Of Hedging and funky animated texts.
This week was particularly unspectacular: in the sense that we did very little in the classroom. The first day was spent of learning the snarky trick of hedging. If you read a lot of academic papers, you will have noticed lots of might, appear(s) to, and possibly’s. Perhaps you will have wondered why rigorous research sounds so tentative. But these and other similar terms, called hedging, have their use in academic writing.
So, what’s hedging?
It basically boils down to specifying the exact degree of certainty in your statements. Hedging softens the language you use, for example:
- The data in figure 1 suggests that tertiary students tend not to speak English very frequently outside class.
- 2- It is obvious that students never speak English outside class.
Notice the words in bold. The 2nd statement is too tall of a claim to make, and so you use the watered down version of the same statement as can be seen in the 1st statement.
Why Hedging is awesome and why you should do it too:
- reduces the risk of opposition
- is more precise in reporting results
- shows the writer as humble rather than arrogant or all-knowing
- shows awareness of academic writing style in English.
Words not to use: clearly, obviously, undoubtedly, definitely, without a doubt, certainly, obviously, shows that, proves, result/evidence is etc.
Instead, use: seems to, appears to, indicates, suggests, contributes, tends to, may/may not, possible, some, many/most, possible, likely, generally, often/usually
A final word of caution
Like with all good things in life, whether it be your perky pekinese or that absolutely gobble-able chocolate fondue, too much of it is bad plus, none of it lasts forever. Attached below is an example of a serial hedger’s masterpiece that ended up as a total disaster, and why you should not follow in their footsteps.
Next, I discovered a secret portal to the world of soul-stirring magic, for I saw a multimodal text that has forever raised my standards higher than any son of Burj Khalifa. Here’s the link below:
I could not stop thinking about it, periodt. It feels like my POV on life has done a full-on cartwheel, for I shall never be able to create anything again without comparing it to this. And so I went back to my room, got onto the first website-maker site I could get my hands on (Wix, duh), and explored.
And because I am not Alice, I did not end up in wonderland of course. But then, as they say, life goes on. You got to fall into a million ditches before you can fly. And so, I present to you a piece I crafted. It’s not perfect, it doesn’t shine, but oh, it’s still glorious in its own imperfect way ’cause it’s mine.
Until next week, adios.
