学术研究

Academic Writing——Being Cautious

发布者:研究生管理工作处发布时间:2019-07-26浏览次数:11

谨慎的学术作者倾向于避免绝对的肯定,往往留有稍许余地,避免过度概括。

    One of the most noticeable stylistic aspects of academic communication is the tendency for writers to avoid expressing absolute certainty, where there may be a small degree of uncertainty, and to avoid making over-generalisations, where a small number of exceptions might exist. This means that there are many instances where the epistemologica strength (strength of knowledge) of a statement or claim is mitigated (weakened) in some way. In the field of linguistics, devices for lessening the strength of a statement or claim are known as hedging devices.

    Analysis of research reports have shown that discussion sections tend to be particularly rich in hedging devices, particularly where writers are offering explanations for finding.

 

 

    在提出解释或假说时保持谨慎

    Being cautious when giving explanations or hypothesis 

                                 are almost certainly

            These frequent storms              could be                   due to climate change.

                may be

                  might be

   

        It is almost certain that

        It is likely that

        It may be that       the more extreme weather      is a result of climate change.

        It could be that

        It is possible that

   

        A likely explanation

        A probable explanation   is that   these frequent storms   are a result of climate change

        A possible explanation

 

    在解释结果时保持谨慎

    Being cautious when explaining results

        This inconsistency may be due to ...

        This discrepancy could be attributed to ...

        A possible explanation for this might be that ...

        It seems possible that these results are due to ...

        This rather contradictory result may be due to ...

        There are several possible explanations for this result.

        There are two likely causes for the differences between ...

        A possible explanation for these results may be the lack of adequate ...

 

    在讨论可能的结果或提出建议时保持谨慎

    Being cautious when discussing implications or recommendations

        One possible implication of this is that ...

        The findings of this study suggest that ...

        The evidence from this study suggests that ...

        Taken together, these results suggest that ...

        The data reported here appear to support the assumption that ...

        Initial observations suggest that there may be a link between ...

        Strategies to enhance X might involve ...

        There would therefore seem to be a definite need for ...

        A resonable approach to tackle this issue could be to ...

        Another possible area of future research would be to investigate why ...

 

 

    如何避免过度概括

    Devices for avoiding over-generalisation

                                                         almost all

                                     most

        Ozone is toxic to        many types of        living organisms.

                            the majority of

                        certain types of

                         some types of

 

                                                           nearly always

        Ozone levels            frequently        exceed WHO levels in many cities.

                                        often

                                                            occasionally

   

    Being cautious when writing about the future

                                                       will almost certainly

                        will probably

        Severe weather           is likely to        become more common in the future.

                         could

               may

                                                                  might

 

        It is almost certain that

        There is a strong possibility that

        It is likely that                                 the situation will improve in the long term.

        There is a possibility that

        There is a small chance that  

 

    对研究发现要谨慎解读

    Advising cautious interpretation of findings

        These data must be interpreted with caution because ...

        These results therefore need to be interpreted with caution.

        However, with a small sample size, caution must be applied, as the finding might not be ...

        These finding cannot be extrapolated to all patients.

        Although exclusion of X did not ..., these results should be interpreted with caution.

        It is important to bear in mind the possible bias in these responses.

指导老师:宁    

信息采集提供:戴佳沛

图文编辑:王  


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