Qualifications and strength of claim

Highlighting statements need good judgement. They also need good presentation of judgement. Thus , they have two requirements. One is the need to be cautious about the claims. As Skelton (1988) neatly observed, "It is important for students to learn to be confidently uncertain." The other requirement is to have the linguistic resources to express this caution. In this section, we deal with ways of qualifying or moderating a claim.

Probability

There are many ways of expressing probability in written academic English. One simple way is to use a modal auxiliary. Notice how the claim progressively weakens in these three sentences.

Sleeping 7-9 hours each day will result in better academic performance.
Sleeping 7-9 hours each day may result ...
Sleeping 7-9 hours each day might / could result ...

In these further examples, the phrases weaken in strenght.

It is certain that sleeping 7-9 hours each day will result ... (strongest)
It is almost certain that sleeping 7-9 hours each day will result ...
It is very probable / highly likely that sleeping 7-9 hours each day will result ...
It is probable / likely that sleeping 7-9 hours each day will result ...
It is possible that sleeping 7-9 hours each day will result ...
It is unlikely that sleeping 7-9 hours each day will result ...
It is very / highly unlikely that sleeping 7-9 hours each day will result ... (weakest)

There is a definite possibility that sleeping 7-9 hours each day will result ... (strongest)
There is a strong possibility that sleeping 7-9 hours each day will result ...
There is a good possibility that sleeping 7-9 hours each day will result ...
There is a slight possibility that sleeping 7-9 hours each day will result ...
There is little possibility that sleeping 7-9 hours each day will result .... (weakest)

Distance

Distance is another way of removing yourself from a strong -and possibly unjustified- claim. Compare the following sentences, the first of which -the original- is perhaps too bold a statement to be left unmodified.

The factory has benefited from the recent technology upgrade.
The factory seems to have benefited from the recent technology upgrade.
The factory appears to have benefited from the recent technology upgrade.
It seems that the factory has benefited from the recent technology upgrade.
It has been said that the factory seems to have benefited from the recent technology upgrade.

It is suggested that the analytic procedures illustrated in this paper be applied to more widely-used oral testing instruments in order to evaluate their utility in eliciting conversational interaction.
(compare the more direct and personal: I suggest that ...)

Such impersonal it-constructions may also be used simply to hedge a proposition by attributing it to other, unnamed experts, thus distancing the claim.

It is claimed, or tacitly assumed, in narrative studies that temporality should be explored in narrative texts where it functions as a dominant principle of organization.

A range of impersonal it-expressions are common in academic texts to attribute propositions to unnamed people. These include the following.

it is (widely) accepted	it is believed	it is/has been said
it is generally agreed	it is/has been claimed	it is/has been suggested

It is generally agreed that on of the most influential reports published during the war was the Beveridge Report, published in 1942, which mapped out the future welfare state.

Literature, it is claimed, seeks to recapture and reconstruct tradition.

The use of a raised subject as an alternative to anticipatory it, similarly, enables the writer/speaker to make a less direct commitment to a proposition. Common passive expressions of this type include the following.

be believed to	be found to	be shown to
be claimed to	be said to	be thought to
be considered to	be seen to

The value placed on children is believed to have changed from pre-industrial societies to the present time.

Operating practices are said to have been a major obstacle to improvement.

An alternative strategy is to distance yourself from the data by showing in some way that it is "soft." Here are a few examples.

Based on the limited data available, different employees react to the same situations differently.
In the view of some experts, different employees ...
According to this preliminary study, different employees ...
Based on an informal survey of nine department managers, different employees ...

Generalization

One classic verb for qualifying (or defending) a generalization is the verb tend.

Children living in poverty have a history of health problems.
Children living in poverty tend to have a history of health problems.

Another way of defending a generalization is to qualify the subject.

Many children living in poverty have a history of health problems.
A majority of children living in poverty have ...
In most parts of the world, children living in poverty have ...

A third alternative is to add exceptions.

With the exception of a small number of countries such as Japan and Sweden, student loan schemes are almost exclusively reserved for higher education.
Apart from a small number of countries such as Japan and Sweden, student loan schemes ...
Except for a small number of countries such as Japan and Sweden, student loan schemes ...

Weaker Verbs

Finally, claims can be reduced in strenght by choosing a weaker verb. Compare the following.

Unsound policies of the IMF led to the financial crisis. (stronger)
Unsound policies of the IMF contributed to the financial crisis. (weaker)

Combined qualifications

Often, of course, several types of qualification are combined in order to construct a defensible highlighting statement. Here is an example, starting with a big claim.

The use of seat belts prevents physical injuries in car accidents

Now see what happens when the following qualifications are added.

• prevents > reduces (weaker verb)
• reduces > may reduce (adding probability)
• + in some circumstances (weakening the generalization)
• + certain types of injury (weakening the generalization)
• + according to simulation studies (adding distance)

So, we now have:

According to simulation studies, in some circumstances the use of seatbelts may reduce certain types of physical injuries in car accidents.

This sentence is a nice example of the writer being "confidently uncertain." Do not overdo this, though. Excessive qualification may result in your saying almost nothing, as in the following example from a journal in anthropology.

It could be concluded that some evidence seems to suggest that at least certain villagers might not have traded their pottery with others outside the community.