Academic Writing: Hedging and responsibility

In an academic writing it is necessary to have a position in a specific topic. Hedging means a particular position about a topic, opinion, research, etc. The writer through hedging communicates his or her point of view. Also there are different levels of hedging there are words that shows certainty, for example this must, it is important to develop, will. On the other hand there are words that show a soft hedging for example seems, look like, may, appear to be, etc. A clear example of expressing hedging in a soft way is: It may be said, may seen
Finally we think hedging allows the writer to make a particular decision about information. In addition academic writing needs hedging because the reader must know the writer’s stance.
Another important feature in an academic writing is responsibility this means the writer is the responsible of his or her opinions. Also the writer’s opinions must have evidence, so the arguments have to be coherent in according to his or her research.

By Maria Jose Acevedo and Sebastian Aranis.