English for Academic Purposes 120017 UE WS 08

Signalling Position in Academic Writing

1. Expressing degrees of certainty

It is important when you are writing to show how sure you are about something. In other
words, you need to show the degree of certainty.

Look at the following examples:

It is not known, and will probably never be known, when he began writing poetry.
The answer almost certainly lay in the sack of papers that Susan Owen, on her
son's strict instructions, burnt at his death.

Less finished, but more intimate, is a passage from a fragmentary "Ballad of a Morose
Afternoon", written most probably some time after he had left Dunsden.

There were, broadly, two interrelated reasons for this, the first relating to Britain's
economic and Imperial difficulties, the second to the internal dissension in all three
parties, a symptom perhaps of the need for a realignment of political parties.

The highlighted expressions signal how sure the authors is about what they are saying.
When authors want to signal that they are not 100% sure, we call this hedging.

Certainty markers

Degree of certainty Verbs Adjectives/adverbs

certain(ly)
is (not)
definite(ly)
complete will (not)
clear(ly)
must (not)
undoubtedly
can/cannot probably (is)
strong
should (not) presumably

partial could (not) likely/unlikely

may (not) possibly (not)

less strong
might (not) perhaps (not)
It is said that ...
impersonal (i.e. It appears that ...
avoiding commitment) A reports that ...
There is evidence to suggest that. (etc.)

Task

Look at a piece of academic writing you or a partner have written recently. What certainty
markers have you included? Do you feel you have expressed your degree of certainty
appropriately?
English for Academic Purposes 120017 UE WS 08

2. Taking a Stance
Read the following sentence:

Previous studies have indicated that the intensity of physiotherapy provision may
affect some patient outcomes including reduced mortality following stroke.

In academic writing, it is often necessary to make it clear to your reader what opinion you
hold or what your position is with regard to a certain issue. This is often called your "voice"
or your "position" or your "claim". How certain you are about what you are saying (see
section 1, above) is one aspect of your position, but it is not the only aspect.

As a student, it is not enough to simply describe a situation or recall the facts, you need to
take a stance or position yourself in relation to the situation or the facts. This is particularly
important in assessment when you have to answer a question. Of course, you need to
know and reproduce the information, but you also need to use the information to give an
answer to the question, to give YOUR answer to the question.

In the sentence above, the words "indicate", "may" and "some" show the writers position
towards the facts. Instead of "indicated", the words "shown", proved" or "suggested" could
have been used. The word "may" might have been replaced by "could", "will" or nothing.
"Some" was chosen, where "many", "few" or "most" were also possible.

Here are some other words that you can use to show your position.Find additional
examples in each category (starting by assigning the words in the previous paragraph to
their appropriate categories):

Exercise 1

Category Example Other examples

1 Introductory verbs seem

2 Thinking verbs believe

3 Reporting verbs claim

3 Evaluative adjectives important

4 Evaluative adverbs accurately

5 Adverbs of frequency often

6 Modal verbs will

7 Modal adverbs certainly

8 Modal adjectives certain

9 Modal nouns assumption

10 Signalling words furthermore

English for Academic Purposes 120017 UE WS 08

Exercise 2

Read the following example from the field of Physiotherapy and identify words that show
the author's position:

Patellofemoral disorders are amongst the most common clinical conditions

encountered in the sporting and general population. Patellofemoral pain is usually
described as diffuse, peripatellar, anterior knee pain. Symptoms are typically
aggravated by activities such as ascending or descending stairs, squatting, kneeling,
running and prolonged sitting.

A wide variety of disorders may fall under the umbrella term of patellofemoral pain. As
a result, a thorough systematic evaluation of the patients lower extremity alignment,
patellar mobility and alignment, muscle flexibility, strength, co-ordination, soft tissue
and articular pain is important in determining the possible causes of patellofemoral
pain and prescribing an optimal rehabilitation programme. Management of
patellofemoral pain syndrome often includes reduction of pain and inflammation
through cryotherapy, heat therapy, massage therapy, muscle flexibility and strength
training (especially quadriceps), patellar taping, bracing, orthotics, correction of
abnormal biomechanics or other causative factors, acupuncture and surgery.

From: The effect of medial patellar taping on pain, strength and neuromuscular recruitment in subjects
with and without patellofemoral pain. By Janet H.L. Keet, Janine Gray, Yolande Harley, & Mike I.
Lambert. Physiotherapy, 93 (2007) 4552.

Exercise 3

The following claims are taken from a student essay on slanting (bias) in the media. Try to
improve each one by suggesting how the author might have signalled her/his position by
hedging appropriately.

Main idea: Because of professional restrictions, mainstream newspapers and

television news inform rather than influence the audiences while online sites and
magazine articles influence readers with their biased perception; therefore, the public
must be aware of the degree of slanting in each source in order to get accurate
information on certain issue.

Claim #1: Newspaper articles serve one purpose and that is to inform readers on
news and stories around the nation rather than persuading the audience to appeal to
the issues; therefore, slanting doesnt occur in newspaper articles.

Claim #2: Americans read the newspaper daily, but even more people revolve their
knowledge and accept information given by public news because of its
professionalism and unbiased way of releasing facts.

Claim #3: The audience magazine articles attempt to influence happens to be

people who have limited knowledge on issue; therefore, writers can include more
slanted language because they are aware that those people are easily influenced by
others opinions.

Claim #4: Online sites, specifically blogs, arent like other sources, they are written
and published by random people who comment on an issue according to their
personal points of view, so there are no limitations to using slanted language.

Worksheet adapted from Gillet, Andy (2008). Using English for Academic Purposes: A Guide for Students in Higher
Education. http://www.uefap.com/index.htm, accessed 16.11.2008
Exercise 2 from Porter, Patricia and vanDommelen, Deborah (2008) Teaching Stance-taking in Academic Writing.
Presentation given at TESOL 2008. http://www.sfsu.edu/~lac/Teaching_Stance-taking.pdf, accessed 16.11.2008