Boosters Hedges and the Negotiation of Academic Knowledge

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Summary
In the article, “Boosters Hedges and the Negotiation of Academic Knowledge” the author tries to show the importance of boosters and hedge is communicating certainty and doubt in academic writing. The article points out that boosters such as clearly and of course give room for expressing conviction and show confidence when representing a strong claim. Boosters also help to show solidarity with the readers because of underscoring shared information, group communication, and direct engagement with the readers. On the other hand, hedges such as perhaps, possible, and might are used to represent a weak claim. Hedges may show doubt and indicate that the information being conveyed is an opinion as opposed to a fact, but also represents humility or respect for a colleagues’ view. The article claims that hedges and boosters are not just a way of communicating ideas, but they are also a way for the writer to communicate his/her attitude towards these ideas. The article claims that readers accept the claims of a writer not just because they believe in the independence of the truths or the logic that the writer presents but because the writer manages to persuade them with a systematic appeal to the disciplinary explanations and meanings. In this way, this is where boosters and hedges come in to help negotiate a harmonious relationship with the readers by help frame arguments in conformity to the disciplinary expectations. Further, the article says that hedges are viewed as a way of expecting the potential negative consequences of overstatement and the ultimate overthrow of an assertion. On the other side, boosters not only emphasize the force of propositions or show conviction, but they also help writers to establish their perceived truth. In this article, the...