Re: using "I consider that" instead of "I think that" in TOEFL essays
... For example, is it correct to write "I consider that more and more people should study English in my country for three main reasons." instead of "I believe / think that more and more people should study English in my country for three main reasons."?
...
Well you'd be understood, but I
wish you wouldn't do it. ;-)
Considering is giving something careful thought, weighing the pro's and cons, that sort of thing. If you have done that, it would be better to say something like 'It's my considered opinion that...' or 'After careful consideration, I've decided that...'.
b
PS Having written that, I thought I'd search for 'considered +
<noun>' collocations at BNC. Of the 514 cases - most of which (more than 400) represent a single occurence of the noun in question - only these eight make it into double figures:
1 CONSIDERED PART 22
2 CONSIDERED OPINION 20
3 CONSIDERED RESPONSE 18
4 CONSIDERED VIEW 17
5 CONSIDERED WORTHY 17
6 CONSIDERED -- 16
7 CONSIDERED JUDGEMENTS 10
8 CONSIDERED SAFE 10é
We can ignore no. 6 as a problem with the search, and 1, 5, and 8 use 'considered' in the sense 'thought to be'. So we can say only
four of the relevant ones make it into double figures, and 'considered opinion' is the commonest.
PPS
After posting
this I realized that if you started to say 'It is my considered ...', only 3 of those options would be possible, and by far the most common is
1 IT IS MY CONSIDERED OPINION 3
I rest my case, which is that - in this case - 'considered opinion' is a safe (if not
clichéd) bet.