legal fees on his political coffers—campaign insiders say that courtroom costs have accounted for at least 25 cents of every dollar raised by the campaign and affiliated PACs, an estimate that tracks with reporting elsewhere —Trump was not going to be able to spend money like DeSantis could in Iowa. Second, he might not need to.

In Florida, Wiles claims, she had discovered that there were roughly a million Trump supporters who had no history of engagement with the state party apparatus. And yet these people, when contacted by the GOP in 2016 and 2020, would sometimes become Trump’s most devoted volunteers. Wiles believed the same thing was possible in Iowa. So did LaCivita. This didn’t exactly represent a bet-the-house risk; Trump was always going to be favored against a big, fractured field, in Iowa and beyond. Still, Wiles and LaCivita saw in the opening act of the 2024 primary a chance to pressure-test a theory that could prove crucial later in the year.

Scouring precinct-level statistics from the four previous times Trump had competed in Iowa—the primary and general elections in 2016 and 2020—they isolated the most MAGA-friendly pockets of the state. Then, comparing data they’d collected from those areas against the state’s voter file, LaCivita and Wiles found what they were looking for: Some 8,000 of those Iowans they identified as pro-Trump—people who, over the previous seven or eight years, had engaged with Trump’s campaign either physically, digitally, or through the mail—were not even registered to vote. Thousands more who were registered to vote had never participated in a caucus. These were the people who, if converted from sympathizers to supporters, could power Trump’s organization.

Political consultants often consider eligible voters on a one-to-five scale: Ones being the people who never miss an election and hand out campaign literature in their spare time, fives being the reclusive types who can’t be canvassed, have never cast a vote, and probably never will. Most campaigns, especially in Iowa, focus their resources on the ones and twos. “There was this other bucket that we identified: low-propensity Trump supporters,” Wiles said. “We sort of took a gamble, but we were really sure that those tier-three people would be participating, that they would be our voters.”

Several times in the summer and fall of 2023, I heard from DeSantis allies who were bewildered by what Trump’s team was (and wasn’t) doing on the ground. “Our opponents were spending tens of millions of dollars paying for voter contacts for people to knock on doors,” LaCivita said. “And we were spending tens of thousands printing training brochures and pretty hats with golden embroidery on them.”

The gold-embroidered hats were reserved for “captains,” the volunteers responsible for organizing Trump supporters in their precincts. Notably, Wiles said, most of these captains came from the third tier of Iowa’s electorate—they were identified, recruited, and then trained in one of the hundreds of caucus-education sessions Trump’s team held around the state. At that point, the captains were given a list of 10 targets in their community who fit a similar profile, and told to turn them out for the caucuses. It was called the “10 for Trump” program. The best way to find and mobilize more low-propensity Trump supporters, the thinking went, was to deputize people just like them.

It appeared to work. On caucus night, as the wind chill plunged to 40 degrees below zero in parts of Iowa—and voter turnout plunged too—Trump won 51 percent of the vote, breaking an Iowa record, and clobbered DeSantis despite being heavily outspent. According to LaCivita, the precincts where the campaign invested heavily in the “10 for Trump” program saw a significant jump in turnout compared with the rest of the state.

That’s the story Wiles and LaCivita are telling about Iowa, anyway. Not everyone believes it. Trump enjoyed a sizable lead in the Iowa polls from the start, thanks in part to his allies blanketing the state with TV ads before his opponents were even out of the gate. Several people who worked on competing campaigns in Iowa said it was Trump’s first indictment, in March 2023—not his campaign’s ground game or anything else—that made him unbeatable. “When the Democrats started using the law to go after Trump, it hardened all of his very conservative supporters, some of whom had softened after 2022,” Sam Cooper, who served as political director for DeSantis, told me. “It was a race the Trump campaign locked up well before caucus day.”

The consensus of the political class post-2020 held that Trump’s base was maxed out; that any MAGA sympathizers who’d gone undiscovered in 2016 had, by the time of his reelection bid, been identified and incorporated into the GOP turnout machine. Wiles and LaCivita disagreed. They built a primary campaign on the premise that an untapped market for Trumpism still existed. But they knew that the true test of their theory was never going to come in Iowa.

Four photographs showing an attendee holding his hat over his heart during a prayer before a Town Hall with Donald J. Trump in Phoenix, Arizona; attendees praying before before a Town Hall with Donald J. Trump in Phoenix, Arizona; a representative for Latinos Coalition, a volunteer-based voter canvassing effort aimed at turning out voters in key battleground areas, posing next o a sign after a Town Hall in Phoenix, Arizona; the general atmosphere at a Town Hall in Phoenix, Arizona.

S ix miles inland from Mar-a-Lago, tucked inside a contemporary 15-floor office building that overlooks a Home Depot parking lot, is a presidential-campaign headquarters so small and austere that nobody seems to realize it’s there. When I told the security guard at the front desk that I’d come to visit “the Trump offices,” she gave me a quizzical look; only later, after hanging around for several hours, was I clued in to the joke that nobody in this building—not any of the dozen law firms, or the rare-coin dealer, or apparently even the security guard—has any idea exactly who occupies the second and sixth floors.

In fairness, Trump’s team used to inhabit just one of those floors. It was only after the merger with the Republican National Committee in early March, which eliminated dozens of supposedly duplicative jobs and relocated most of the RNC staff to Palm Beach, that additional space became necessary. Still, that a former president whose 2020 headquarters was something out of a Silicon Valley infomercial—all touch-screen entryways and floor-to-ceiling glass offices with dazzling views of the Potomac—was housing his 2024 operation in a plebeian office park signaled a sort of inverse ostentation, saying much about the personalities and priorities behind this campaign.

From day one, people familiar with internal deliberations told me, Wiles and LaCivita emphasized efficiency. There would be none of the excesses that became a staple of Trump’s 2020 reelection effort, which raised more than $1 billion yet unfathomably ran short of cash in the home stretch of the election. They needed to control all the money. And for that, they needed to control the national party apparatus.

David A. Graham: Trump’s campaign has lost whatever substance it once had

The Trump campaign’s takeover of the RNC in March—installing the former president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as the new co-chair, while establishing LaCivita as chief of staff and de facto chief executive, all of it long before Trump had technically secured the party’s nomination—didn’t sit well with many Republicans. Appearances aside, the imperatives of a presidential campaign are not always aligned with those of the RNC, whose job it is to advance the party’s interests up and down the ballot and across the country. “Party politics is a team sport. It’s bigger than Ronald Reagan or Donald Trump or any one candidate,” said Henry Barbour, a longtime Mississippi committeeman, who has fought to prevent the national party’s funds from going to Trump’s legal defense. “Nobody’s ever going to agree on exactly how you split the money up, but you’ve got to take a holistic approach in thinking about all the campaigns, not just one.”

The RNC under Ronna McDaniel, who chaired the national party from early 2017 until LaCivita’s takeover, had become a frequent target of Trump’s ire. He didn’t like that the party remained neutral in the early stages of the 2024 primary—and he was especially furious that McDaniel commissioned debates among the candidates. But what might have bothered him most was the RNC’s priorities: McDaniel was continuing to pour money into field operations, stressing the need for a massive get-out-the-vote program, but showed little interest in his pet issue of “election integrity.”

“Tell you what,” Trump said to Wiles and LaCivita. “ I’ll turn out the vote. You spend that money protecting it.”

The marching orders were clear: Trump’s lieutenants were to dismantle much of the RNC’s existing ground game and divert resources to a colossal new election-integrity program—a legion of lawyers on retainer, hundreds of training seminars for poll monitors nationwide, a goal of 100,000 volunteers organized and assigned to stand watch outside voting precincts, tabulation centers, and even individual drop boxes.

To sell party officials on this dramatic tactical shift, Wiles and LaCivita pointed to the inefficiencies of the old RNC approach—of which there were plenty—and argued that they could run a more effective ground game with fewer resources. “The RNC has always operated on number of calls, number of door knocks, and nobody paid any attention to what the result of each of those was. We have no use for that,” Wiles told me. “It doesn’t matter to me how many calls you’ve made. What matters to me is the number of calls you’ve made and gotten a positive response from a voter … They considered success volume . It’s not.”

Several RNC insiders told me they agreed, at least broadly, with this critique. Yet they also said Trump’s team had grossly exaggerated the party’s past expenditures to serve the campaign’s mission of reallocating resources toward Trump’s election-integrity obsession. For example, LaCivita told me that, based on his review of the party’s 2020 performance, the RNC spent more than $140 million but made just 17.5 million voter-contact attempts. When I challenged that number, he conceded that it might have been closer to 27 million. But according to an internal RNC database I obtained, the party knocked on nearly 32 million doors in competitive states alone, and made another 113 million phone calls, for a total of some 145 million voter-contact attempts.

A wide array of party officials I spoke with said that McDaniel, who declined to comment for this story, had lost the confidence of her members. And none of them disputed that the RNC ground game needed reassessing. But the abrupt directional change announced by Wiles and LaCivita, these officials told me, could only be interpreted as financial triage. It was unfortunate enough that Trump’s legal-defense fund steadily drained the campaign coffers; his insistence on this sweeping, ego-stroking program to “protect the vote” was going to cost an untold fortune. Given these constraints, Wiles and LaCivita knew that they couldn’t run a traditional Republican field program.

Which is how I got to talking with James Blair.

Picture of Donald Trump speaking during the Chase the Vote - A Town Hall sponsored by Turning Point PAC & Turning Point Action at Dream City Church on June 6, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona.

“I n private equity , or investment in general, you look for highest upside at smallest input,” Blair, the 35-year-old political director for Trump and the RNC, told me, trying to justify their cut-rate ground game. “In a very basic sense, you can try to do everything all the time—and often the result is you do nothing particularly well—or you can try to do a few things that deliver high value compared to their relative input level.”

We were sitting in a sterile second-floor conference room, the whiteboard to my left freshly wiped down, at the campaign’s headquarters. The space outside was more colorful, with depictions of the 45th president adorning the walls: an elaborate In Trump We Trust mural; a blown-up birthday poster, signed by some of his spiritual advisers, depicting Trump under the watch of a lamb, a lion, a white horse, and two doves; a framed replica of Trump’s mug shot, in the style of the Obama-era HOPE poster, above the words NEVER SURRENDER . On a stretch of wall outside the conference room, large black letters spelled out the campaign’s mantra: Joe Biden is: Weak, Failed and Dishonest .

Blair wore the expression of a man who knows something the rest of us don’t. He studied finance at Florida State, then accepted an entry-level job at the statehouse in Tallahassee, with plans to eventually pivot toward a career in business. Instead, he ended up running legislative races for the state GOP in 2016, overseeing the DeSantis campaign’s voter-contact program in 2018, and then joining the new governor’s office as deputy chief of staff. As with many Wiles loyalists, Blair’s time in DeSantis’s orbit was brief, and his reunion with Wiles in Trumpworld—her allies on the campaign are known as “the Florida mafia”—was inevitable.

Blair, like Wiles, believes that campaigns have become beholden to empty statistics. “If you chase numbers in terms of top-line output, you make tactical decisions that increase that goal,” he said. “So that would be dense suburban areas where you can hit more doors per hour, right? More doors per body [equals] higher output.” The problem, Blair said, is that most of those doors aren’t worth knocking on: Turnout is already highest in the suburbs, and fewer and fewer voters there remain truly persuadable, for reasons of hardened partisan identification along economic or cultural lines. And yet, since the days of Karl Rove, campaigns have blanketed the country with paid canvassers, investing hundreds of millions of dollars in contacting people who are already going to vote and who, in most cases, already know whom they’re voting for.

This is the crux of Team Trump’s argument: Now that the electoral landscape looks so different—both campaigns fighting over just a handful of states, a finite number of true swing voters in each—shouldn’t the party reassess its strategy? Especially given the campaign’s financial burdens, some Republicans agree that the answer is yes. One of them is Rove himself.

“There are two groups of people to consider: the low-propensity Republicans and the persuadable swing [voters]. Be careful that you’re not antagonizing one with your outreach to the other. You don’t want people knocking on the swing doors wearing ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ shirts,” Rove told me. When it comes to running a ground game in this environment, he added, “the priority should be maximizing turnout among the true believers,” who, if they vote, are a lock for Trump.

This isn’t to say Trump’s campaign won’t be targeting those persuadable voters. It’s just a matter of preferred medium: If Wiles has to drop millions of dollars to engage the suburban mom outside Milwaukee, she’d rather that mom spend 30 seconds with one of LaCivita’s TV spots than 30 seconds with a pamphlet-carrying college student on her front porch. This is the essence of Trump’s voter-contact strategy: pursuing identified swing voters—college-educated women, working-class Latinos, urban Black men under 40—with micro-targeted media, while earmarking ground resources primarily for reaching those secluded, MAGA-sympathetic voters who have proved difficult to engage.

Stephanie McCrummen: Biden has a bigger problem than the debate

The campaign, I was told, hopes to recruit somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 captains in each of the seven battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. They won’t all be low-propensity Trump supporters, as they were in Iowa—there isn’t time to be that selective—but they will be trained in the same way. Each will be assigned a roster of people in their communities, 10 to 50 in total, who fit the profile of Trump-friendly and electorally disengaged. “Our in-house program is focused on doing the hardest-to-do but highest-impact thing,” Blair said, which is contacting the MAGA-inclined voters whom previous Trump campaigns missed.

In truth, “hardest-to-do” might be an understatement. Blair was describing this program to me in early June; building it out by the time early voting begins in September is akin to a three-month moonshot. (He declined to share benchmarks demonstrating progress.) Republican officials in key states, meanwhile, have complained for months about the Trump campaign’s practically nonexistent presence on the ground . When they’ve been told of the plan to scale back traditional canvassing operations in favor of a narrower approach, their frustration has at times turned to fury.

“The RNC had promised us a lot of resources, but there’s been a huge pullback. And the Trump team isn’t standing up its own operation, so we’re really behind,” Jason Cabel Roe, a GOP consultant in Michigan who’s handling the state’s most competitive congressional race, told me. “The state party’s a mess; they’re not going to pick up the slack. When I talk to other Republicans here, they say the same thing: ‘Where are the resources for a field operation?’”

Trump officials acknowledge that these concerns are legitimate. Democrats have opened hundreds of field offices and positioned more than 1,000 paid staffers across the battleground map, while the Trump team is running most of its presidential operations out of existing county-party offices and employing fewer than a dozen paid staffers in most states. The great equalizer, they believe, is intensity: Whereas Democrats have struggled to stoke their base—multiple swing-state Biden allies told me that volunteer recruiting has been anemic—Republicans have reported having more helpers than they know what to do with. In this context, Trump’s enlisting unpaid yet highly motivated voters to work their own neighborhoods, while the Democrats largely rely on parachuting paid staffers into various locations, might not be the mismatch Republicans fear.

The Trump campaign’s approach wouldn’t be feasible in most presidential elections. But in 2024, LaCivita told me, there are “probably four” true battlegrounds: Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. (He said the campaign feels confident, based on public and private polling, as well as its own internal modeling, that Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina are moving out of reach for Biden.) In this scenario, Trump’s team doesn’t need to execute a national campaign. They are “basically running four or five Senate races,” Beth Myers, a senior adviser to Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign against Barack Obama, told me. “And they can get away with it, because the playing field is just that small now.”

Myers is no Trump fan. Still, she credits Wiles and LaCivita with developing a strategy that recognizes both the “excesses” of past Republican campaigns and the realities of a new electorate. In 2012, Romney and Obama fought over a much larger map that included Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Virginia, Colorado, New Hampshire, and even, at least initially, Missouri and Indiana. “Vendors got involved and started telling us that we needed seven ‘touches’—that the number of contacts was more important than who we were contacting,” Myers said. “But we got that wrong. I think the quality of the touch is much more important than the quantity of the touch, and I think that’s what Chris is doing here.”

Notably, thanks to a new Federal Election Commission opinion that allows campaigns to coordinate canvassing efforts with outside groups, there will still be an enormous field operation working on Trump’s behalf. Blair explained that allied organizations such as Turning Point Action, America First Works, and the Faith and Freedom Coalition would handle much of the right’s canvassing effort moving forward, focusing on the “standardized volume plays” as the campaign itself takes a specialized approach. (This isn’t the relief Republicans officials have been hoping for: Turning Point, for example, became a punch line among GOP strategists and donors after it promised to deliver Arizona— where its founder, Charlie Kirk, resides—in the 2022 midterms, only for Democrats to win every major statewide race. Kirk’s group is assuring dubious party officials and major donors that its operation has scaled up, but several told me they aren’t buying it.)

Blair knows the campaign can’t ignore the outcry from local Republicans. As we ended our conversation, he was heading to his office to lead a conference call with county chairs in battleground states, part of an effort to “educate” them about the program and “get buy-in.”

If one thing has calmed Republican nerves, it’s the recent, record-breaking fundraising haul that accompanied Trump’s conviction in the New York hush-money case. A campaign that was once being badly outraised brought in more than $70 million in the 48 hours after the verdict. Suddenly—and to the shock of both campaigns—Trump entered July with more cash on hand than Biden.

But this windfall hasn’t altered the plans of Wiles and LaCivita. Even when the money was pouring in, it was too late, they told me; the campaign’s tactical decisions for getting out the vote had already been made. Around this same time, I noticed that it wasn’t just those swing-state Republicans getting anxious. The day before I visited headquarters, one Trump aide, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, confessed to me that doubts about the field strategy permeate this campaign. This person predicted that Wiles, LaCivita, and Blair will either look like geniuses who revolutionized Republican politics—or the biggest morons ever put in charge of a presidential campaign.

“I accept that framing,” Blair told me, flashing a smirk. “And I live by it every day.”

As Blair and I stood up to leave the conference room, he stopped me. The smirk was gone. He wanted to make something clear: He takes these decisions very seriously. “Because if we lose,” he said, “I think there’s a pretty good chance they’re going to throw us in jail.”

It was a startling moment. I’d heard campaign aides make offhand remarks before about expecting to end up incarcerated for helping Trump. But this was more direct, more paranoid. Blair was telling me that, in a second Biden administration, he expected deep-state flunkies to arrest him for the crime of opposing the president. And he wasn’t alone. Brian Hughes, a campaign spokesperson known for his extensive government work and generally affable demeanor, nodded in agreement as Blair spoke. “I think we all feel that way,” Hughes said.

Picture of a sign that says "Chase Twice as Many as the Left" at the Chase the Vote - A Town Hall with Special Guest President Donald J. Trump Sponsored by Turning Point PAC & Turning Point Action at Dream City Church on June 6, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona.

T hroughout our conversations , Wiles and LaCivita kept insisting to me that something important has changed about Donald Trump. As they tell it, the man who once loathed making donor calls is now dialing for dollars at seven in the morning, unprompted. The man who could never be bothered with the fine print of Iowa’s caucuses finally sat down and learned the rules—and then started explaining them to Iowans at his pre-caucus events. The man who treated 2016 like a reality show and 2020 like a spin-off now speaks of little else but winning.

This may all be the stuff of reverential narratives. Yet there is no denying the consequence of Trump’s evolution on one tactical front: voting by mail. In 2020, the president railed against the practice, refusing to heed the advice of campaign aides who told him, given the shifting nature of consumer behaviors during the pandemic, that absentee votes would almost certainly decide the election. This time around, Wiles led a months-long effort to educate her boss on the practice, explaining how Republicans in Florida and elsewhere had built sprawling, successful operations targeting people who prefer not to vote in person. Wiles pressed Trump on the subject over the course of at least a dozen conversations, stretching from the pre-Iowa season all the way into the late springtime, pleading with him to bless the campaign’s effort to organize a voter-contact strategy built around absentee ballots.

“It wasn’t like we went in there one day and said, ‘Okay, today we’re gonna say we like mail-in ballots.’ It doesn’t happen that way,” Wiles told me at one point. “As he better understood campaign mechanics, he understood, you know, why this—”

“Winning!” LaCivita chimed in, palms raised, growing impatient with the explanation.

Wiles shot him a look. “Why this was important,” she said.

The funny thing, Wiles noted, is that she can’t take credit for convincing Trump. It was “a person who will remain nameless”—someone from outside the campaign, who happened to be kibitzing with the former president about his own reasons for voting by mail—who said something that jolted Trump’s brain. “That’s when the switch flipped. And that is very typical,” Wiles said, chuckling. “You work on something, work on something, work on something, and then in some bizarre, unexpected way, somebody phrases it differently—or it’s somebody that he particularly respects in a particular area who says it—and that’s it.”

The campaign is now engineering a mobilization program aimed at making absentee voting seamless and customizable based on each voter’s jurisdiction. (The initiative, dubbed “Swamp the Vote,” comes with face-saving disclaimers about this being necessary only to defeat the sinister, election-stealing left.) This project might not assuage the Trump-fueled fears of Republican base voters, but that’s hardly the point. His campaign sees the mail-voting push as a path to attracting a slice of the electorate that the Republican Party has spent two decades ignoring: low-propensity left-leaning voters, especially young men of color, who, due to some combination of panic and boredom, turned out for Biden in 2020.

These voters are one explanation as to how Democrats ran up an unthinkable 81-million-vote total in the last presidential election—and, more to the point, increased their margins in places such as Phoenix, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia. For the past several years, however, polling has shown Black and Hispanic men drifting further right—a trend sharply accelerated by the Biden-Trump rematch. If the Republican nominee can siphon off any significant chunk of those voters in November—persuading them to mail in a ballot for him instead of sitting out the election—the math for the Democrats isn’t going to work. That could make November a realignment election, much like Obama’s win in 2008: one that shifts perceptions of voter coalitions and sends the losing side scrambling to recalibrate its approach.

Ironically enough, it was Obama’s dominant showings with nonwhite voters in 2008 and 2012—winning them by margins of four to one—that inspired a Republican autopsy report that called for kinder, gentler engagement with minority communities. Now record numbers of Black and Latino men might be won over by the same candidate who prescribes mass deportations, trafficks in openly racist rhetoric, and talks about these voters in ways that border on parody. “He says stuff like ‘The Blacks love me!’’” LaCivita remarked to me at one point. He threw his arms up, looking equal parts dumbfounded and delighted. “Who the fuck would say that?”

Wiles, for her part, wanted to be clear about the campaign’s aims. “It’s so targeted—we’re not fighting for Black people ,” she said. “We’re fighting for Black men between 18 and 34.”

Ronald Brownstein: How Trump is dividing minority voters

When she told me this, we were standing together backstage—LaCivita, Wiles, and me—at the Turning Point USA event in Detroit. Most of the faces in the crowd were white; the same had been true a few hours earlier, when Trump spoke at a Black church on the city’s impoverished west side. But that didn’t matter much to Wiles and LaCivita. The voters they’re targeting wouldn’t even know Trump was in Detroit that day, much less come out to see him. These aren’t people whose neighborhoods will be canvassed by Republican volunteers; rather, they will be the subject of a sweeping media campaign aimed at fueling disillusionment with the Democratic Party.

As we stood chatting, I remembered something that one of Trump’s allies had told me months earlier—a sentiment that has since been popularized and described in different ways: “For every Karen we lose, we’re going to win a Jamal and an Enrique.” Wiles nodded in approval.

“That’s a fact. I believe it. And I so believe we’re realigning the party,” she told me.

Wiles paused. “And I don’t think we’re gonna lose all the Karens, either. They buy eggs. They buy gas. They know. They may not tell their neighbor, or their carpool line, but they know.”

Just to be clear, I asked: If the Trump campaign converts significant numbers of Black and Hispanic voters, and holds on to a sizable portion of suburban white women, aren’t we talking about a blowout in November?

“We are,” Wiles said.

This is the scenario Trump craves, the one he’s been talking about at all of his recent rallies: winning by margins that are “too big to rig.” I had to wonder, though: What if the campaign’s models are wrong? What if, yet again, the election is decided by thousands of votes across a few key states? Wiles and LaCivita had accommodated Trump’s request to spend lavishly on an “election integrity” effort. But had they accommodated themselves to his lies about the last election—and what might be required of them next?

O ne afternoon in early June , as we sat in the hallway of an Arizona megachurch—Trump was delivering some fire and brimstone inside the sanctuary, decrying the evils of illegal immigration and drawing chants of “Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!”—I asked LaCivita if he felt additional pressure running this particular campaign: Winning meant Trump would avoid further criminal prosecution; losing could mean more convictions and even incarceration. Either way, I suggested, this would be Trump’s last campaign.

“I don’t know,” LaCivita said, a smile spreading across his face. “I read somewhere that he was gonna change the Constitution so he could run again!” He was soon doubled over, howling and smacking both palms on his knees. It was an odd scene. When he finally came up for air, LaCivita told me, “I’m being sarcastic, of course.” Another pause. “I’m joking. Of course I am!”

If he was really joking, I replied, there was no need to keep clarifying that it was a joke.

“No, no,” LaCivita said, straightening his tie. “I just get a kick out of it.”

LaCivita tries to laugh off stress whenever possible. The Trump campaign, he said, is a “360-degree shooting gallery” in which “everybody is coming after you, internally and externally,” all the time. On any given day, he might be cleaning up after a particular staffer who has gone rogue with reporters, or extinguishing rumors he says are being spread about him by Trump’s confidant Richard Grenell (“he just likes to cause trouble”), or refuting supposed policy plans for the second Trump administration being floated by “those quote-unquote allies” on the MAGA right. (“It’s the Project ’25 yokels from Heritage. They and AFPI”—the America First Policy Institute, another think tank—“have their own little groups that raise money. They grift, and they pitch policy,” LaCivita said. “They have their own goals and their own agendas, and they have nothing to do with winning an election.”) In his mind, all the “noise”—Trump’s authoritarian spitballing very much included—is a source of levity.

There was a time, however, when LaCivita didn’t find it so funny. According to several people close to him, he was alarmed by Trump’s rise in 2016. After he came to terms with Trumpism, as so many in the party eventually did, his qualms were rekindled by the January 6 insurrection. Then came the opportunity to help run the 2024 campaign. Once again, LaCivita hesitated. And once again, LaCivita gave in—only to find himself, a few weeks into the job, working for a man who was dining with a neo-Nazi and toying with the idea of terminating the Constitution. After a while, he became resigned to these feelings of dissonance, friends told me, and eventually desensitized to them altogether. His focus was winning: demolishing Biden, electing Trump, ushering in massive Republican legislative majorities. But had he given much thought to what that success might mean?

Not long after our conversation in Arizona, I met LaCivita for breakfast on Capitol Hill, near his office at the RNC. Later that day, his boss would meet with House and Senate Republicans—many of whom, like LaCivita, had been ready to throw Trump overboard a couple of years ago, and who now stood and saluted like the North Korean military. As we sipped coffee, I asked LaCivita about the potential “termination” of the Constitution that the former president floated in 2022.

“I don’t know if he used the word terminate ,” LaCivita said, squinting his eyes. “I think he may have said change or something.” (Trump did, in fact, say termination .)

Certainly it’s plausible that a hired gun, someone who cares about winning and winning only, could have genuinely forgotten the language used by his employer. And yet, according to several people familiar with the fallout, LaCivita—a Purple Heart recipient who lost friends in the Gulf War—was so bothered by the social-media post that he confronted Trump about it himself.

LaCivita confirmed to me that he’d called Trump about the post. In his telling, Trump responded that people were twisting his words, then agreed to issue a statement declaring his love for the Constitution. And that was that, LaCivita said, offering a shrug. He likened it to football: When the quarterback throws an interception, the team has to move on. No dwelling on the last play.

As he shoveled over-hard eggs into his mouth, Marine Corps cufflinks were visible beneath his dark suit. LaCivita had sworn an oath to the Constitution; he’d risked his life for the Constitution. Didn’t a part of him, when he read that post, think about the implications beyond political strategy?

“I mean, he took an oath to the Constitution too, as president of the United States,” LaCivita said. “I never put myself in a position of judging somebody.”

LaCivita thought for a moment. He told me that he’d sat in the courtroom on the second day of Trump’s hush-money trial in May. “Listening to the stuff they’re saying, meant for no other reason than to harm the guy politically—it just pissed me off,” he said. “It made me that much more determined.”

Now we were getting somewhere. Do the people who enter Trump’s orbit, I asked, become hardened by the experience? Do they adopt his persecution complex? Do they take the insults to him personally?

“I don’t psychoanalyze myself, and I sure as hell don’t psychoanalyze the people that I work for,” LaCivita told me. “But I truly believe that the things that he can do as president can actually make the country a whole lot better. You don’t do this at this level for transactional purposes.”

No doubt LaCivita is conservative by nature: pro-gun, anti-abortion, viscerally opposed to Democratic orthodoxy on illegal immigration and gender identity. At the same time, he has worked for Republicans who span the party’s ideological spectrum—most of them moderates who, he admits, reflect his own “center right” beliefs.

Just recently, I told LaCivita, I’d read an interview he’d given to his hometown newspaper , The Richmond Times-Dispatch , more than a decade ago. One quote stood out. Reflecting on his appetite for the fray—as a Marine, as a hunter, as a political combatant—LaCivita told the interviewer: “A warrior without war is miserable.”

When I looked up from reading the quote, LaCivita was nodding.

“People hire me to beat Democrats,” he said. “That’s what I do. That’s what Chris LaCivita does. He beats Democrats, period.”

He paused. “And Donald Trump gave me the opportunity of a lifetime.”

That much is true. Political consultants spend their careers dreaming of the day they’re called upon to elect a president, and those who succeed gain a status that guarantees wealth and prestige. I couldn’t help but think of how Wiles, the seasoned strategist who’d been humiliated by Florida’s young hot-shot governor, had hitched her career to Trump during his post–January 6 political exile. “The last time he was in Washington,” she said, “he was being run out of there on an airplane where nobody came to say goodbye.” Now Trump was barging his way back into the White House—and those same Republicans who once accused him of treachery, she noted, were cheering him on.

“He didn’t change,” Wiles told me. “ They changed.”

I wanted to know if Wiles had changed. She boasted to me, during one conversation, that she had been somewhat successful in getting her boss to cut back on the rigged-election talk on the campaign trail. (“People want to have hope, they want to be inspired, they want to look forward,” she said.) But in that same conversation, Wiles could not answer the question of whether the 2020 election had actually been stolen. “I’m not sure,” she said, repeating the phrase three times.

And her boss?

“He thinks he knows,” Wiles said.

She paused, seeming to catch herself. “But we know,” Wiles added, “that it can’t happen again.”

Her moment of hesitancy stood out. One of the maxims of this campaign, something LaCivita drills into his staff, is that self-doubt destroys. (“You’re either right or you’re wrong,” he said. But you can’t second-guess decisions “once the bullet leaves the chamber.”) Which, as we sat inside that diner on Capitol Hill, one block from the scene of the January 6 carnage, returned us to the question of Trump’s threat against the Constitution. If LaCivita were to acknowledge his trepidation about the man he’s working for—

“Boom!” he said, interrupting with a faux gunshot noise. “You’re done. You’re done . Hesitation in combat generally gets you killed.”

Even if you’re hesitating for good reason?

“Hesitation in combat gets you killed,” LaCivita said again, leaning across the table this time. He pounded his fist to punctuate every word: “I. Don’t. Hesitate.”

In that moment, the sum of my conversations with LaCivita and Wiles and their campaign deputies began to make sense. For all their lofty talk of transformation—transforming their boss’s candidacy, transforming Republican politics, transforming the electorate, transforming the country—it continues to be Trump who does the transforming.

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This absorbing debut novel about writing takes its cue from 'Mrs. Dalloway'

Maureen Corrigan

“Trying to write.” That tell-tale phrase usually indicates that there’s more trying than writing going on. The main character of Rosalind Brown’s debut novel, Practice, is an Oxford undergrad named Annabel who is "trying to write" an essay on Shakespeare’s sonnets. The essay is due the following day and Brown’s novel spans the tense 24 hours before that looming deadline.

Annabel holds herself to a rigid “trying to write” schedule: rise at 6, drink peppermint tea, water and eventually “the glory of coffee." At fixed times she does yoga, meditates and goes for a solitary walk. All throughout the day, Annabel reads, scribbles notes and catches her wandering mind entertaining sexual fantasies. She also dreads writing an essay that, as she puts it, will “fling itself against" the mystery of the sonnets, only to “dissolve like foam.”

An illustration of a person reading a book in the grass.

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Practice is an odd, absorbing little novel about an unusual subject: the act of reading and thinking deeply about literature. It works because it doesn’t try to be a bigger story than it is and because it’s concise — coming in around 200 pages, many of them only a brief paragraph long.

It also works because Brown herself is such a vivid writer. Here, for instance, is Brown’s third-person narrator peering into Annabel’s mind as she thinks about the challenge of saying something fresh about Shakespeare’s sonnets:

For basic sense you can read each of Shakespeare’s Sonnets in a minute or two. For a little more chewiness and analysis, five or six minutes. The trouble is keeping them apart. ... [Shakespeare] wrote them over many years, probably, and here she is trying to rustle up a theory in two days and hook it convincingly on. [Annabel] takes a sip of the hot clear brownish water: tasting grimly of good health. Last year, [her] tutor Sara, a medievalist, advised [all her students] to spend as many hours as they could simply sitting with the text. Don’t keep your pen in your hand, just pick it up when you really need, or else your pen will get ahead of your thoughts. ... [S]o she is spending time with these poems: which are better company than people, they take your shape willingly, but still lightly, like a duvet does.

That long-ish passage gives you an idea of how this novel meanders through Annabel’s day, spent mostly close reading in a room of one’s own. Catch that literary allusion, please. Virginia Woolf — particularly her own day-in-the-life novel, Mrs. Dalloway — is clearly Brown’s model for how to capture fleeting insights, as well as random flotsam and jetsam generated by the brain at work.

Illustration of people reading books in the grass.

NPR staffers pick their favorite fiction reads of 2024

Because Practice is set in the winter of 2009, Annabel isn’t tempted by the many distractions we now have within reach on our laptops. But even without the undeniable lure of dog videos, online shopping and Wordle, Annabel is led astray plenty by what Brown calls “little wisps of resistance”: the excessive heat of the radiator in her room; the jangle of a landline phone and the boyfriend on the other end of it.

For me, Practice offers a refreshing midsummer’s break from the sweeping, socially engaged fiction that understandably dominates our own anxious time. It’s an unapologetically small, inward-looking and, yes, privileged story.

In the novel’s final pages, Annabel, at last, writes her essay’s first sentence, which is excellent. Whether you think that sentence redeems all the self-denial and obsessive behavior that Annabel poured into it will determine whether Practice is the novel for you.

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Guest Essay

Why the False Narratives About Donald Trump Are Likely to Spread

An illustration of a smartphone with a photograph of Trump after the shooting on its screen. Most of the phone is concealed by a large sheet of red fabric.

By Julia Angwin

Ms. Angwin is a contributing Opinion writer and an investigative journalist.

It took minutes after the shooting at Donald Trump’s campaign rally on Saturday for misinformation to begin circulating on social media. Maybe the shooter was an Italian soccer commentator . Perhaps Mr. Trump was shot in the chest . The platform X, formerly known as Twitter, promoted conspiracy theories sporting hashtags like #falseflag and #staged (alleging that the shooting was staged to gain sympathy for Mr. Trump) among its trending topics.

We just experienced the first serious attempted assassination of a presidential candidate in the social media age. How widely are conspiracy theories being spread by our largest platforms? How many voters are being swayed by them? Are the platforms living up to their promises to stop misinformation from circulating? Believe it or not, the answer is that we don’t know — and have few ways to find out.

Thanks in part to a coordinated attack on the internet research community by right-wing groups — and also by the failure of Congress and the courts to install adequate guardrails on the behavior of Big Tech — we now have less visibility than ever before into the impact our underregulated social media platforms are having on our politics. As the Politico writer Mark Scott declared in a recent newsletter headline, “ The U.S. Is Walking in Blind Into November .”

The 2016 presidential election was supposed to be a wake-up call about the role of social media in politics. Mr. Trump’s surprise victory was attributed partly to his campaign’s strategy of flooding the social media airwaves — an effort supported by a covert Russian influence campaign and a trove of misused Facebook data .

By the 2020 elections, an entire monitoring ecosystem had arisen to ensure that the public wouldn’t be blindsided again. Disinformation research centers popped up at universities across the United States, where academics combed through Facebook posts and Twitter feeds using automated tools. Journalists used publicly available tools to report story after story about fake news spreading across the platforms.

Four years later, most of that transparency is in jeopardy or gone. Some of the research centers stopped work or were shut down entirely amid pressure from lawsuits and a Republican congressional inquiry that alleged that the disinformation research was part of a government censorship conspiracy .

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