1
Reports: The survey reports a 14% decrease in incomplete submissions.
8 Reporting Verbs Examples
Use these examples to study structure, specificity, tone, and variation. They are demonstrations—not claims about a real person or organization unless the example itself makes that explicit.
Before you copy
What to notice in the examples
Accurate reporting verbs preserve the source’s actual stance and evidence strength, helping writers avoid converting a suggestion into proof or a descriptive observation into a causal conclusion.
- Match the verb to the source’s action and confidence.
- Use neutral verbs such as reports or states when you do not need extra interpretation.
- Reserve demonstrates or proves for evidence that genuinely supports such strength.
- Use argues, proposes, or contends for interpretive positions rather than measured findings.
2
Finds: The experiment finds higher recall after spaced practice.
3
Argues: Patel argues that access should be measured as a service relationship, not only as infrastructure.
4
Suggests: The pattern suggests that timing may matter more than message length.
5
Estimates: The agency estimates that repairs will take three weeks.
6
Proposes: The paper proposes a three-stage framework for evaluating onboarding friction.
7
Cautions: The authors caution that the sample excludes rural participants.
8
Observes: The field study observes that staff frequently intervene before users ask for help.
Keep the underlying decision or pattern, then replace the subject, evidence, relationship, constraints, and tone with details that belong to your situation. If your final line still works after swapping only one noun, it may be too close to the example.