Successful academic writing requires a cautious tone, and avoids extreme, absolute or definite English.

Use a cautious or tentative tone when describing or reporting the strength of a claim or interpretation. Try to avoid making statements that sound definite or fixed and final, extreme, absolute or are overgeneralizations. This practice is in keeping with the empirical traditions of adopting a questioning attitude and a balanced and neutral approach.

An academically cautious tone describes degrees of certainty, likelihood or possibility.

For further assistance, advice or tutoring/coaching in these skills contact Dr Bill Wrigley.

Avoid using the words must, should, ought, or have to.

Use might, may, could or can

Examples:

✖  The fine weather must have been the reason for the large crowd.

✓  The fine weather was likely to have been the reason for the large crowd.

✖  More  research of this issue should be undertaken.

✓  More  research of this issue could be undertaken.

 Avoid using always or every.

Use often, very frequently, many or most

Example:

✖  These variables always respond in this way.

✓  These variables often respond in this way.

 Avoid using definitely, undoubtedly, obviously, or absolutely.

Use likely, probably, seems to, appears to, or tends to

Example:

✖  This is definitely not the case for everyone.

✓  This does not appear to be the case for most people.

Convey levels of strength

 A common convention in academic writing for conveying levels of strength or frequency of an occurrence is to refer to the degree of certainty, likelihood or possibility of an occurrence:

Degree of certainty or likelihood

1. It is certain that….,
2. It is almost certain that…,
3. It is highly likely that…
4. It is likely that…,
5. It is possible that….

Degree of possibility

1. There is a definite possibility that…,
2. There is a strong possibility that…,
3. There is a good possibility that…,
4. There is some possibility that…

Degree of frequency

1. Few believe that…
2. Some believe that…
3. Many believe that…
4. Most believe that…

List of cautious English

Table 1. List of definite and final words and their corresponding cautious language equivalents.

Definite, Final (avoid using)	Cautious, Tentative (use)
must	might, may, could, can, advisable
should	could, advisable
have to	could, likely
always	very frequently, mostly, many
every	many, most, much
definitely	likely, appears to
undoubtedly	probably, likely
obviously	seems to, appears to, tends to
absolutely	probably, likely
Of course…	(delete)
Everybody knows that….	It is widely known / understood  that…

List of cautious verbs, adverbs, nouns and phrases

Table 2. Common verbs, adverbs, nouns and phrases used to convey a cautious tone.

Verbs	Adverbs	Nouns	Common Phrases
may, might, could, would	perhaps	The probability of this occurrence is unlikely	It seems / appears that…
suggest	possible, possibly		It would appear that….
	probable, probably	possibility	It might be suggested that ….
seems to, appears to, tends to indicate	likely, unlikely	probability
	definitely	likelihood	It may be possible to obtain…
points to		assumption
tends to be/indicates	conceivably		It could be the case that...
	apparently		It could be said that…
	relatively
	generally		The evidence suggests …
	seemingly		It is generally considered that…
	primarily
			It is likely...
	occasionally, rarely
	infrequently		In some/many/most cases…
	sometimes		Some believe that…
	frequently		To the extent that…
	predominantly
	mostly, mainly, largely		With the exception of….
	often
	usually		It is relatively uncommon that…
			The procedure is perhaps central to …