Entry # 11. Hedging and Boosting

 

 What is Hedging?

Crompton(1997)-“A linguistic strategy allowing the author to avoid committing to the <absolute> truth of a position < or statement or claim>."

 

Categorical Claim

 

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

 

2-Government support will assure the spread of new knowledge and the skills necessary to use internet to thousands of people.

 

3-The study proves a (possible) link between smoking and lung disease.

 

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

 

5- This and subsequent studies led to the conclusion that 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

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

 

2-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.

 

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

 

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

 

5-This ( and subsequent) studies led to the conclusion that the GTO itself may be the elusive base, and therefore to the proposal of GTP-as-base mechanism(Schweims et al. 1994).



Boosting

*Boosting is the opposite of hedging: it strengthens a statement, so that the author can represent a strong point of view.

Examples:

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

 

-Employees will always respond positively in such circumstances.

-This was an obvious impact on learning outcomes.

-This certainly has had an impact on learning outcomes.

 

 



Boosting vs. Hedges.

 

Boosting: “Clearly, these figures show a definite increase in consumer confidence, which will absolutely 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”.



 

Hedging AND boosting language


Adverbs of frequency- Adverbs and adjetives of certainty-Modal verbs- Other verbs






https://vocaroo.com/1cSQGiwnocdq


Metacognitive analysis#11.


Hedging and boosting are two important devices in academic writing for they both are linguistic strategies that make a big difference to the message we want to convey.On the one hand, hedging language- also known as cautious language- is an useful tool when we want to make a statement less direct since we often cannot make an absolute claim from the information or data we are handling. Not only does it allow us to soften the message of our writing pieces, but also to demonstrate politeness for other points of view. On the other hand, boosting is a feature used to assert ideas with a strong emphasis.Thus, we can use boosting to show a strong point of view and to persuade the reader of our perspectives, ideas and feelings.


Both hedging and boosting are important components of academic style, so we should implement them to enrich our writing productions. 


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