Reasons for using hedging devices

Hedging, sometimes known as vague or cautious language, is an important feature of academic writing.

Whether you are writing up the results or implications of research, or simply expressing an opinion, it is important not to be too dogmatic. In general, unless you have extremely strong evidence, you should avoid strong claims. And, as a reader, you should be very suspicious of strong claims. If you read “these results prove that …” or “this enquiry has established that …” you should be very wary. Look at the evidence. Ask yourself if there are any other reports of a similar nature. Is is published by a reputable source? Are there any reputable studies which contradict this claim?

An important feature of academic enquiry is the willingness to change an opinion or a theory when new evidence come to light. So when we state something in writing we know that there is a possibility that we may be mistaken, or that evidence for our beliefs is not particularly strong, or that we may have misinterpreted the results of a survey or an experiment.

But there is another reason for using cautious language in your writing (and indeed in your speech). If you want others to accept, or even consider your ideas, you need to present them carefully. Even small children quickly learn that to get what they want they need to moderate their language (and most become quite adept at this).

For these reasons academics use cautious language when they offer claims, opinions, predictions or interpretations of evidence. They do this in various ways and the use of hedging devices is one of the most important.

These are the main language features used in hedging

1. Lexical verbs (suggest, appear, seem, indicate, imply, tend …);

Lexical verbs consitute the largest group of verbs and only a few of these are used in hedging - those which indicate room for doubt or uncertainty (suggest, appear, seem, doubt, think, believe, indicate, imply, tend …). These verbs are normally followed by a complement clause:
This suggestslexical verb that relying on digital devices to remember information is impairing our own memory systemscomplement clause (Noreen 2015).

2. Modal verbs (could, might, may, would ..);

These (could, might, may, would) are modal verbs which are used in an extrinsic (or epistemic) sense - in this case the sense of doubt, possibility or likelihood.
Historical films maymodal verb expressing possibility (not certainty) be decaying much faster than we thought thanks to ‘vinegar syndrome’ (Ahmad 2020).

3. Adverbs (possibly, perhaps, probably, maybe, apparently, plausibly, ..);

Adverbs (possibly, perhaps, probably, maybe, apparently, plausibly, ..) are normally used within a sentence, and adverbials (Quite possibly, In most cases, Typically, Most likely ..) normally introduce a sentence:
Your memory probablyadverb isn’t as good as you think it is (Nash 2018).

4. Adjectives (probable, likely, certain, …);

Adjectives (probable, likely, certain, …) may qualify a noun (a slight chance), or introduce a complement clause as in the example below (an extraposed complement clause):
So it is possibleadjective that the lack of technology made The Beatles better songwritersadjectiveextraposed complement clause (Noreen 2015).

5. Modal (stance) nouns (possibility, estimate, assumption…);

Modal nouns (possibility, estimate, assumption…) may be followed by a that-complement clause, a to-complement clause, or of + an ing-complement clause.
This doesn’t prove life started in the vents, but it does renew the possibilityadjectivemodal (stance) noun that it didadjectivethat-complement clause (Jordan 2019).

6. Adjectives and adverbs of approximation (more or less, approximately, roughly, around, somewhat, quite, essentially …);

Adjectives and adverbs of approximation are mainly used with numbers.
Loneliness affects  approximatelyadjectiveadverb of approximation 9% of people over 65 in the UK (Carrino and Pabon 2019).

7. Expressions of personal conviction or doubt (We believe, As far as we are aware, think, believe ….);

Expressions of personal conviction or doubt are stance adverbials.
We  believeverb expressing the stance of personal conviction that dreams act in a similar way – as a piece of fiction (Lockheart and Blagrove 2020).

8. Explanatory phrases or sentences posing limits on how information should be interpreted;

Of course, I must emphasise that these studies arecopular verb far from conclusive(obligatory) adverbial posing a limit on interpretation (Whitehouse 2012).

9. Combinations of 2 or more of the above.

So while current studies suggestlexical verb expressing tentativeness it is possibleadjective that tai chi offers health benefitsthat-complement clause, more evidence is neededexpression posing limit on how information should be interpreted to truly say if this is the case (Nyman 2020).
But before we mourn this apparentadjective (suggesting that 'loss of memory' may not be real or permanent) loss of memory, more recent studies suggestlexical verb expressing tentativeness that we maymodal verb expressing possibility (not certainty) be adapting (Noreen 2015).

All the examples above and those on the following pages were taken from authentic texts. You can see the original texts by consulting the bibliography on the credits page.

Now go to the next page to see how various examples of hedging devices are used in a longer piece of text.

Or go to the exercise page to practice using hedging devices.