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My teacher says my writing's too assertive.
What's wrong with being assertive?
In daily life it's fine
but not in academic writing. Why not?
Because research methods are based on scientific principles
and one of those is to state clearly how sure or unsure you are that your results are
correct
which is often based on statistical probability
So, why can't I say that I'm 100% sure that I'm correct?
Well, there may be some information that you haven't thought of
even geniuses aren't right all the time
you need to protect yourself
if you say that you're 100% correct
and someone proves that you're 1% wrong
then they have disproved your research
but if you say that you're probably correct
and someone finds that you're 1% wrong, you're still probably correct
So, what can I do?
If you're sure that you're right, use
"it seems to be"
"appears to be"
"may well be"
"it's probably"
or even "it's almost certainly"
because well...because I'm reasonably sure
well this could, may, might
or it's probably because
I get it
Are you sure you understand?
probably
Clarissa!
Why only probably?
I want to know for sure if I use
these words in my writing
and everytime I write
there's a possibility the teacher will point out something that I don't know
before. Well, nobody's perfect.
I'd better start by crossing out the things that are too assertive
"As we all know"
cross!
"undoubtedly"
cross!
"It is well known that" cross!
"always" cross!
"never" cross! "every" cross!
"This is because" cross!.
Hey stop that, you can't just cross out the things
you have to replace them
that's easy
"this is because" becomes
"this is probably because", Yes!
"always" becomes "frequently"
yes, or "in the majority of cases"
"never" becomes "rarely"
or even "very rarely"
or, "there are no known cases of"
And, "as we all know"
and "undoubtedly", I can cross out
there's one
more thing. What?
use citations, like
"Chan states that"
references are the solution to a problem
that's unusual!