short sentence with the word assignment

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Meaning of assignment in English

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• It was a plum assignment - more of a vacation really.
• He took this award-winning photograph while on assignment in the Middle East .
• His two-year assignment to the Mexico office starts in September .
• She first visited Norway on assignment for the winter Olympics ten years ago.
• He fell in love with the area after being there on assignment for National Geographic in the 1950s.
• act as something
• all work and no play (makes Jack a dull boy) idiom
• be at work idiom
• be in work idiom
• housekeeping
• in the line of duty idiom
• join duty idiom
• undertaking

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

assignment | Intermediate English

Assignment | business english, examples of assignment, collocations with assignment.

These are words often used in combination with assignment .

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

Translations of assignment

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to be regularly absent from school without permission

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Definition of assign

 (Entry 1 of 2)

transitive verb

Definition of assign  (Entry 2 of 2)

• intrust

ascribe , attribute , assign , impute , credit mean to lay something to the account of a person or thing.

ascribe suggests an inferring or conjecturing of cause, quality, authorship.

attribute suggests less tentativeness than ascribe , less definiteness than assign .

assign implies ascribing with certainty or after deliberation.

impute suggests ascribing something that brings discredit by way of accusation or blame.

credit implies ascribing a thing or especially an action to a person or other thing as its agent, source, or explanation.

Examples of assign in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'assign.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Verb and Noun

Middle English, from Anglo-French assigner , from Latin assignare , from ad- + signare to mark, from signum mark, sign

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing assign

• pre - assign

Dictionary Entries Near assign

Cite this entry.

“Assign.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/assign. Accessed 1 Sep. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of assign, legal definition, legal definition of assign.

Legal Definition of assign  (Entry 2 of 2)

More from Merriam-Webster on assign

Nglish: Translation of assign for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of assign for Arabic Speakers

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What is the Abbreviation for Assignment?

Home » Abbreviations Dictionary » What is the Abbreviation for Assignment?

How do you abbreviate assignment? There is one common way to abbreviate assignment .

For example,

• English asgmt.

The plural abbreviation of assignment is asgmts.

When to Use This Abbreviation

This abbreviation is used in classrooms, note taking, business, and any time space is of concern. You might abbreviate the word assignment to asgmt . on a homework list or see such abbreviations in note taking , headlines, or newspaper columns.

Outside of note taking or headlines, the word is not abbreviated in general prose.

What Does Assignment Mean?

• Eric had only two more pages of assigned reading but was too tired to follow the words in front of him and fell sound asleep in the arm chair.
• His assignment was to follow the waitress in order to train as a waiter.

The word assignment functions as a noun in the sentence.

Outside Examples of Assignment

• Real Estate heir Robert Durst has been assigned to an Indiana prison which has a medical unit, rather than the California prison requested because he faces a murder trial in Los Angeles, attorney Dick DeGuerin said Sunday. – New York Daily News

Summary: Assignment Abbreviation

There is one common abbreviation of assignment : asgmt. If you want to pluralize the abbreviation, simply add on an “s.”

Understanding Assignments

What this handout is about.

The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment and begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms and practices into meaningful clues to the type of writing your instructor expects. See our short video for more tips.

Basic beginnings

Regardless of the assignment, department, or instructor, adopting these two habits will serve you well :

• Read the assignment carefully as soon as you receive it. Do not put this task off—reading the assignment at the beginning will save you time, stress, and problems later. An assignment can look pretty straightforward at first, particularly if the instructor has provided lots of information. That does not mean it will not take time and effort to complete; you may even have to learn a new skill to complete the assignment.
• Ask the instructor about anything you do not understand. Do not hesitate to approach your instructor. Instructors would prefer to set you straight before you hand the paper in. That’s also when you will find their feedback most useful.

Assignment formats

Many assignments follow a basic format. Assignments often begin with an overview of the topic, include a central verb or verbs that describe the task, and offer some additional suggestions, questions, or prompts to get you started.

An Overview of Some Kind

The instructor might set the stage with some general discussion of the subject of the assignment, introduce the topic, or remind you of something pertinent that you have discussed in class. For example:

“Throughout history, gerbils have played a key role in politics,” or “In the last few weeks of class, we have focused on the evening wear of the housefly …”

The Task of the Assignment

Pay attention; this part tells you what to do when you write the paper. Look for the key verb or verbs in the sentence. Words like analyze, summarize, or compare direct you to think about your topic in a certain way. Also pay attention to words such as how, what, when, where, and why; these words guide your attention toward specific information. (See the section in this handout titled “Key Terms” for more information.)

“Analyze the effect that gerbils had on the Russian Revolution”, or “Suggest an interpretation of housefly undergarments that differs from Darwin’s.”

Additional Material to Think about

Here you will find some questions to use as springboards as you begin to think about the topic. Instructors usually include these questions as suggestions rather than requirements. Do not feel compelled to answer every question unless the instructor asks you to do so. Pay attention to the order of the questions. Sometimes they suggest the thinking process your instructor imagines you will need to follow to begin thinking about the topic.

“You may wish to consider the differing views held by Communist gerbils vs. Monarchist gerbils, or Can there be such a thing as ‘the housefly garment industry’ or is it just a home-based craft?”

These are the instructor’s comments about writing expectations:

“Be concise”, “Write effectively”, or “Argue furiously.”

Technical Details

These instructions usually indicate format rules or guidelines.

“Your paper must be typed in Palatino font on gray paper and must not exceed 600 pages. It is due on the anniversary of Mao Tse-tung’s death.”

The assignment’s parts may not appear in exactly this order, and each part may be very long or really short. Nonetheless, being aware of this standard pattern can help you understand what your instructor wants you to do.

Interpreting the assignment

Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers on the assignment sheet:

Why did your instructor ask you to do this particular task?

Who is your audience.

• What kind of evidence do you need to support your ideas?

What kind of writing style is acceptable?

• What are the absolute rules of the paper?

Try to look at the question from the point of view of the instructor. Recognize that your instructor has a reason for giving you this assignment and for giving it to you at a particular point in the semester. In every assignment, the instructor has a challenge for you. This challenge could be anything from demonstrating an ability to think clearly to demonstrating an ability to use the library. See the assignment not as a vague suggestion of what to do but as an opportunity to show that you can handle the course material as directed. Paper assignments give you more than a topic to discuss—they ask you to do something with the topic. Keep reminding yourself of that. Be careful to avoid the other extreme as well: do not read more into the assignment than what is there.

Of course, your instructor has given you an assignment so that they will be able to assess your understanding of the course material and give you an appropriate grade. But there is more to it than that. Your instructor has tried to design a learning experience of some kind. Your instructor wants you to think about something in a particular way for a particular reason. If you read the course description at the beginning of your syllabus, review the assigned readings, and consider the assignment itself, you may begin to see the plan, purpose, or approach to the subject matter that your instructor has created for you. If you still aren’t sure of the assignment’s goals, try asking the instructor. For help with this, see our handout on getting feedback .

Given your instructor’s efforts, it helps to answer the question: What is my purpose in completing this assignment? Is it to gather research from a variety of outside sources and present a coherent picture? Is it to take material I have been learning in class and apply it to a new situation? Is it to prove a point one way or another? Key words from the assignment can help you figure this out. Look for key terms in the form of active verbs that tell you what to do.

Key Terms: Finding Those Active Verbs

Here are some common key words and definitions to help you think about assignment terms:

Information words Ask you to demonstrate what you know about the subject, such as who, what, when, where, how, and why.

• define —give the subject’s meaning (according to someone or something). Sometimes you have to give more than one view on the subject’s meaning
• describe —provide details about the subject by answering question words (such as who, what, when, where, how, and why); you might also give details related to the five senses (what you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell)
• explain —give reasons why or examples of how something happened
• illustrate —give descriptive examples of the subject and show how each is connected with the subject
• summarize —briefly list the important ideas you learned about the subject
• trace —outline how something has changed or developed from an earlier time to its current form
• research —gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you have found

Relation words Ask you to demonstrate how things are connected.

• compare —show how two or more things are similar (and, sometimes, different)
• contrast —show how two or more things are dissimilar
• apply —use details that you’ve been given to demonstrate how an idea, theory, or concept works in a particular situation
• cause —show how one event or series of events made something else happen
• relate —show or describe the connections between things

Interpretation words Ask you to defend ideas of your own about the subject. Do not see these words as requesting opinion alone (unless the assignment specifically says so), but as requiring opinion that is supported by concrete evidence. Remember examples, principles, definitions, or concepts from class or research and use them in your interpretation.

• assess —summarize your opinion of the subject and measure it against something
• prove, justify —give reasons or examples to demonstrate how or why something is the truth
• evaluate, respond —state your opinion of the subject as good, bad, or some combination of the two, with examples and reasons
• support —give reasons or evidence for something you believe (be sure to state clearly what it is that you believe)
• synthesize —put two or more things together that have not been put together in class or in your readings before; do not just summarize one and then the other and say that they are similar or different—you must provide a reason for putting them together that runs all the way through the paper
• analyze —determine how individual parts create or relate to the whole, figure out how something works, what it might mean, or why it is important
• argue —take a side and defend it with evidence against the other side

More Clues to Your Purpose As you read the assignment, think about what the teacher does in class:

• What kinds of textbooks or coursepack did your instructor choose for the course—ones that provide background information, explain theories or perspectives, or argue a point of view?
• In lecture, does your instructor ask your opinion, try to prove their point of view, or use keywords that show up again in the assignment?
• What kinds of assignments are typical in this discipline? Social science classes often expect more research. Humanities classes thrive on interpretation and analysis.
• How do the assignments, readings, and lectures work together in the course? Instructors spend time designing courses, sometimes even arguing with their peers about the most effective course materials. Figuring out the overall design to the course will help you understand what each assignment is meant to achieve.

Now, what about your reader? Most undergraduates think of their audience as the instructor. True, your instructor is a good person to keep in mind as you write. But for the purposes of a good paper, think of your audience as someone like your roommate: smart enough to understand a clear, logical argument, but not someone who already knows exactly what is going on in your particular paper. Remember, even if the instructor knows everything there is to know about your paper topic, they still have to read your paper and assess your understanding. In other words, teach the material to your reader.

Aiming a paper at your audience happens in two ways: you make decisions about the tone and the level of information you want to convey.

• Tone means the “voice” of your paper. Should you be chatty, formal, or objective? Usually you will find some happy medium—you do not want to alienate your reader by sounding condescending or superior, but you do not want to, um, like, totally wig on the man, you know? Eschew ostentatious erudition: some students think the way to sound academic is to use big words. Be careful—you can sound ridiculous, especially if you use the wrong big words.
• The level of information you use depends on who you think your audience is. If you imagine your audience as your instructor and they already know everything you have to say, you may find yourself leaving out key information that can cause your argument to be unconvincing and illogical. But you do not have to explain every single word or issue. If you are telling your roommate what happened on your favorite science fiction TV show last night, you do not say, “First a dark-haired white man of average height, wearing a suit and carrying a flashlight, walked into the room. Then a purple alien with fifteen arms and at least three eyes turned around. Then the man smiled slightly. In the background, you could hear a clock ticking. The room was fairly dark and had at least two windows that I saw.” You also do not say, “This guy found some aliens. The end.” Find some balance of useful details that support your main point.

You’ll find a much more detailed discussion of these concepts in our handout on audience .

The Grim Truth

With a few exceptions (including some lab and ethnography reports), you are probably being asked to make an argument. You must convince your audience. It is easy to forget this aim when you are researching and writing; as you become involved in your subject matter, you may become enmeshed in the details and focus on learning or simply telling the information you have found. You need to do more than just repeat what you have read. Your writing should have a point, and you should be able to say it in a sentence. Sometimes instructors call this sentence a “thesis” or a “claim.”

So, if your instructor tells you to write about some aspect of oral hygiene, you do not want to just list: “First, you brush your teeth with a soft brush and some peanut butter. Then, you floss with unwaxed, bologna-flavored string. Finally, gargle with bourbon.” Instead, you could say, “Of all the oral cleaning methods, sandblasting removes the most plaque. Therefore it should be recommended by the American Dental Association.” Or, “From an aesthetic perspective, moldy teeth can be quite charming. However, their joys are short-lived.”

Convincing the reader of your argument is the goal of academic writing. It doesn’t have to say “argument” anywhere in the assignment for you to need one. Look at the assignment and think about what kind of argument you could make about it instead of just seeing it as a checklist of information you have to present. For help with understanding the role of argument in academic writing, see our handout on argument .

What kind of evidence do you need?

There are many kinds of evidence, and what type of evidence will work for your assignment can depend on several factors–the discipline, the parameters of the assignment, and your instructor’s preference. Should you use statistics? Historical examples? Do you need to conduct your own experiment? Can you rely on personal experience? See our handout on evidence for suggestions on how to use evidence appropriately.

Make sure you are clear about this part of the assignment, because your use of evidence will be crucial in writing a successful paper. You are not just learning how to argue; you are learning how to argue with specific types of materials and ideas. Ask your instructor what counts as acceptable evidence. You can also ask a librarian for help. No matter what kind of evidence you use, be sure to cite it correctly—see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial .

You cannot always tell from the assignment just what sort of writing style your instructor expects. The instructor may be really laid back in class but still expect you to sound formal in writing. Or the instructor may be fairly formal in class and ask you to write a reflection paper where you need to use “I” and speak from your own experience.

Try to avoid false associations of a particular field with a style (“art historians like wacky creativity,” or “political scientists are boring and just give facts”) and look instead to the types of readings you have been given in class. No one expects you to write like Plato—just use the readings as a guide for what is standard or preferable to your instructor. When in doubt, ask your instructor about the level of formality they expect.

No matter what field you are writing for or what facts you are including, if you do not write so that your reader can understand your main idea, you have wasted your time. So make clarity your main goal. For specific help with style, see our handout on style .

Technical details about the assignment

The technical information you are given in an assignment always seems like the easy part. This section can actually give you lots of little hints about approaching the task. Find out if elements such as page length and citation format (see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial ) are negotiable. Some professors do not have strong preferences as long as you are consistent and fully answer the assignment. Some professors are very specific and will deduct big points for deviations.

Usually, the page length tells you something important: The instructor thinks the size of the paper is appropriate to the assignment’s parameters. In plain English, your instructor is telling you how many pages it should take for you to answer the question as fully as you are expected to. So if an assignment is two pages long, you cannot pad your paper with examples or reword your main idea several times. Hit your one point early, defend it with the clearest example, and finish quickly. If an assignment is ten pages long, you can be more complex in your main points and examples—and if you can only produce five pages for that assignment, you need to see someone for help—as soon as possible.

Tricks that don’t work

Your instructors are not fooled when you:

• spend more time on the cover page than the essay —graphics, cool binders, and cute titles are no replacement for a well-written paper.
• use huge fonts, wide margins, or extra spacing to pad the page length —these tricks are immediately obvious to the eye. Most instructors use the same word processor you do. They know what’s possible. Such tactics are especially damning when the instructor has a stack of 60 papers to grade and yours is the only one that low-flying airplane pilots could read.
• use a paper from another class that covered “sort of similar” material . Again, the instructor has a particular task for you to fulfill in the assignment that usually relates to course material and lectures. Your other paper may not cover this material, and turning in the same paper for more than one course may constitute an Honor Code violation . Ask the instructor—it can’t hurt.
• get all wacky and “creative” before you answer the question . Showing that you are able to think beyond the boundaries of a simple assignment can be good, but you must do what the assignment calls for first. Again, check with your instructor. A humorous tone can be refreshing for someone grading a stack of papers, but it will not get you a good grade if you have not fulfilled the task.

Critical reading of assignments leads to skills in other types of reading and writing. If you get good at figuring out what the real goals of assignments are, you are going to be better at understanding the goals of all of your classes and fields of study.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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The Power of Short Writing Assignments

Brief writing prompts and responses help students in any discipline.

A panicked student confronts a blank laptop screen late at night. A frazzled teacher sits in front of a pile of yet-to-be-graded essays the following evening. Long writing assignments can cause fear and anxiety for students and teachers. 

Some educators avoid assigning writing, believing that they don’t have the time to either incorporate such a project or grade it. Thankfully, writing assignments need not be long in order to be effective. If you don’t wish to assign a potentially time-consuming project, try these short assignments to help students become better writers and thinkers.

Summarizing for Comprehension



Summaries are an easy way to incorporate writing into any subject. They are a valuable way to challenge students to concisely identify the main details, themes, or arguments in a piece of writing. The longer the reading assignment, the more demanding the process of writing a cogent summary. 

Teach students how to engage the text in a conscientious manner, reading the material while noting its most important elements. I periodically ask my students to write a 50-word summary on a textbook chapter, an exercise that many of them find exceedingly difficult at first. Gradually they become more confident in distilling an author’s main points.

Share the best work with the class, underscoring the components of particularly effective summaries. When students hear the summaries of others, they develop a greater understanding of how to construct their own. 

Prompt with Questions

Part of our jobs as teachers involves giving students the tools to continue learning new information on their own, as well as equipping them with the desire and skills to challenge their own biases. All of this involves teaching young people how to craft incisive questions. 

Review with students the importance of questioning, and introduce to them different question-writing techniques, pausing before calling on a particular student to encourage every student to think about the answer. 

Have students write a single-sentence question in response to a piece of nonfiction or fiction writing. Then, assign students to answer each other’s questions with another carefully constructed sentence. Each student should have a piece of writing—a question and an answer—that is roughly two sentences in length for teachers to review.

Consider employing question prompts such as Bloom’s question starters. Teachers can tailor the complexity and specificity of these prompts to the needs of the student.

Encourage Creative Responses

Short writing assignments can also be more imaginative assignments. Consider, for instance, asking students adopt the voice of a historical figure:

• Thomas Jefferson composing a three-sentence response to Hamilton’s banking plan.
• Theodore Roosevelt tweeting his opinions on modern antitrust investigations of Google, Facebook, and Apple.

• A series of text messages between George Washington and Franklin Delano Roosevelt about whether the Lend-Lease Program is a harmful “entangling alliance.”


English teachers, for example, may want to incorporate fictional characters into their creative-response assignments to require students to practice inferring a character’s thoughts. English teachers can use these creative responses as brief, but powerful, assessment tools for reading comprehension.

Keep It Short

A student is never too old to revisit the basics of writing, and educators should not underestimate the importance of teaching students how to construct compelling and grammatical sentences. 

Any short writing assignment can be reduced to a single sentence. Some options include the following:

• Write a sentence-long summary of an article or book.

• Describe the main idea of the piece in one sentence.

• Complete a one-sentence story or memoir. 


One-sentence assignments push students to meticulously choose the right words and structure to convey their points.  

A Chance for Collaboration

Short writing assignments offer many opportunities for collaboration between disciplines.

Try incorporating vocabulary words or techniques that students are learning in other classes into a short writing assignment. A history teacher might ask students to write a summary of a reading using vocabulary from their English class. A history teacher could also integrate a book or short story from an English class. These techniques need not be limited to the humanities and social sciences. STEM instructors could assess informative or explanatory writing skills by asking students to compose a list of sentences outlining the steps they took to solve a problem or create something. 

Mechanics Matter



Good writing on any subject demands proficiency in content and form. Short writing assignments allow busy teachers to pay attention to grammar and punctuation. 

When assigning a short writing project, a teacher may wish to require some structural element (“incorporate a quote” or “use at least two compound sentences in your response”). Whatever the case, educators should stress the importance of grammar, punctuation, style, and syntax.

Blaise Pascal famously wrote, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” Trying to get a point across in a few words or sentences is often more challenging than going on for many pages. Short assignments also require students to self-edit—a skill that is valuable throughout school and in their working life. 

Short writing assignments allow for fun, quick, and stimulating ways of teaching valuable writing skills.

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August 29, 2024 by admin

Find out the Abbreviation for Assignment with Meaning & Definition

In this post, I will tell you assignment meaning with some interesting example sentences and I will let you know an abbreviation for the word assignment .

There are two different ways to abbreviate the word assignment . These two common ways are assg . and asgmt .

If you come across the plural of assignment , you just have to add an – s after its abbreviations to make them plural. So, the plural forms would be assgs . and asgmts .

Meaning of Assignment with Definition

This particular word is used as a noun within a sentence. According to Cambridge English Dictionary , assignment is defined as a piece of work given to someone, typically as part of their studies or job, or it can be a job that someone is sent somewhere to do.

For example,

1 . The professor gave us an assignment on the topic ‘Foreign Affairs’.

2 . The greatest failure in life is being successful in the wrong assignment . ( Myles Munroe )

Suitable Areas to use Assg. or Asgmt.

Assg . and asgmt . are the two ways to abbreviate the word assignment . It means that you cannot use these abbreviations in general prose or essays.

You can easily use these abbreviations for assignment in your classrooms while taking notes. The areas where you are not able to write the whole word assignment because of space limitations, such as in headlines, newspaper headings or any business papers, you can use an abbreviation for assignment over there.

• The next community photo assg . will be: Hoosier Holidays. ( Greensburg Daily News )

• We have been designated for an asgmt .

It is concluded that there are two common ways to abbreviate the term assignment i.e. assg . or asgmt . The plural forms can be assgs . and asgmts . (just by adding an – s ).

Free Text Shortener Tool

• 📖 Text Shortener
• 📜 When to Use It
• 🎉 Benefits of the Tool
• ✒️Writing a Summary
• ✍️Summary Examples
• 🎁 Bonus Tips

🔗 References

📖 text shortener guide.

Summarizing is an essential part of academic writing. It shows your ability to separate and present the main findings, plot elements, thoughts, etc. A good summary lets another person easily understand it without reading the original text.

Our free text shortener presents key takeaways of a text using AI technologies. To use it, you need to copy and paste the original text and choose the length of the expected summary. This is how you create a resume with zero stress in a couple of clicks.

In this article, we describe our tool and explain how to write top-scoring summaries.

📜 When to Use Text Shortener Tool

• When you need to write a concluding paragraph. It can be an essay, research paper, lab report, or other academic text. Paste your body paragraphs into the box to create a summary for your concluding part.
• When you need to shorten your essay. Use this tool if you exceed the word limit in your essay or a particular paragraph. It also works as a sentence shortener.
• When you need to read an extensive article. You will do it faster as summarizing tool makes the text shorter, preserving the main information. It is helpful when you need to read many articles and highlight the key points.
• When you need to shorten other researchers’ passages. Including lengthy quotes in your paper is not the best decision. Instead, you can use our tool to make them shorter without changing their sense.
• When you need to take notes. Create an overview of the studying materials with our online shortener. It is a fast and easy way to make notes without writing or typing them manually.
• When you need to refresh your knowledge. Instead of reading a full text or book, just use a summary generator. After a quick revision of the content, you can save and use these extracts later.

🎉 Shorten Sentence Generator Benefits

Below you will find reasons why students love our shortening tool.

✒️ How to Write an Outstanding Summary

If you want to write a summary yourself, this passage is for you. Follow these guidelines to shorten texts better and faster.

• Find only one core thought – this is the basis of the text. Then look for supporting points that revolve around this idea. At this stage, you can list the essential ideas in the text.
• Don’t use judgmental and emotional vocabulary while writing. Your goal is to be as objective as possible. You can also rewrite the informal style to formal. Remember that summarizing is not the same as paraphrasing .
• Keep your summary brief: it shouldn’t be longer than 15% of the initial text. But we still recommend using synonyms and synonymic expressions not to repeat the original passage. Don’t forget to reference the works you have included.
• Reread your summary . Make sure that its writing style corresponds with the rest of your work.
• Add transition words if you notice that there is no flow. Ask yourself: can a person understand the core meaning of your text just after reading the summary?

If yes, congratulations! You have just created a good summary. If not, find the details that you have missed. It can be a logical sequence, a particular argument, event, or evidence. Rewrite your summary till it fully represents the original text.

✍️ Text Shortening Examples

Now let’s take a look at two summary examples.

🎁 Bonus Tips for Students

• Make sure you know what kind of summary you need. For example, an executive summary has particular guidelines and writing formulas.
• Avoid complex terminology and long sentences. Your summary should be independent and straightforward. Imagine that a person unfamiliar with the topic needs to understand the text.
• To shorten a long text, make a one-sentence summary for each paragraph. It will help you control the size of the summary. It also will be easier to navigate the text if you decide to rewrite or adjust your summary.

What does summarize mean?

Summarizing means shortening a larger text without changing its meaning. You can usually see summaries at the end of essays and other academic papers. While shortening a text, you need to cover only the essential details mentioned in the text. In most summaries, you shouldn’t include your opinion on the matter and have to be objective.

How to summarize a story?

You need to retell a story briefly. Imagine that you have read a book and want to describe it to your friend. Highlight the main plot elements and characters that are crucial to the story. Omit the parts that are not essential for a person who wants to understand the plot.

How to summarize a quote?

Read the passage and find its key message. Briefly describe this thought in your own words. Make sure that the summarized piece fits your paper’s tone. If you leave more than three words unchanged, put them in quotation marks. Don’t forget to give credit to the author.

Note: short, clearly expressed quotes do not need shortening.

Updated: Aug 11th, 2022

• How to Write a Summary: 4 Tips for Writing a Good Summary | Masterclass
• Guidelines for Writing a Summary | Hunter College
• 10 Tips for Cutting Your Word Count | The University of Adelaide
• 8 Ways to Reduce the Word Count for Your Research Paper | How to Write a Journal Article

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How to form simple past verbs in English and when to use them

English may not have as many verb forms as other languages you know—but those few forms come with a lot of complications!

The simple past is no different: There is a lot to learn, from irregular verbs to forming questions and negative sentences. Plus you have to understand the difference between the simple past and other tenses.

Here's everything you need to know about how to form the simple past in English, how it's pronounced, and when to use it!

In this post:

When is the simple past used, how do you form the simple past.

Verbs with irregular simple past forms

Negation of simple past

Questions in the simple past, pronunciation of the simple past, simple past vs. simple present perfect.

In English, the simple past is used to talk about things that started and ended in the past. For example:

• I called my mom last night.
• We played basketball yesterday.
• They went to the store two days ago.

Most commonly, the simple past follows a simple formula:

For example: 

However, If the base form of a regular verb already ends with an -e , you only need to add a -d for the past:

If the base form of a regular verb ends with a consonant followed by a -y , change the -y to -i and then add -ed :

Finally, if the base form of a regular verb ends with consonant-vowel-consonant, you usually double the last consonant and then add -ed:

Past forms of irregular verbs

One of the tricky parts of the simple past is that there are many irregular verbs, for which the past form of the verb does not follow the regular -ed pattern. Some common irregular verbs and their past tense forms include:

In addition to the irregular verbs above, the verb to be is also irregular. I and he/she/it take the past form was , while you , we , you (plural) and they all take the past form were:

To form negative sentences in the simple past, add the words did not before the base form of the verb. Did not is also often written as the contraction didn’t :

You can ask questions using the simple past. Usually with questions in this tense, you add the word did . However, you don’t need to add did for questions using was or were . Here are the most common types of questions and resources to study them more:

Yes/no questions

Q: Did you close the door? A: Yes, I closed the door.

Q: Was Zari excited? A: Yes, Zari was definitely excited.

Wh- questions

Q: Where did they watch the movie? A: They watched the movie at home.

Q: When was Oscar in Italy? A: He was in Italy last year for an art symposium?

Tag questions

You didn’t buy more cheese, did you? She didn’t lose her keys, did she?

The -ed at the end of regular verbs in the simple past is pronounced differently depending on the last sound in the base verb. (Remember to think about the last sound and not the last letter !)

If the base form of the verb ends with a voiceless sound (this means you don’t vibrate your vocal folds), the -ed is pronounced as “t.” Voiceless sounds include "p," "f," "s," "sh," "ch," and "k." For example, the -ed at the end of pushed, watched, and kissed are all pronounced “t.”

If the base form of the verb ends with a voiced sound (this means you vibrate your vocal folds), the -ed is pronounced as “d. ” Voiced sounds include all vowel sounds as well as "b," "m," "w," "v," "th" (as in the ), "z," "r," "y" (as in you ), "n," and "g." For example, the -ed at the end of played , loved , and rained are all pronounced “d.”

Finally, if the base form of the verb ends with the sound “d” or “t,” the -ed is pronounced as its own syllable, “id.” For example, the -ed at the end of decided , hosted , and pretended are all pronounced “id.”

The simple past isn't the only way to talk about events in the past in English—there's also the simple present perfect.

So how do you know when to use one form or the other?

Meanwhile, the simple present perfect (have/has + past participle) is used for events that started in the past but have some connection to the present (perhaps they’re still continuing today, might happen again, or are affecting something in the present).

Depending on which one you use, the meaning of your sentence will change:

Keywords to look for

There are certain words that often appear with the simple past and others that more commonly appear with the simple present perfect. These signal words are great clues to help you know which tense works best with your sentence.

Simple past signal words

• two days ago
• two weeks ago
• two months ago
• two years ago

Simple present perfect signal words

Irregular verbs: past and past participle forms

In general, learning the past and past participle forms of irregular verbs will help you be a confident English speaker! Use the following table to help you:

Make the simple past simple to learn!

Maybe in the past 😉 you were confused about the simple past, but with practice and this handy guide, you will be a simple past star! ⭐

Related Posts All Posts

How to use the most common english filler words, dear duolingo: what should i do when people switch to english.

• Essay Editor

How to Use Transition Words for Essays + Examples

Transition words play a key role in essay writing. They connect ideas, sentences, and paragraphs, helping readers follow your text easily. These words do many jobs, from comparing things to showing cause and effect. They turn scattered thoughts into a clear story.

Learning to use transition words for essays isn't just about making your writing sound better. It's about making your ideas clearer and easier for readers to understand. Let's look at transition words and how to use them well in your essays.

Understanding Transition Words for Essays

Transition words for essays are like road signs. They guide readers through your ideas. They help show how your thoughts connect, making your writing easier to follow.

The Purpose and Placement of Transition Sentences

Transition sentences do several important things:

• They make your ideas flow better
• They help readers grasp your main point
• They link sentences and paragraphs
• They show how ideas relate to each other
• They make your writing easier to read

Where you put transitions matters. They're often used:

• Between parts of an essay to sum up or introduce new ideas
• Between paragraphs to show connections or changes in focus
• Within paragraphs to link related thoughts

Here's an example: 

"The Industrial Revolution brought many new technologies. On the other hand, it also caused social problems."

In this case, "On the other hand" shows a contrast between the good and bad effects of the Industrial Revolution.

Putting transitions in the right places helps your ideas flow smoothly. For instance, transition words to start a paragraph in an essay can signal a new point or a shift in focus, preparing the reader for what's next.

Types of Transitions Words

There are different types of transition words for essays, each with its own job. Knowing these types can help you pick the right words for different parts of your writing.

• Adding information: "Also," "In addition," "Furthermore"
• Showing contrast: "But," "However," "On the other hand"
• Showing cause and effect: "So," "As a result," "Therefore"
• Showing order: "First," "Second," "Finally"
• Giving examples: "For example," "Such as," "To illustrate"

Using different transition words can make your essay flow better and be more coherent. Aithor can suggest good transition words based on what your essay is about, helping you improve your writing.

Creating Smooth Transitions in Your Writing

To make your transitions smooth:

• Use your essay's structure to find logical connections between sections.
• Put transitions where they best show how ideas relate.
• Don't use too many transition words, or your writing might sound forced.
• Try not to use the same few transitions over and over.

Remember, sometimes less is better. Using too many transition words can make your writing sound unnatural. Writing tools like Aithor can help you find places where transitions might make your essay flow better, suggesting good transition words based on your essay's content.

List of Transitions

Let's look at different types of transition words and phrases you can use in your essays:

1. Addition

Transition words to start a paragraph in an essay that add information include:

• Furthermore
• Additionally
• In addition

Example: "The new policy aims to cut down on carbon emissions. Also, it encourages the use of energy from renewable sources."

2. Contradiction

To show contrast, you can use:

• Nevertheless
• On the other hand
• In contrast
• Despite this

Example: "Many people thought the project would fail. On the other hand, it did better than anyone expected."

3. Condition

Conditional transitions include:

• Provided that
• In the event that

Example: "The company will grow bigger if the market stays good."

4. Emphasis

To highlight important points, use:

• Undoubtedly

Example: "The experiment gave surprising results. In fact, it made people question many old theories in the field."

5. Similarity

Transition words for the second body paragraph showing similarity include:

• In the same way

Example: "The novel explores themes of love and loss. In the same way, the author's previous work dealt with complex human emotions."

To show outcomes or consequences, use:

• As a result
• Consequently

Example: "The team worked very hard on the project. As a result, they finished it early."

7. Conclusion Transitions

Transition words for the conclusion paragraph include:

• In conclusion
• To summarize

Example: "In conclusion, the study shows that social media greatly affects how consumers behave."

8. Sequence

To show order or progression, use:

• First, Second, and Third
• Subsequently

Example: "First, we'll look at the data. Then, we'll explain what it means. Finally, we'll make conclusions based on what we found."

9. Location

Spatial transitions include:

• Adjacent to
• In the vicinity of

Example: "The rare plant was found growing nearby the river bank."

As you start writing, remember this important tip: use transition words carefully. While these words help make your writing easy to read, using too many can confuse your reader. Think of transition words like spices in food — they make it taste better, but too much can ruin the dish.

Your goal is to help your reader easily follow your ideas, not to create a maze of connecting words. So, when you write your next essay, remember: when it comes to transitions, often using fewer is better. Use them thoughtfully to make your argument clear, and your writing will be easy to understand and follow.

If you want to get even better at writing essays, Aithor has special features that can help you choose the best transitions for what you're writing about, making sure your essays flow smoothly from start to finish.

Happy writing!

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• Published: 26 August 2024

Neural populations in the language network differ in the size of their temporal receptive windows

• Tamar I. Regev   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0639-0890 1 , 2   na1 ,
• Colton Casto   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-6966-1470 1 , 2 , 3 , 4   na1 ,
• Eghbal A. Hosseini 1 , 2 ,
• Markus Adamek   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8519-9212 5 , 6 ,
• Anthony L. Ritaccio 7 ,
• Jon T. Willie   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9565-4338 5 , 6 ,
• Peter Brunner   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2588-2754 5 , 6 , 8 &
• Evelina Fedorenko   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3823-514X 1 , 2 , 3  

Nature Human Behaviour ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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Despite long knowing what brain areas support language comprehension, our knowledge of the neural computations that these frontal and temporal regions implement remains limited. One important unresolved question concerns functional differences among the neural populations that comprise the language network. Here we leveraged the high spatiotemporal resolution of human intracranial recordings ( n  = 22) to examine responses to sentences and linguistically degraded conditions. We discovered three response profiles that differ in their temporal dynamics. These profiles appear to reflect different temporal receptive windows, with average windows of about 1, 4 and 6 words, respectively. Neural populations exhibiting these profiles are interleaved across the language network, which suggests that all language regions have direct access to distinct, multiscale representations of linguistic input—a property that may be critical for the efficiency and robustness of language processing.

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Data availability.

Preprocessed data, all stimuli and statistical results, as well as selected additional analyses are available on OSF at https://osf.io/xfbr8/ (ref. 37 ). Raw data may be provided upon request to the corresponding authors and institutional approval of a data-sharing agreement.

Code availability

Code used to conduct analyses and generate figures from the preprocessed data is available publicly on GitHub at https://github.com/coltoncasto/ecog_clustering_PUBLIC (ref. 93 ). The VERA software suite used to perform electrode localization can also be found on GitHub at https://github.com/neurotechcenter/VERA (ref. 82 ).

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Acknowledgements

We thank the participants for agreeing to take part in our study, as well as N. Kanwisher, former and current EvLab members, especially C. Shain and A. Ivanova, and the audience at the Neurobiology of Language conference (2022, Philadelphia) for helpful discussions and comments on the analyses and manuscript. T.I.R. was supported by the Zuckerman-CHE STEM Leadership Program and by the Poitras Center for Psychiatric Disorders Research. C.C. was supported by the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University. A.L.R. was supported by NIH award U01-NS108916. J.T.W. was supported by NIH awards R01-MH120194 and P41-EB018783, and the American Epilepsy Society Research and Training Fellowship for clinicians. P.B. was supported by NIH awards R01-EB026439, U24-NS109103, U01-NS108916, U01-NS128612 and P41-EB018783, the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience, and Fondazione Neurone. E.F. was supported by NIH awards R01-DC016607, R01-DC016950 and U01-NS121471, and research funds from the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, and the Simons Center for the Social Brain. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

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These authors contributed equally: Tamar I. Regev, Colton Casto.

Authors and Affiliations

Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

Tamar I. Regev, Colton Casto, Eghbal A. Hosseini & Evelina Fedorenko

McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology (SHBT), Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA

Colton Casto & Evelina Fedorenko

Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence, Harvard University, Allston, MA, USA

Colton Casto

National Center for Adaptive Neurotechnologies, Albany, NY, USA

Markus Adamek, Jon T. Willie & Peter Brunner

Department of Neurosurgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO, USA

Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA

Anthony L. Ritaccio

Department of Neurology, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY, USA

Peter Brunner

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Contributions

T.I.R. and C.C. equally contributed to study conception and design, data analysis and interpretation of results, and manuscript writing. E.A.H. contributed to data analysis and manuscript editing; M.A. to data collection and analysis; A.L.R., J.T.W. and P.B. to data collection and manuscript editing. E.F. contributed to study conception and design, supervision, interpretation of results and manuscript writing.

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Correspondence to Tamar I. Regev , Colton Casto or Evelina Fedorenko .

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Extended data

Extended data fig. 1 dataset 1 k-medoids (k = 3) cluster assignments by participant..

Average cluster responses as in Fig. 2e grouped by participant. Shaded areas around the signal reflect a 99% confidence interval over electrodes. The number of electrodes constructing the average (n) is denoted above each signal in parenthesis. Prototypical responses for each of the three clusters were found in nearly all participants individually. However, for participants with only a few electrodes assigned to a given cluster (for example, P5 Cluster 3), the responses were more variable.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Dataset 1 k-medoids clustering with k = 10.

a) Clustering mean electrode responses (S + W + J + N) using k-medoids with k = 10 and a correlation-based distance. Shading of the data matrix reflects normalized high-gamma power (70–150 Hz). b) Electrode responses visualized on their first two principal components, colored by cluster. c) Timecourses of best representative electrodes (‘medoids’) selected by the algorithm from each of the ten clusters. d) Timecourses averaged across all electrodes in each cluster. Shaded areas around the signal reflect a 99% confidence interval over electrodes. Correlation with the k = 3 cluster averages are shown to the right of the timecourses. Many clusters exhibited high correlations with the k = 3 response profiles from Fig. 2 .

Extended Data Fig. 3 All Dataset 1 responses.

a-c) All Dataset 1 electrode responses. The timecourses (concatenated across the four conditions, ordered: sentences, word lists, Jabberwocky sentences, non-word lists) of all electrodes in Dataset 1 sorted by their correlation to the cluster medoid (medoid shown at the bottom of each cluster). Colors reflect the reliability of the measured neural signal, computed by correlating responses to odd and even trials (Fig. 1d ). The estimated temporal receptive window (TRW) using the toy model from Fig. 4 is displayed to the left, and the participant who contributed the electrode is displayed to the right. There was strong consistency in the responses from individual electrodes within a cluster (with more variability in the less reliable electrodes), and electrodes with responses that were more similar to the cluster medoid tended to be more reliable (more pink). Note that there were two reliable response profiles (relatively pink) that showed a pattern that was distinct from the three prototypical response profiles: One electrode in Cluster 2 (the 10th electrode from the top in panel B) responded only to the onset of the first word/nonword in each trial; and one electrode in Cluster 3 (the 4th electrode from the top in panel C) was highly locked to all onsets except the first word/nonword. These profiles indicate that although the prototypical clusters explain a substantial amount of the functional heterogeneity of responses in the language network, they were not the only observed responses.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Partial correlations of individual response profiles with each of the cluster medoids.

a) Pearson correlations of all response profiles with each of the cluster medoids, grouped by cluster assignment. b) Partial correlations ( Methods ) of all response profiles with each of the cluster medoids, controlling for the other two cluster medoids, grouped by cluster assignment. c) Response profiles from electrodes assigned to Cluster 1 that had a high partial correlation ( > 0.2, arbitrarily defined threshold) with the Cluster 2 medoid (and split-half reliability>0.3). Top: Average over all electrodes that met these criteria (n = 18, black). The Cluster 1 medoid is shown in red, and the Cluster 2 medoid is shown in green. Bottom: Four sample electrodes (black). d) Response profiles assigned to Cluster 2 that had a high partial correlation ( > 0.2, arbitrarily defined threshold) with the Cluster 1 medoid (and split-half reliability>0.3). Top: Average over all electrodes that meet these criteria (n = 12, black). The Cluster 1 medoid is shown in red, and the Cluster 2 medoid is shown in green. Bottom: Four sample electrodes (black; see osf.io/xfbr8/ for all mixed response profiles with split-half reliability>0.3). e) Anatomical distribution of electrodes in Dataset 1 colored by their partial correlation with a given cluster medoid (controlling for the other two medoids). Cluster-1- and Cluster-2-like responses were present throughout frontal and temporal areas (with Cluster 1 responses having a slightly higher concentration in the temporal pole and Cluster 2 responses having a slightly higher concentration in the superior temporal gyrus (STG)), whereas Cluster-3-like responses were localized to the posterior STG.

Extended Data Fig. 5 N-gram frequencies of sentences and word lists diverge with n-gram length.

N-gram frequencies were extracted from the Google n-gram online platform ( https://books.google.com/ngrams/ ), averaging across Google books corpora between the years 2010 and 2020. For each individual word, the n-gram frequency for n = 1 was the frequency of that word in the corpus; for n = 2 it was the frequency of the bigram (sequence of 2 words) ending in that word; for n = 3 it was the frequency of the trigram (sequence of 3 words) ending in that word; and so on. Sequences that were not found in the corpus were assigned a value of 0. Results are only presented until n = 4 because for n > 4 most of the string sequences, both from the Sentence and Word-list conditions, were not found in the corpora. The plot shows that the difference between the log n-gram values for the sentences and word lists in our stimulus set grows as a function of N. Error bars represent the standard error of the mean across all n-grams extracted from the stimuli used (640, 560, 480, 399 n-grams for n-gram length = 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively).

Extended Data Fig. 6 Temporal receptive window (TRW) estimates with kernels of different shapes.

The toy TRW model from Fig. 4 was applied using five different kernel shapes: cosine ( a ), ‘wide’ Gaussian (Gaussian curves with a standard deviation of σ /2 that were truncated at +/− 1 standard deviation, as used in Fig. 4 ; b ), ‘narrow’ Gaussian (Gaussian curves with a standard deviation of σ /16 that were truncated at +/− 8 standard deviations; c ), a square (that is, boxcar) function (1 for the entire window; d ) and a linear asymmetric function (linear function with a value of 0 initially and a value of 1 at the end of the window; e ). For each kernel ( a-e ), the plots represent (left to right, all details are identical to Fig. 4 in the manuscript): 1) The kernel shapes for TRW = 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 words, superimposed on the simplified stimulus train; 2) The simulated neural signals for each of those TRWs; 3) violin plots of best fitted TRW values across electrodes (each dot represents an electrode, horizontal black lines are means across the electrodes, white dots are medians, vertical thin box represents lower and upper quartiles and ‘x’ marks indicate outliers; more than 1.5 interquartile ranges above the upper quartile or less than 1.5 interquartile ranges below the lower quartile) for all electrodes (black), or electrodes from only Clusters 1 (red) 2 (green) or 3 (blue); and 4) Estimated TRW as a function of goodness of fit. Each dot is an electrode, its size represents the reliability of its neural response, computed via correlation between the mean signals when using only odd vs. only even trials, x-axis is the electrode’s best fitted TRW, y-axis is the goodness of fit, computed via correlation between the neural signal and the closest simulated signal. For all kernels the TRWs showed a decreasing trend from Cluster 1 to 3.

Extended Data Fig. 7 Dataset 1 k-medoids clustering results with only S and N conditions.

a) Search for optimal k using the ‘elbow method’. Top: variance (sum of the distances of all electrodes to their assigned cluster centre) normalized by the variance when k = 1 as a function of k (normalized variance (NV)). Bottom: change in NV as a function of k (NV(k + 1) – NV(k)). After k = 3 the change in variance became more moderate, suggesting that 3 clusters appropriately described Dataset 1 when using only the responses to sentences and non-words (as was the case when all four conditions were used). b) Clustering mean electrode responses (only S and N, importantly) using k-medoids (k = 3) with a correlation-based distance. Shading of the data matrix reflects normalized high-gamma power (70–150 Hz). c) Average timecourse by cluster. Shaded areas around the signal reflect a 99% confidence interval over electrodes (n = 99, n = 61, and n = 17 electrodes for Cluster 1, 2, and 3, respectively). Clusters 1-3 showed a strong similarity to the clusters reported in Fig. 2 . d) Mean condition responses by cluster. Error bars reflect standard error of the mean over electrodes. e) Electrode responses visualized on their first two principal components, colored by cluster. f) Anatomical distribution of clusters across all participants (n = 6). g) Robustness of clusters to electrode omission (random subsets of electrodes were removed in increments of 5). Stars reflect significant similarity with the full dataset (with a p threshold of 0.05; evaluated with a one-sided permutation test, n = 1000 permutations; Methods ). Shaded regions reflect standard error of the mean over randomly sampled subsets of electrodes. Relative to when all conditions were used, Cluster 2 was less robust to electrode omission (although still more robust than Cluster 3), suggesting that responses to word lists and Jabberwocky sentences (both not present here) are particularly important for distinguishing Cluster 2 electrodes from Cluster 1 and 3 electrodes.

Extended Data Fig. 8 Dataset 2 electrode assignment to most correlated Dataset 1 cluster under ‘winner-take-all’ (WTA) approach.

a) Assigning electrodes from Dataset 2 to the most correlated cluster from Dataset 1. Assignment was performed using the correlation with the Dataset 1 cluster average, not the cluster medoid. Shading of the data matrix reflects normalized high-gamma power (70–150 Hz). b) Average timecourse by group. Shaded areas around the signal reflect a 99% confidence interval over electrodes (n = 142, n = 95, and n = 125 electrodes for groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively). c) Mean condition responses by group. Error bars reflect standard error of the mean over electrodes (n = 142, n = 95, and n = 125 electrodes for groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively, as in b ). d) Electrode responses visualized on their first two principal components, colored by group. e) Anatomical distribution of groups across all participants (n = 16). f-g) Comparison of cluster assignment of electrodes from Dataset 2 using clustering vs. winner-take-all (WTA) approach. f) The numbers in the matrix correspond to the number of electrodes assigned to cluster y during clustering (y-axis) versus the number electrodes assigned to group x during the WTA approach (x-axis). For instance, there were 44 electrodes that were assigned to Cluster 1 during clustering but were ‘pulled out’ to Group 2 (the analog of Cluster 2) during the WTA approach. The total number of electrodes assigned to each cluster during the clustering approach are shown to the right of each row. The total number of electrodes assigned to each group during the WTA approach are shown at the top of each column. N = 362 is the total number of electrodes in Dataset 2. g) Similar to F , but here the average timecourse across all electrodes assigned to the corresponding cluster/group during both procedures is presented. Shaded areas around the signals reflect a 99% confidence interval over electrodes.

Extended Data Fig. 9 Anatomical distribution of the clusters in Dataset 2.

a) Anatomical distribution of language-responsive electrodes in Dataset 2 across all subjects in MNI space, colored by cluster. Only Clusters 1 and 3 (those from Dataset 1 that replicate to Dataset 2) are shown. b) Anatomical distribution of language-responsive electrodes in subject-specific space for eight sample participants. c-h) Violin plots of MNI coordinate values for Clusters 1 and 3 in the left and right hemisphere ( c-e and f-h , respectively), where plotted points (n = 16 participants) represent the mean of all coordinate values for a given participant and cluster. The mean across participants is plotted with a black horizontal line, and the median is shown with a white circle. Vertical thin black boxes within violins plots represent the upper and lower quartiles. Significance is evaluated with a LME model ( Methods , Supplementary Tables 3 and 4 ). The Cluster 3 posterior bias from Dataset 1 was weakly present but not statistically reliable.

Extended Data Fig. 10 Estimation of temporal receptive window (TRW) sizes for electrodes in Dataset 2.

As in Fig. 4 but for electrodes in Dataset 2. a) Best TRW fit (using the toy model from Fig. 4 ) for all electrodes, colored by cluster (when k-medoids clustering with k = 3 was applied, Fig. 6 ) and sized by the reliability of the neural signal as estimated by correlating responses to odd and even trials (Fig. 6c ). The ‘goodness of fit’, or correlation between the simulated and observed neural signal (Sentence condition only), is shown on the y-axis. b) Estimated TRW sizes across all electrodes (grey) and per cluster (red, green, and blue). Black vertical lines correspond to the mean window size and the white dots correspond to the median. ‘x’ marks indicate outliers (more than 1.5 interquartile ranges above the upper quartile or less than 1.5 interquartile ranges below the lower quartile). Significance values were calculated using a linear mixed-effects model (comparing estimate values, two-sided ANOVA for LME, Methods , see Supplementary Table 8 for exact p-values). c-d) Same as A and B , respectively, except that clusters were assigned by highest correlation with Dataset 1 clusters (Extended Data Fig. 8 ). Under this procedure, Cluster 2 reliably separated from Cluster 3 in terms of its TRW (all ps<0.001, evaluated with a LME model, Methods , see Supplementary Table 9 for exact p-values).

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Regev, T.I., Casto, C., Hosseini, E.A. et al. Neural populations in the language network differ in the size of their temporal receptive windows. Nat Hum Behav (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01944-2

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01944-2

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