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Tentative language: the heart/art of academic style

Summary

Many people think that to make academic papers good they have to sound undeniably right. Actually, academics are rational skeptics, always doubting what they assume to be true. Academic writing therefore sounds tentative. This is also referred to as “hedging.”

Note the phrases from radio host John Ziegler’s book _The Death of Free Speech (2005, p. 109)), which is not academic in any sense. It sounds very self-assured:

The reality is that because [Howard] Stern makes Infinity far more money than Opie and Anthony, he gets a much longer leash. When the U.S. Supreme Court famously pronounced that “money equals speech” (in a landmark campaign finance decision) they could have just as easily been referring to the entertainment/commentary industry. Quite simply, the more money you make the company, the more freedom of speech you possess.

For Ziegler’s writing style and goal, it’s appropriate. But if this tone were used in an academic paper, it would appear to be oversimplifying complex issues. This mostly comes from the phrases “quite simply”, “the reality is,” and “could have just as easily”.

A possible more tentative rewrite:

The reality is that Because Stern makes Infinity far more money than Opie and Anthony, he may get a much longer leash. When the U.S. Supreme Court famously pronounced that “money equals speech” (in a landmark campaign finance decision) they that statement could have just as easily</del> been referring to the entertainment/commentary industry. Quite simply, **It seems that** the more money you make the company, the more freedom of speech you possess.