Which academic hedging language is most useful?

This final chapter on hedging language deals with the different types of hedging language which are available to an academic. By studying Chapters 1 and 2, you should have already learned about what hedging is, why it’s important, and what different types exist. The last step to using such language in your own writing is to study and understand examples of the most common academic hedging language -which we’ve split across nine different types. After studying the language we’ve provided below, you may then wish to unlock our beginner-, intermediate-, and advanced-level worksheets to check your understanding of this topic.

1. Lexical Verbs

Appear = “This evidence appears to show three things.”

Indicate = “What this indicates is that students are more likely than teachers.”

Seem = “These results seem to point to only one answer.”

Tend = “Students therefore tend to rely on this technology more.”

2. Modal Verbs

Can/Could = “These findings could be used as empirical evidence for the theory.”

May/Might = “This may indicate that students are better than previously thought.”

3. Reporting Verbs

Assume = “Smith (2010) assumes that the findings are inaccurate.”

Argue = “Jones (2016) argues that students are more likely than teachers.”

Believe = “Lee and Lee (2009) believe that more research needs to be done.”

Claim = “Teller (2002) claims that air pollution is more damaging than presumed.”

Doubt = “Lee (2002) doubts whether the results are conclusive.”

Suggest = “Atkinson (2016) suggests that more investigation is needed.”

4. Adverbs of Frequency

Occasionally = “This suggests that students occasionally act in this way.”

Often = “The research often shows evidence for this fact.”

Seldom = “This is seldom the case for second-year students.”

Sometimes = “The effects of air pollution may sometimes be avoided.”

Usually = “Teenagers are usually more aggressive.”

5. Adverbs of Probability

Apparently = “What this research apparently shows is that…”

Certainly/Definitely = “Preliminary-year students are definitely more likely.”

Perhaps = “Perhaps there are multiple reasons for this.”

Possibly/Probably = “Students are therefore probably more alike than teachers.”

6. Adjectives of Probability

Likely/Unlikely = “This is likely true for Poland also.”

Possible/Probable = “One possible answer is that the results were distorted.”

7. Adjectives of Quantity

Many/Much = “Many of these problems come from the study’s methodology.”

One/Two = “This could be one factor to explain why.”

Some = “What this shows is that some students may be susceptible.”

8. Modal Nouns

Assumption = “One assumption is that the blame falls on the government.”

Possibility/Probability= “The probability that this is true is quite high.”

9. ‘It’ Phrases

“It appears that more research is needed.”

“It can be argued that students are in fact more likely.”

“It can be assumed that this would be the case for teachers too.”

“It could be the case that these results were skewed by student habits.”

“It is probable that these results indicate more than one factor.”

“It might be suggested that students are more likely; however, this is not true.”