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PORTFOLIO 14: HEDGING and BOOSTING.

VIDEO 1: THE IMPORTANCE OF HEDGING

Definitions for the concept of hedging:

Lakoff(1972) "words whose job it is to make things more or less fuzzy"

Hyland(1995) "Hedging is the expression of tentativeness and possibility in language use" and that, "It represents an absence of certainty and is used to describe any linguistic item or strategy employed to indicate either a lack of commitment to the truth value of an accompanying proposition or a desire not to express that commitment categorically".

1. Hedging example 1

Categorical Claim

The issues highlighted in this study are applicable to all participating institutions.

"Hedged" Claim

The issues highlighted in this study may be applicable to many participating institutions.

Crompton (1997) "... a linguistic strategy allowing the author to avoid commiting to the [absolute] truth of a proposition [or statement or claim].

2. Hedging example 2

Categorical Claim

Government support will assure the spread of new knowledge and the skills necessary to use the internet to thousands of people in rural areas.

"Hedged" Claim

Government support may help with the spread of new knowledge and the skills necessary to use the internet to thousands of people in rural areas.

As in the first example, the hedged sentence allows the writer to put some distance between himself and the absoluteness of the claim. We can see that hedging strategies are writing techniques that allow a writer researcher the flexibility to make a claim without making it an absolute or categorical one.

Academic writing is the language we use to convey answers to research questions. We answer these questions by creating arguments. These arguments are based on claims made by an individual which are then supported with evidence. Hedging is a helpful part of this process because often times writer researchers develop good answers to research questions but feel they are not the best only or most complete answer. They are also prepared for other writer researchers to raise objections or point out problems with their answers or research. Hedging allows writer researchers to anticipate and address possible opposition to his or her claims while still contributing something new due to the ongoing dialogue in a research field.Academic writing is a balance of facts and evaluation. The writer researcher tries to take the data and facts they've uncovered as fully accurately and objectively as possible while also showing how they themselves interpret this information. Hedging is important to:

Submit new arguments/claims(into an ongoing dialogue) while ackowledging that there might be other,equally valid (or, perhaps, better/more efective) points of view.
Make a new contribution to their field in a productive and cooperative way.
Have the flexibility to avoid making absolute/categorical statements which claim that the writer/researcher has found the perfect and only answer, hedging allows the writer/researcher to offer something new while leaving room for other voices and perspectives.
Participate in ongoing conversations in fields where new evidence is gnerated all the time and it is almost impossible to stay completely up-to-date on the current state of affairs.

Skelton (1998) "It is by measof the hedging system of a language that a user distinguishes between what s/he says and what s/he thinks about what s/he says. Without hedging, the world is purely propositional, a rigid(and rather dull) place where things either are the case or are not.

With a hedging system, language is rendered more flexible and the world more subtle".

Hedging gives writer/researchers the flexibility to avoid always having to use black or white language and to access to a whole palette of different shades of grey. Hedging encourages and allows writer/researchers to be what Skelton calls "Confident Uncertainty"

Confident Uncertainty - this means we need to accurately state how precise we can be when doing something and to feel okey with being imprecise(especially when absolute precision is very difficult(if not) impossible to achieve.

Three basic hedging strategies that you can use in your own academic writing

Using lexical verbs: These are any kind of verb other than auxiliary verbs, some lexical verbs used for hedging include INDICATE, SUGGEST,PROPOSE,APPEAR,ASSUME, ESTIMATE, ARGUE, TEND TO, SEEM AND DOUBT.

3.Hedging example 3

Categorical Claim

The study proves the link between smoking and lung disease.

- "Hedged" Claim
The study indicates/suggests a (possible) link between smoking and lung disease.

Using adverbial constructions: These are often used to promote hedged claims as well, some of the most common adverbs used include OFTEN, QUITE, ALMOST, USUALLY, OCCASIONALY, PROBABLY, SOMETIMES, NORMALLY, GENERALLY,POSSIBLY, MAYBE, PERHAPS, LIKELY, CLEARLY AND GENERALLY SPEAKING.

4.Hedging example 4
-Categorical Claim

The number of unemployed people will continue to raise as the poor economic situation persists.

- "Hedged" Claim
The number of unemployed people will probably continue to raise as the poor economic situation persist.

Using modal verbs: This is a very coomon technique for hedging claims. Modal verbs include the auxiliary verbs MUST, MIGHT, WILL, WOULD, SHOULD, MAY, CAN AND COULD. Modal verbs precede another verb and do not have subject verb agreement or take the infitive to before the next verb. They can change the perspective of a sentence making request more polite or indicating a stronger logical possibility of a claim. Modals are most often used to express the logical probability of a claim in this role modals can be ranked according to strenght.The modal verb "must" imply a stronger logical relationsip than a claim using the modal verb "might".

5. Hedging example 5
Categorical Claim

This(and subsequent) studies led to the conclusion that the GTP itself must be the elusive base, and therefore to the proposal of the GTP-as-base mechanism (Schweins et al.1994,1995).

"Hedged" Claim
This (and subsequent) studies led to the conclusion that the GTP itself may be the elusive base, and therefore to the proposal of the GTP-as-base mechanism (Schweins et al.1994,1995)

Conclusion:
In academic writing authors often have to be very cautious about the way they present their hypotheses results and conclusionsto indicate less than 100 percent certainty they hedge which means to avoid a categorical or absolute statement. Writers/researchers use hedging techniques for two reasons:

To tone down their statement in order to reduce the threat of opposition from other researchers.
To avoid overstating their results as they are aware that theirs may not be the final word of the issue.

HEDGING AND BOOSTING

Hedging language is useful in academic writing as it is often not possible to make a 100% or absolute claim from the information or data that we have.

Hedging: Hedging language is used when we want to soften what we are saying to avoid making too strong a claim.e.g.

General statement / Categorical Claim

Students arrive lare for Monday morning classes.

Qualified claim / "Hedged" Claim
Students tend to arrive late for Monday morning classes.

In the first sentence we are making a general statement which means that all students always arrive late for monday morning classes, in most cases this is likely to be an overgeneralization and it would be easy to show that this was not always true. In the second sentence, we have "tend to" which limit or qualified our claim.

Boosting: It strengthens a statement so that the author can present a strong point of view. e.g.

Clearly these sales figures show a definite increase on consumer confidence which will undoubtedly have an impact on our share price.

Boosting words are: clearly, definite and undoubtedly. These words are used to show a strong point of view and to persuade the reader to the author's point.
Boosting strategies:

Using adverbs of frequency like ALWAYS or NEVER.e.g.

Employees will always respond positively in such circumstances.

Using adverbs and adjectives of certainty such as CERTAIN, CERTAINLY. OBVIOUS, OBVIUOSLY, DEFINITE, DEFINITELY, CONCLUSIVE, CONCLUSIVELY, EVIDENT, EVIDENTLY.

Certainly, this has had an impact on learning outcomes.

This certainly has had an impact on learning outcomes.

This has an obvious impact on learning outcomes.

This obviously has an impact on learning outcomes.

Modal verbs such as WILL, SHOULD.e.g.

This WILL have a impact on future research in the field.

Other verbs like SHOW, PROVE AND EVIDENCE.e.g.

These figures prove that there has been strong growth as a result of policy change.

Example of a Boosting and Hedging sentence:

BOOSTING:

Clearly, these sales figures show a definite increase in consumer confidence which will undoubtedly have an impact on our share prices.

HEDGING:

These sales figures suggest a possible increase in consumer confidence, which may have an impact on our share prices.

We can see that hedging and boosting language makes a big difference to the message. It is important to know how to hedge and how to boost and we must be aware of the cultural differences.Hedging is more common in English than boosting. Boosting and hedging also differ by subject. Research has shown that hedging is more common in the arts and the social sciences than in the hard sciences.

HEDGING AND BOOSTING: Vocaroo Voice Message

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