reading response

Your choice of words can show a reader what you think about the ideas you are presenting. One essential feature of American academic writing is hedging. When writers hedge, they are expressing their level of certainty towards the idea they are presenting. Here’s an example:

Original Sentence: Eating organically grown food will improve your health.

Sentence with a hedge: Eating organically grown food may improve your health.

Hedging in formal academic writing is one way for the writer to establish their academic integrity. It helps the writer show that they are careful not to exaggerate the ideas that they present. In the example above, the use of the modal “may” allows the writer to avoid an overstatement that eating organically grown food will always improve health.

The frequent use of hedging in academic writing may seem unusual for writers who come from cultures with different expectations, but in the American university setting, it is an important skill to learn.

Hedging also does something extremely important when writers are involved in academic discussion: It allows for the possibility that there are other points of view that are, at the very least, partially valid. In academic argument, the objective is not to prove yourself right and the other guy as wrong; rather, it is to get the other guy to see your point of view as reasonable. If your own writing doesn’t do the same, then nobody wins, ideas don’t get developed, and nothing is accomplished of any value.

There are two, basic strategies for hedging in academic writing:

Modals and possibility phrases to reduce the strength of a claim

Adverbials and quantifiers to reduce the scope of a claim

Modals and Phrases that Temper the Strength of a Claim

The modals “may,” “can,” and “could” are frequently used to hedge an idea.

Examples:

This information is important to public health officials because a better understanding of gender differences in eating habits can help them create more targeted strategies for prevention.

There is growing evidence that the long-term consumption of the typical high-sugar, high-calorie American diet may lead to a variety of health problems.

The use of “will” expresses a level of certainty that is usually too strong for academic writing. “May,” “can,” and “could” are more appropriate. Notice the difference in tone if “will” is substituted for the modals “can” and “may” in the above sentences.

Phrases such as “it is likely that” and “it is possible that” are also useful tools for hedging.

Example:

It is possible that changing eating habits can improve study skills.

Adverbials and Quantifiers to Reduce the Scope of a Claim

Adverbials such as “usually,” “generally,” “in general,” “at times,” and “almost always” can help the writer show that she is not claiming that her idea is true in all situations.

Example:

Programs intended to improve nutrition often fall short of expectations. In general men are more likely to report eating meat and poultry items and women are more likely to report eating fruits and vegetables.

It is important to avoid writing statements that exaggerate who or what is included in an idea. For example, a writer would not want to claim that “All students dislike homework.” Quantifiers such as “many,” “some,” “a number of,” and “most” can help the writer present a claim without overstating it.

Examples:

Many programs and campaigns to change eating habits, such as the “Five Fruits and Vegetables a Day,” have met with costly, disappointing, short-term results.

For some men, pressure to conform to magazine images of men can lead to unhealthy and potentially dangerous behaviors to try to reach that ideal.

In an online discussion forum, hedging is also a very useful way to avoid conflict caused by misunderstanding. Without the nonverbal cues we use in face-to-face communication, we need a way to signal disagreement with someone’s ideas without sounding combative. Consider the following simple statements:

No hedge: I don’t agree with you, Jamile. You didn’t consider the whole article in your response.

Hedge: I see your reasoning, Jamile. I wonder, though, what do you make of the last point in the article? I am not sure that your first point fully considers that idea.

In essence, the two statements convey the same idea, but the second is less likely to cause Jamile to become overly defensive. The phrase “I am not sure that” allows the writer to state her point of view while allowing that there is something reasonable, if not fully considered, about Jamile’s position. As you develop your written response skills if the DF, apply the concept of hedging when responding to ideas that contradict or differ from your own. Here, hedging serves to keep the discussion going, rather silencing someone because they feel attacked or angered by the "unhedged" comment.

(adapted from Sourcework copyright @Heinle, a part of Cengage Learning, all rights reservedHeinle & Heinle, web)