Hedging language, known as vague or cautious language, is using tentative adjectives, adverbs or

verbs to lessen the impact of what you are saying or writing to make it less direct. The words and
phrases represent hedging characteristics are used to both spoken and written form to soften the
quality of claim of the word we produce.
Some examples of hedging and vague languages are that can be found in speaking and academic
writing are as follow.
I think you need to do proper research before starting the project.
It seems that you need to do proper research before starting the project.
Cats seem to be very popular and appear to be loved by many university students.
It could be suggested that cats are popular and loved by many university students.
Apparently, the air pollution is getting worse these years.
It can be seen that the air pollution is getting worse these years.
Children living in poverty tend to perform poorly in school.
According to the observations, children living in poverty perform poorly in school.
The number of patients will probably increase within a week.
Based on the predictions, the number of patients will increase within a week.
Human expansion of the greenhouse gas may be the cause of global warming.
It could be that human expansion of the greenhouse gas is the cause of global warming.
Scientists believe there will be a cure for cancer.
It is believed that scientists will find a cure for cancer.
Installing CCTVs in public areas will possibly be the reason behind the improvement of public’s
controlled behavior.
One possible implication of the improvement of public’s controlled behavior is installing CCTVs
in public areas.

According to the examples mentioned above, it can be said that there is no much difference in
spoken and academic style of the use of hedging or cautious language except register. The way
vague language is used in spoken form is less formal than that of in academic writing.
As for the learners, how the use of vague language decrease the effect of claims should be
notified. Then, the various applications of the hedging expressions ought to be familiarized in
order to insert them in the text, boosting the politeness of language that they heard.