Slides · PPTX · B2–C1

Hedging in Academic Writing

A ready-to-teach lesson that helps students notice, categorise and use hedging language, so their claims sound cautious, credible and academic. It starts with discovery tasks and moves through to a short writing task.

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What’s included

13 editable PowerPoint slides with pair and group tasks, a categorisation activity, suggested answers and a final writing task.

Level & time

B2–C1 (upper-intermediate to advanced) · about one lesson, depending on discussion time.

Skills

Hedging devices (modal verbs, tentative verbs, adverbs, phrases), avoiding over-hedging, academic tone.

Preview

Title slide: Hedging in Academic Writing – Expressing Certainty and Uncertainty

Warm-up slide comparing two statements about social media and depression

Slide showing four types of hedging: modal verbs, tentative verbs, adverbs and phrases, with examples

Slide warning against over-hedging, with a too-much example and a better example

Lesson outline

Warm-up: which statement sounds more academic?
Noticing: spot the hedging language in four research sentences
Concept: what hedging is and why academics use it
Discovery: sort hedging devices into categories
Input: modal verbs, tentative verbs, adverbs and phrases, with examples
Practice: rewrite strong claims with appropriate hedging, then compare versions
Accuracy: the problem of over-hedging
Application: write and peer-review a short hedged paragraph

Licence

For use by the buyer in their own classes. Please don’t re-upload, share or resell the file.