Academic English- Hedging & Quoting Sources
A LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS
Softer making quotations phrases practice, including hedging language review.
Lesson Plan Content:
Hedging and quoting sources
What is wrong with all the quoting sources phrases below?
- More local democracy is thought to cause…
- It was thought that…
- According to experts the best approach is…
- The results of previous research match the assumption that…
- 47% of Japanese people believed that…
- Baxter et al. support Smith’s conclusions.
- Lawrence’s view is that governments should introduce…
- Looking at the data on this topic, it can be said that…
- Evidence shows us that…
- The authority on this matter is Josephs, who says…
- The best translation of that is...
- The papers on the same topic reveal that…
- To summarise Grant's views on the matter,…
- Jones provides evidence that this is true.
- Dean and Deluca have a different point of view.
Answer: All the sentences are too strong, e.g. too sure or not specific enough. Most of them need to be longer to make them more suitable.
Find at least two different places in each phrase above where you can add words or expressions to make them more suitable (separately and/ or together).
Put the two rows of phrases given into two different places in the phrases. They are sometimes not in the right order. As before, the extra words in the two different places don’t necessarily need to make sense together.
- More local democracy is thought to cause…
- by many/ by most of the general public/ by the majority of researchers/ by a substantial minority of experts in the field
- generally/ often
- It was thought that…
- often/ sometimes
- until comparatively recently/ by some/ by previous generations
- According to experts the best approach is…
- such as…/ including…
- the vast majority of/ the majority of/ most/ many/ some/ some important/ some well-respected
- The results of previous research match the assumption that…
- most of/ many of
- seem to/ appear to/ more or less
- 47% of Japanese people believe that…
- although other surveys give different results/ according to Edwards (1987),
- who were surveyed/ in the sample group of 1000 people/ who answered the survey
- Baxter et al. support Smith’s conclusions.
- seem to/ appear to/ fully/ almost completely
- that…/ in her most recent paper
- Lawrence’s view is that governments should introduce…
- in the book…/ in the paper…/ according to her recent work
- probably/ usually
- Looking at the data on this topic, it can be said that…
- available/ publically available/ readily available/ most relevant/ most well-known/ most reliable
- perhaps/ probably
- The evidence shows us that…
- available/ relevant/ most relevant
- most of/ the majority of/ the vast majority of
- which we took into consideration/ that we found
- The authority on this matter is Josephs, who says…
- almost certainly/ perhaps/ probably
- most widely recognised/ most well-known
- The best translation of that is...
- almost certainly/ perhaps/ probably
- known/ available/ English/ recent/ direct
- The papers on the same topic reveal that…
- most recent/ published/ most widely quoted
- seem to/ appear to/ can be said to
- To summarise Grant's views on the matter,…
- attempt to/ roughly
- in her book/ in her paper
- Jones provides evidence that this is true.
- probably/ almost certainly/ often
- some/ reasonable/ fairly convincing/ good/ rather convincing/ very convincing/ clear/ overwhelming/ a substantial amount of
- Dean and Deluca have a different point of view.
- seem to/ appear to/ state that they
- somewhat/ very/ almost completely/ rather
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Suggested answers
- More local democracy is generally/ often thought by many/ by most of the general public/ by the majority of researchers/ by a substantial minority of experts in the field to cause…
- It was often/ sometimes thought until comparatively recently/ by some/ by previous generations that…
- According to the vast majority of/ the majority of/ most/ many/ some/ some important/ some well-respected experts such as…/ including… the best approach is…
- Most of/ Many of the results of previous research seem to/ appear to/ more or less match the assumption that…
- Although other surveys give different results/ According to Edwards (1987), 47% of Japanese people who were surveyed/ in the sample group of 1000 people/ who answered the survey believed that…
- Baxter et al. seem to/ appear to/ fully/ almost completely support Smith’s conclusions that…/ in her most recent paper.
- Lawrence’s view in the book…/ in the paper…/ according to her recent work is that governments should probably/ usually introduce…
- Looking at the available/ publicly available/ readily available/ most relevant/ most well-known/ most reliable data on this topic, it can perhaps/ probably be said that…
- Most of/ The majority of/ The vast majority of the available/ relevant/ most relevant evidence which we took into consideration/ that we found shows us that…
- Almost certainly/ Perhaps/ Probably the most widely recognised/ most well-known authority on this matter is Josephs, who says…
- Almost certainly/ Perhaps/ Probably the best known/ available/ English/ recent/ direct translation of that is...
- The most recent/ published/ most widely quoted papers on the same topic seem to/ appear to/ can be said to reveal that…
- To attempt to/ roughly summarise Grant's views on the matter in her book/ in her paper,…
- Jones provides some/ reasonable/ fairly convincing/ good/ rather convincing/ very convincing/ clear/ overwhelming/ a substantial amount of evidence that this is probably/ almost certainly/ often
- Dean and Deluca seem to/ appear to/ state that they have a somewhat/ very/ almost completely/ rather different point of view.
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Hedging language presentation
First of all without looking above, put as many phrases as you can into the spaces below in order of how strong they are. Many more phrases not above are possible.
How often?
almost always
almost never
How many?
virtually all
a few
How likely?
almost certainly
possibly
How different?
completely different
slightly different/ a little different
Mixed answers
Put the words below into the spaces above. Some have the same meaning, so should go next to each other.
- a considerable number of
- a great number of
- a large number of
- a substantial number of
- almost all
- almost completely different
- generally
- hardly ever
- in the majority of cases
- many
- maybe
- most
- often
- perhaps
- probably
- rarely
- rather different
- seldom
- some
- sometimes
- somewhat different
- the majority of
- the vast majority
- usually
- very different
- very probably
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