Hedging as a Grammatical Form

To help build your knowledge of hedging language look at the table below with examples already given. Now look at the words immediately below and decide which category they should go into. Drag and drop the words where you think they belong and then check your answers.

The following are also adverbs: unlikely, likely, approximately, occasionally, and often.

---

Compound Hedges

In academic writing compound hedges or “strings of hedges” are also commonly used. For example:
This may suggest that …
It would seem quite likely that …

The first example contains two hedging devices - ‘may’ and ‘suggest’.
The second example contains four hedging devices – ‘would’, ‘seem, ‘quite’ and ‘likely’.

Decide how many hedging devices are used in the following phrases and click on the number in the drop-down menu. Compound hedges may seriously weaken the strength of your claims, so be careful not to overuse them in your writing.

---

Error Correction

Most of the sentences below contain just one error. Proofread the sentences, try to spot the error in each case and write the correction to that part of the sentence in the box underneath.

Now go on to Part Three – Practise Hedging in your Writing – where you will have the opportunity to put everything you have learned about hedging into practice.

---