Scientific writing 3.0: A reader and writer's guide - Jean-Luc Lebrun, Justin Lebrun 2021

Hedge words
Introduction Part II: Popular traps
Paper structure and purpose

Of Siths and Scientists

“I can’t believe it! Delayed once again!” Vladimir Toldoff was not having a good day. The paper he had submitted for publication had come back with mostly positive comments, but all three of his reviewers highlighted the same point. “All of the reviewers commented on my main claim, saying that it is too early for me to say that my proposed theorem is correct. And yet I am so sure that I am right!”

His supervisor, Popov, was walking by and heard him vent his frustrations.

“Aren’t you a big fan of Star Wars, Vladimir?” Popov asked slyly, eyeing the stormtrooper figurine on his subordinate’s desk.

“Yes, why do you ask?” responded Vladimir, thoroughly confounded by this sudden twist in the conversation.

“Isn’t one of your favourite quotes from that series that ’only a Sith deals in absolutes’? Are you a Sith, or a scientist? No experiment, no matter how conclusive, is enough to establish a scientific theory. It must be confirmed and reconfirmed by others to be trusted as fact.”

Admonished but defiant, Vladimir tried to push his luck a little further: “But surely any reviewer looking at these results would agree that this data shows that I am correct!”

“No, Vladimir, the data strongly suggests that you are right. It does not PROVE you are. Had you written “these results strongly suggest” instead of “these results show”, none of the reviewers would have disagreed with you and you would be on your way to publication! You still have a lot to learn! Come to my office later. I have just the book for you. It’s on hedging”.

And with that, Popov walked off. Vladimir turned to his coworker and quietly asked: “Surely, he is not asking me to read a book with all the work already on my plate?”

Without missing a beat, his co-worker responded: “It was perhaps, possibly strongly suggested.”

One clear difference we have observed between junior and senior scientists is the ability to masterfully present data while avoiding certainties. Junior scientists often generalize their findings, certain they hold true in all circumstances. Senior scientists, on the other hand, are more keenly aware of the constantly evolving nature of science, and know that what is considered indisputable today may no longer be so tomorrow.

To avoid expressing certainties, writers turn to adverbs such as “possibly” and “presumably”, and verbs such as “indicate” or “suggest”. These types of words are called hedge words, and their judicious use will help you avoid the reviewer’s objections.

There are four reasons you will want to use hedges in scientific writing:

1. To express a confidence level.

The material unexpectedly broke when we raised the temperature to 200˚C. This is likely due to…

2. To open the mind to accept a possibility

The material unexpectedly broke when we raised the temperature to 200°C. We postulate the error came from…

3. To insure against error or over claim

The material unexpectedly broke when we raised the temperature to 200°C. We believe this is due to…

4. To let the facts speak for themselves

The material unexpectedly broke when we raised the temperature to 200°C. A further exploration of the parameters suggests…

Nobel prize laureates James Watson and Francis Crick certainly understood the importance of hedge words in their groundbreaking paper on DNA’s structure. Here is a sentence from the conclusion of their paper that has been described as one of “science’s most famous understatements”:

“It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material.”⁵

Amazing, isn’t it? In less than 10 words, Watson and Crick managed to hedge in all four possible ways. The specific pairing suggests (hedge type 4), they postulate (hedge type 2), and theirs is a solution they believe in, but the word “possible” expresses that they are not confident enough to declare it as fact (hedge types 1 and 3). Is it necessary to hedge so thoroughly on all of your research? No. In fact, hedging unnecessarily can lead to a lack of credibility as it makes the author sound unsure. But in this case, these scientists were proposing something so monumentally important that it was better for them to suggest and be proven right than to boldly claim and be proven wrong. They needed to secure the approval of other scientists. As David Locke writes in his book Science as Writing, “the new sociologists [of Science] argue that scientific ’knowledge’ is knowledge not because it correctly relates the true state of the natural world but because it has been accepted as knowledge by the working body of scientists involved.”