1 STATING AN OPINION

• In our opinion...

•We (don’t) think that…

•The way we see it...

• If you want our honest opinion....

•As far as I'm concerned...

•Our position is the following…

2 SEQUENCING :

• Firstly…, secondly…, our third point is that…

• The first good reason to… is that… ; next ; what’s more ; moreover….

• To begin, we think that… ; in addition, you have to know that… ; last but not

least….

• The first point I would like to raise is this…

• Here’s the main point I want to raise…

• I’d like to deal with two points here. The first is…

3 “I’M LISTENING TO THE OTHER SIDE.”

• I see your point, but I think…

• Yes, I understand, but my opinion is that…

• That’s all very interesting, but the problem is that…

• I’m afraid I can’t quite agree with your point.

• I think I’ve got your point, now let me respond to it.

• We can see what you’re saying. Here’s my reply…

4 DISAGREEING :

• Excuse me, but that’s not quite correct.

• Sorry, I just have to disagree with your point.

• Let me just respond to that, please.

• I’d like to take issue with what you just said.

• We said that… but the other side has not replied to our point.

• I’d like to focus on two points that the other side has failed to address.

• There are two issues our opponents have failed to dispute, namely…

• We pointed out that…

• Our opponents have claimed that…

• To recap the main points…

• Let’s sum up where we stand in this debate.

• In summary, we want to point out that…