Topic 8: Academic Style II

Hedging

Important feature of academic writing due to its concept of cautious language, based on the vagueness of the statement. In other words, it is necessary to make decisions about your stance on a particular subject

Introductory verbs: seem, tend, look like, appear to be, think, believe, doubt, be sure, indicate, assume, suggest etc.

Modal verbs: will, would, may, might, could

Adverbs of frequency, modal adjectives, adverbs or nouns (certainly, probably, perhaps; probable, possible, conceivable; assumption, possibility, probability)

Compare the following statements and find the hedging expressions

A. The lives they chose may seem overly ascetic to most women today.

The lives they chose seem overly ascetic to most women today.

B. Weismann suggested that animals become old because, if they did not, there could be no successive replacement of individuals and hence no evolution.

Weismann proved that animals become old because, if they did not, there could be no successive replacement of individuals and hence no evolution.

C. Recent work on the religious demography of Northern Ireland shows a separating out of protestant and catholic, with the catholic populations drifting westwards and vice versa.

Recent work on the religious demography of Northern Ireland indicates a separating out of protestant and catholic, with the catholic populations drifting westwards and vice versa.

Deadline: April 20, 2022

Do you know how to express different levels of certainty about the facts or opinions you want to present in your text?

Look at the difference.

Girls are better at learning languages than boys. = The author is 100 % sure.

x

There is some evidence to prove that girls may be better at learning languages than boys.

It can be argued that girls are better at learning languages than boys.

We can presume that all humans have the ability to learn a second language. = believe something to be true because it seems very likely

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Write five facts or opinions related to your field of study using chosen words from the list below.

• There is a tendency
• Of course it is
• There is every likelihood that
• Is/are considered
• Undoubtedly
• There is some evidence that
• We can presume that
• It would seem/appear that
• It may well
• The perception of
• It can be argued that
• It may not be the case that

Scan five pages of an academic article in English related to your field of study and create a personal set of vocabulary items you would like to use. Define them and try to use them in a phrase.

It should be between 8 - 10 words.

You can use http://www.jstor.org/ to search for free articles. This service is pre-paid for you by Charles University. Therefore you should log in through the institution.