Note that in this way or in that way are commonly used instead.
Last week I received the Entrepreneur of the Year award. It’s a privilege to be honoured in this way.
Referring back in a general way
10.18 There are various groups of nouns that are used to refer back in a general way to what has already been said. They refer to whole sections of spoken or written text.
referring to spoken or written texts
10.19 You can often refer back to what has already been said in a text by using a noun that classes it as a type of verbal action, for example an admission, suggestion, or question.
‘Martin, what are you going to do?’ – ‘That’s a good question,
Larry.’ ‘You claim to know this man’s identity?’ – ‘I do.’ – ‘Can you prove this claim?’
The noun that you use to refer back like this not only refers to the text but also shows your feelings about it. For example, if you refer back to someone’s reply to something using the noun response, this shows that your feelings about it are quite neutral, whereas if you use the noun retort, this shows that your feelings about the reply are much stronger.
Here is a list of nouns that refer back to texts, classing them as types of verbal action:
account
accusation
acknowledgement
admission
advice
allegation
announcement
answer
apology
appeal
argument
assertion
assurance
boast
charge
claim
comment
complaint
compliment
concession
condemnation
confession
contention
correction
criticism
declaration
defence
definition
demand
denial
denunciation
description
digression
disclosure
discussion
endorsement
excuse
explanation
exposition
gossip
information
judgement
lie
message
narrative
objection
observation
plea
point
prediction
promise
pronouncement
prophecy
proposal
proposition
protest
question
reference
refusal
remark
reminder
reply
report
request
response
retort
revelation
rumour
statement
stipulation
story
suggestion
summary
tale
threat
verdict
warning
Note that many of these nouns are related to reporting verbs. Reporting verbs are explained in Chapter 7.
People will feel the need to be informed and they will go wherever they can to get this information.
’I don’t know what we should do about that.’ This remark was totally unexpected.
She remarked that she preferred funerals to weddings.
referring to ideas
10.20 In the same way, you can also refer back to ideas that you know or think someone has by using a noun that also indicates your feelings about the ideas. For example, if you refer to someone’s idea using the noun view, this shows that your feelings about it are quite neutral, whereas if you use the noun delusion, this shows that your feelings are stronger.
His opinion of marriage is that it can destroy a relationship. Even previously unmarried people can hold this view if they experienced the break-up of their parents’ marriage.
There is nothing to cry for. They cannot keep me there against my will. Secure in this belief, he hugged her reassuringly and went out.
Here is a list of nouns that refer to ideas and show your feelings about the ideas:
analysis
assessment
assumption
attitude
belief
conclusion
conjecture
concept
deduction
delusion
diagnosis
doctrine
doubt
estimate
evaluation
fear
finding
guess
hope
idea
illusion
inference
insight
interpretation
misinterpretation
notion
opinion
picture
plan
position
reasoning
scheme
supposition
theory
thinking
view
viewpoint
vision
wish
referring to what is mentioned
10.21 You can also refer back to actions and events using nouns that show your feelings about the action or event. For example, if you use the noun incident to refer to an accident at a nuclear power station, this simply describes the event, whereas if you use the noun disaster, this shows your reaction to the event.
Gwen was not the kind to make a fuss. In any event, she could handle the situation.
I believed the press would cooperate on this issue.
Parents may complain that their child does not eat a variety of healthy food. This problem doesn’t arise because the parents have been lenient about food in the past.
Here is a list of nouns that refer to events and are usually neutraclass="underline"
act
action
affair
aspect
case
circumstances
context
development
effect
episode
event
experience
fact
factor
feature
incident
issue
matter
method
move
phenomenon
position
possibility
practice
process
reason
respect
result
situation
state
state of affairs
subject
system
thing
topic
way
Here is a list of nouns that refer to events and show your feelings about them:
achievement
advantage
answer
catastrophe
crisis
debacle
difficulty
disadvantage
disaster
exploit
feat
fiasco
gaffe
nightmare
plight
predicament
problem
solution
tragedy
10.22 When you are referring back to something that has been said or mentioned, you can use almost any noun that refers to texts, ideas, events, and sometimes even to people. The noun you use allows you to express your exact reaction to the thing that is being referred to. For example, you can refer to a football defeat using nouns such as tragedy or farce, and you can refer to an argument using nouns such as row and battle.
referring to pieces of writing
10.23 You can refer in a neutral way to a previous piece of writing.
As explained in the previous paragraph, the bottle needs only to be washed clean.
We have seen in this chapter how the tax burden has increased fastest for households with children.
Here is a list of nouns used to refer to a piece of writing:
chapter
example
excerpt
extract
paragraph
passage
phrase
quotation