Signals of Confidence

Academic writing does not only use hedging. On the other side of the spectrum are a set of vocabulary that transmits certainty or confidence. These are called ‘signals of confidence’ and they are words or phrases that emphasise or increase the certainty of a statement.

As with hedging language, signals of confidence should be used sparingly, and should always correspond to the level of evidence you can exhibit.

Oxford Signals of Confidence Examples

Example 1

[Source: Law Term-time Paper]

"The question of how cases outside the civil liberties issue area are decided has not been addressed, and such cases are decided less attitudinally than civil liberties cases; Segal et al. (1995) find less convincing results for economic issues than civil liberties issues. Equally it has been assumed that judicial civil liberties attitudes can be represented on a unidimensional scale, and, as the results have indicated, this is open to question."

Example 2

[Source: Law Term-time Paper]

"The question of how cases outside the civil liberties issue area are decided has not been addressed, and it is certain that such cases are decided much less attitudinally than civil liberties cases. Segal et al. (1995) find far less convincing results for economic issues than civil liberties issues. Equally it has been assumed that judicial civil liberties attitudes can be represented on a unidimensional scale, and, as the results have demonstrated, this is clearly open to question."

LANGUAGE CONSIDERATIONS

Please see the table below for common words and phrases that are used as signals of confidence:

Confidence Language

Signals of Confidence

Nouns: certainty; conviction; assertion; assurance; guarantee

Verbs: must; will; establish; demonstrate; find; prove; show; emphasise;

stress

Adverbs: absolutely, always; clearly; completely, conclusively; definitely;

indeed; never; undoubtedly; of course; obviously; no doubt

Adjectives: certain; clear; essential; obvious; impossible

Confidence Grammar Patterns

it + link verb + adjective + that: e.g. "it is clear that"

it + link verb + adjective + to + infinitive: e.g. "it is certain to"

it + passive verb + that: e.g. "it is established that"

this + noun: e.g. "this certainty"

the/a + noun+ that: e.g. "the assertion that"

the/a + noun+ be + that: e.g. "the proof/evidence is that"