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Hedging language can make a big difference to the way you express your ideas and opinions in academic writing.
What are hedging words examples?
The language of hedging includes:
See the full list below.
In this lesson you’ll learn the purpose and benefits of hedging, plus 9 examples that you can use NOW to make your writing sound more academic in Writing Task 2.
Compare the two statements below. Which one is more appropriate for academic writing?
‘Young people prefer to eat fast food.’
‘It is often thought that many young people tend to eat food which may be considered to be unhealthy. Although some youngsters might go to fast food outlets quite regularly when compared to older age groups, evidence suggests that in general this assumption is largely untrue’.
You’re right! Sentence 2 is much better (though it is a little too long – I tried to include as many examples of hedging as possible, as you will see below).
In academic writing it is REALLY important to show the difference between
A simple way to do this is to say ‘In my opinion’ or ‘I believe/think that…’
e.g. ‘I believe that young people prefer to eat fast food’.
But you can’t do this for every sentence.
So if you’re not 100% sure that your claims are correct (you have no evidence to support your claims*) you need to ‘hedge’.
[*claim (noun) = a statement that something is true, even though it has not been proved]
Hedging (or ‘being cautious’) has many benefits:
Look again at the long sentence I wrote (Sentence 2 above).
How many examples of hedging can you identify?
‘[It is often thought that] [many] young people [tend to] eat food [which may be considered to be] unhealthy. [Although] [some] youngsters [might] go to fast food outlets [quite] [regularly] [when compared to older age groups], [evidence suggests] that [in general] this [assumption] is [largely] untrue’.
You can see that if you take out the hedging [in brackets] you are left with a statement that may be untrue, inaccurate or just too general.
Types of hedging language
Here are some options for you to use in your own writing:
‘It’ and ‘That’ clauses
Adverbs of frequency
Quantifiers
‘Hedging’ verbs
Modals
Modal language
Modal Adverbs
Passives
Modifiers
Comparison
Evidence
Task 1: Can you spot the hedging in these sentences? (Try this on your desktop if you can’t see this activity on your phone)
Task 2: Take this generalisation and ‘hedge’ it e.g.
‘Men prefer science subjects whereas women choose arts subjects’.
There are many ways of re-writing this to make it sound more academic e.g.
Warning: Don’t ‘over-hedge’
If you are new to hedging, there is a danger that you might hedge too much and use too many ‘redundant’ words (words that you don’t need to say).
Here are some examples that I wrote when I was trying to create the ‘hedging sentence’ that I posted at the start of this blog.
Topic: The danger of video games
Too simplistic:
‘Video games make people violent’.
Too much hedging:
‘It is often thought by some people that perhaps many youngsters might possibly prefer to spend a large proportion of their time playing video games that might be considered as arguably having the potential to be dangerous in certain circumstances.’
Appropriate level of hedging:
Topic: British food
Too simplistic:
‘British food is awful.’
Too much hedging:
‘It is likely that some aspects of British cuisine might arguably be considered to be somewhat bland when compared to other cuisines which tend to favour using a wider variety of flavourings which have the potential to produce food which can safely be labelled as ‘tasty’.
Appropriate level of hedging
‘British food is often considered to be somewhat lacking in variety when compared to the cuisines of other countries’.
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Learn more about hedging:
EAPFoundation: Hedging and Cautious Language
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Impressive ideas. Thanks for this exceptional article. I will practice this from now on.
Stay Blessed and Keep it up. 😀
Thanks Umair – same to you.
Best wishes
Fiona
I mean definition of hedging in academic writing
Hi Chibuzor. The definition is explained in the article above.
Best wishes
Fiona
Hi Chibuzor. The definition is explained in the article above.
Best wishes
Fiona
I am confused that if the hedging words will make our article less persuasive and make my stance less steady?
Thanks.
Hi Eitan and thanks for your message.
I understand why you might think this, but I hope you can see from the examples in the article, that hedging simply allows you to be more cautious with making claims that may be opinion or may not have any evidence to support them.
Best wishes
Fiona
Hi Eitan and thanks for your message.
I understand why you might think this, but I hope you can see from the examples in the article, that hedging simply allows you to be more cautious with making claims that may be opinion or may not have any evidence to support them.
Best wishes
Fiona
Hey Fiona,
I am confused about a sentence given in this website. It would be great if you could just help me out with it.
Video games make (makes)people violent
Just wanted to confirm which one is the right.
Hi Alphonsa! Thank you so much – it was a typo! Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you find any typos. Sometimes I just don’t see them. All the best with your studies!
Best wishes and thanks again,
Fiona
Hello Alphonso right sentence is video games make people violent(Because here you use plural form and with plural form( video games) so plural verb should be in sentence). If I am wrong then please clarify
Hi Alphonsa
Yes, ‘video games’ is plural so I use the plural form ‘video games make people violent’,
Best wishes
Fiona
Hi Alphonsa
Yes, ‘video games’ is plural so I use the plural form ‘video games make people violent’,
Best wishes
Fiona