Verbal Hedge Definition and Examples

In communication, a verbal hedge is a word or phrase that makes a statement less forceful or assertive. Its also called hedging. Contrast this with using adverbs to  boost other words or be assertive and intensifiers, which amplify a term. Degrees of Usefulness Hedging can be as simple as saying maybe, almost, or somewhat in ordinary discourse. It can be useful in making a strong opinion come out in a polite professional manner, such as in, I would argue  that  to some extent...​  On the other end of the extreme, in times of political controversy or during election season, the technique can seem to be used everywhere. Linguist  and cognitive scientist  Steven Pinker notes critically, Many writers cushion their prose with wads of fluff that imply that they are not willing to stand behind what they are saying, including almost, apparently, comparatively, fairly, in part, nearly, partially, predominantly, presumably, rather, relatively, seemingly, so to speak, somewhat, sort of, to a certain degree, to some extent, and the ubiquitous I would argue ( The Sense of Style, 2014). However, as  Evelyn Hatch notes, hedges may also serve a positive communicative function.   Hedges  are not always the same as weasel words, which temper the directness of a statement. (The two terms reflect a different point of view. Weasel words is  pejorative—were trying to avoid responsibility for our  claims. Hedges qualify, soften, or make claims more polite.) The two examples that follow show how hedges can be used to let us weasel out of responsibility for our statements.Perhaps  Gould overstated his  argument  regarding an  apparent  weakness in Darwins notes.The data  appear  to support the assumption of significant differences between the two groups of students.Hedges, however, also serve a ritual function. They may act like disfluencies  in smoothing over a disagreement with a conversational partner.Maybe  she  just  feels  kinda  blue.In this last example, it is a simple matter to understand the  locutionary  force of the  utterance—that is, what the sentence says. However, the  illocutionary force  of the utterance—what is intended by the utterance—is not clear unless  context  is taken into account. (​Discourse and Language Education. Cambridge University Press, 1992) Hedge Words in the Media The Associated Press Stylebook cautions writers to use the hedge word alleged carefully, to note that a supposed action is not being treated as a fact, but not to use it as a routine qualifier. For example, if something appears in a police record as having happened, it doesnt need to be hedged just because its not known exactly who was involved. Authors Gordon Loberger and Kate Shoup have seen it go overboard. Writers and reporters for various media are increasingly sensitive to possible legal repercussions regarding the things they report. As a result, many of them, seemingly to protect themselves and their organizations, tend to overuse  hedge words—that is, words that allow the speaker or writer to hedge on the meaning of his or her statement. As such, readers and listeners are subjected to such statements as the following: The  alleged  burglary occurred last night.The diplomat died of an  apparent  heart attack. Such hedge words are unnecessary if the police report indeed shows that a burglary occurred and if the medical report lists a heart attack as the cause of the diplomats death. In any case, the second sentence above would certainly make more sense if it were written another way. (Besides, what is an apparent heart attack?) Apparently, the diplomat died of a heart attack.The diplomat died, apparently of a heart attack. (Websters New World English Grammar Handbook. Wiley, 2009)

Project Bsbwor502 Essay examples - 1517 Words

BSBWOR502_MEGT - LEAD AND MANAGE TEAM EFFECTIVENESS Summative Assessment 2 Project. An effective and productive team doesnt just happen. It requires structures, support and processes that encourage development. Team building happens over time. When building and developing a cohesive, effective and productive team you need to determine how your team fits and the roles they play in the organisation. Does anything need to be changed? How and when can these changes be put into action? Organisational, strategic and operational plans need to contain suitable mechanisms for supporting team development. As teams grow they need to come to terms with their individual task/ roles, the teams tasks/roles and with one another. They need to†¦show more content†¦Every person has a different level of enthusiasm and willingness when it comes to participation. When you find that there is an employee who doesnt participate as much as they could be you can encourage them by : †¢ Building confidence, giving feedback and encourage them to talk to there team. †¢ Actively seek participation. †¢ Actively develop a sense of ownership. †¢ Give positive feedback. †¢ Reward participation. †¢ Allow co-contribution. †¢ Break tasks down into smaller tasks. †¢ Deal with participation blocking behaviours independently, fairly and discreetly. †¢ Remove any perceived penalties like giving the most capable difficult tasks at last minute which may lead to stress. †¢ Explain in detail the contribution required and what is involved. †¢ Have fun by making it an enjoyable experience to be part of the team. Defining the way a team works is important as it creates a sense of stability, helps prevent confusion, aids communication, enforces standards, makes routine tasks quicker and makes required time frames run consistently. Managers need to give effective feedback to help staff understand what theyve done well, identify issues so that adjustments can be made and develop new skills and behaviours to improve performance as an individual and that of the team. Use steps to help you

Persuasive Essay On Freedom Of Speech - 800 Words

Freedom of speech in America is defined by the right to express any opinions without any censorship or restraint. But it isn’t just defined by the words people speak aloud. It’s the actions they take part in to support the words they express. The writing of books and essays, creating artwork, giving speeches to grand crowds, voting, protesting. But do all people have the right to speak their mind? Should people be able to speak freely, to express opinions and thoughts, as promised in the United States constitution? A controversial topic, with many different opinions weighing in from around the world. Speech is expression of thoughts, through many different actions. Some include writing, artwork, speeches, protests. On occasion in speaking†¦show more content†¦With all these truths, and the freedom to speak them, comes the question of who should hold the power and ability to speak their minds. In the United States, our society believes everyone should have the right to freedom of speech, to voice thoughts and opinions. Written down in the constitution is the promise to citizen rights, to all peoples who want to exercise those rights. â€Å"It was we the people; not we, the white male citizens,† who built up our nation and society, and the promise to freedom of speech (Anthony, par. 4). Women, children, teens, those of color should all be able to speak freely, to give shape to the opinions they hold like all the empowered men that speak freely. Not all governments and nations feel the same about this. In Singapore, they have their â€Å"own standards of social orde r as reflected in [their] laws† (Reyes, par. 3). Different nations feel differently about human rights and laws as presented by the United States, including freedom of speech, whether it is safe for everyone to speak their minds or just best to keep it to those who are fed lies from those of a higher position. With freedom of speech can come violence, a common reason for nations and governments to deny this right. Some societies, such as Singapore, agree that by enforcing certain laws that abide the government keep said nation â€Å"orderly and relatively crime-free† (Reyes, par. 3). Freedom of speech can also meanShow MoreRelatedPersuasive Essay On Freedom Of Speech758 Words   |  4 Pagesare going to be offended and there are things that should offend us. My point is not that it’s alright to offend people; offending someone on purpose is just wrong. However to seek to ban the offensive opinions of others is an assault on freedom of speech and freedom of thought. This belief has disrupted our education process, made us lose our sense of security, and it’s killing the american dream. Political correctness has in some ways leveled the playing field in schools. Is this a good thing? YourRead MorePersuasive Essay On Freedom Of Speech1922 Words   |  8 Pageswith how America is at the moment. They are not happy with the Racism that America is said to be full of. The athletes use a form of freedom of speech to show their concern for the country. Some Americans find this act disrespectful to the flag and the military. Their form of freedom of speech is viewed as a form of patriotism. Their form of freedom of speech is also viewed as wrong and dishonoring. The athletes kneel to make a point, showing a sign of patriotism, but some Americans findRead MoreCritical Response Essay Final - I Have a Dream981 Words   |  4 PagesCritical Response Essay ------------------------------------------------- How does ‘I have a Dream’ By Martin Luther King conform to, or deviate from, the conventions of a persuasive speech, and for what purpose? ------------------------------------------------- I have chosen the question â€Å"How does the text conform to, or deviate from, the conventions of a particular genre, and for what purpose?† I have decided to analyse Martin Luther King’s classic Civil Rights Movement speech â€Å"I have a Dream†Read MoreAmerica s Constitution Was Built Upon The Fundamentals That All Citizens1065 Words   |  5 Pagesthey believe that citizens should become more accepting of others and willing to converse despite their differences. Bloomberg wrote in his commencement speech at Harvard’s graduation for the class of 2014 that, citizens of the U.S. should protect their freedom of speech and also to tolerate the beliefs of others. Likewise Kaminer argued in her essay A Civic Duty to Annoy published in â€Å"The Atlantic† that citizens have a responsibility to enter thought provoking discussions on important issues to buildRead MoreGeorge Orwell s Novel, Animal Farm881 Words   |  4 PagesStudent: K Ganesh The following essay will discuss an extract from George Orwell’s novel, Animal Farm: 1945. Persuasive proses will be discussed with the use of linguistic features such as lexical cohesion, metaphor, hyperbole, mood, pronouns, quoted speech, polarity and tense. This will be based on the persuasion and the creation of an alliance, focussing on the freedom and concern of similar parties. The entire extract has made use of quoted speech using scare quotes, drawing attention toRead MoreRhetoric And Rhetoric - I Have A Dream By Martin Luther King Essay1406 Words   |  6 Pagessocial world. For a long time, the world has been exposed to the persuasive model of rhetoric that has dominated most of the speeches we have had. A different approach to rhetoric has however not received the attention that it deserves. The rhetoric approach is called invitational model of rhetoric. The invitational approach promises to bring more impressive and long term results as opposed to the traditional model of rhetoric. This essay will examine and compare the traditional and the invitationalRead MoreAnalysis Of Vincent Van Gogh s The Starry Night Painting1180 Words   |  5 Pagespainting gets analyzed, you can feel what he was trying to portray not only through the Starry night painting, but the rest of his paintings as well. 2. Select a discursive artifact (such as a speech, an essay, or song lyrics) and show how the five canons of rhetoric are operating in it. - The famous speech by Martin Luther King Jr. â€Å"I Have a Dream,† given to an audience at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 is a perfect example of Aristotle’s five canons of rhetoric. First of all, inventionRead MoreAnalysis Of Coca Cola And Grove Press By Richard Seaver786 Words   |  4 Pagesother company is using their strength against the original company who came up with it first. Between the two letters that have been written back and forth about this quote, Seaver’s letter may be seen as the most persuasive. For starters, Seaver’s letter can be seen as the most persuasive between the two because he justifies a clear statement that the jingle was not stolen at all. Towards the end of the letter, Seaver mentions about a book reviewer’s words on the book itself. Peter S. Prescott hasRead MoreWhy The United States Entered World War I942 Words   |  4 PagesWorld War I This essay will examine all nine readings. There will also be insight given to why the United States entered World War I, and whether or not the reasons were persuasive. Other things will also be discussed, including: what America’s war aims were, and how Wilson’s goals were unrealistic, misleading, overly idealistic and moralistic. The fact that Wilson expected too much of international law and international organization. Also, why Wilson’s goals were not achieved. That the nationalRead MorePersuasive Essay On Academic Freedom764 Words   |  4 PagesA Persuasive Essay of Academic Freedom In my argument essay, I believe that Academic Freedom is important to everyone. The right of academic freedom means that a university cant tell its faculty members what topics they can research, or teach about, or discuss. So this right encourages the development of new knowledge, and supports research that might result in new discoveries in the future, by protecting researchers from intimidation or censorship. A particular research topic might seem to an

Academic Service Learning free essay sample

Teacher educators regularly struggle with complex and gradually intricate matters surrounding, arranging mainstream (Caucasian) teachers to work successfully with minority (Non-Caucasian) scholars, children, and various populations. Pre service teachers arriving into the workforce need to be socially and ethnically approachable. â€Å"Teachers have a tendency to teach students who resemble them† (Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clark, Curran, 2004, p. 28). Conversely, when children come from an upbringing evidently diverse from their peers and teachers, withdrawal can arise and pressures can occur. Although, the disparity amongst the societal, ethnic, experimental, and language upbringings of children and their teachers may well be observed as an explanation to why some children don’t succeed. Academic service-learning is unique in the way it addresses these issues and to decrease the detachment among teachers and the children by introducing pre service teachers in activities that decrease their educational distances, while concurrently providing a mutual advantage to service receivers. Academic service learning helps pre service teachers implement ideas in a useful approach from the schoolroom to the public, engage with and exert with varied people, increase awareness from the public, query and assess community ethics, and arrange pre service teachers coming into the field to contribute in further study whereas service learning can only improve the theoretical understanding (Boyle-Baise, 2002). Academic service learning moves students outside philosophy to obtain a clearer understanding of real-life circumstances and problems. â€Å"Service-learning is an approach to teaching and learning that involves having students perform community service as a means for achieving academic goals†(Billig Furco, 2002, p. 97). As school visions endure to change, problems surface in schoolrooms around matters of linguistic diversity, race, ethnicity, culture and socioeconomic status (Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clark, Curran, 2004, p. 5). These areas will be discussed further through this essay. Unalike existences, comprising of traditionally specific styles of language, permit learning as the strains that rise as a consequence of variances among student’s family life and those of teachers and schoolrooms. Academic service learning as a pedagogy involves children in events that extend their surrounds of familiarity. Furthermore, as an education process, academic ervice learning joi ns important provisions to academic learning, individual development, and local responsibilities and involves reliable and expressive examinations that students deliver to the confined community associated with course purposes and objectives (Billig Furco, 2002). â€Å"Academic service learning, then, is a pedagogy of action† (Billig Furco, 2002, p. 104). Academic service learning can be observed as a punitive method to education, supporting pre service teachers specifically as they acquire the profits and particulars of assimilating topic material. Academic service learning assists pre service teachers in the learning of Cultural and Ethnic Transformations. Especially in Urban areas identifying that great numbers of teachers are White and many student residents are non-White, academic service learning events located in this setting allows pre service teachers to understand ethnic, verbal, and economic variety personally. Under the care and supervision of teachers, pre service teachers can discover diversity in non-threatening and attentive ways (Clark, Nystrom Perez, 1996). Absence of familiarity and understanding can end up in emerging stereotypes. â€Å"One of such stereotypes is the opinion of cultural-different students as being intellectually inferior† (James, 1980). Frequently the issue of categorising comes from the absence of adequate evidence about ‘the other’. â€Å"In many pre-service education programs, there is still minimal understanding of race and ethnicity, and yet a high incidence of ethnocentric-power struggles between pre-service teachers and their diverse students† (James, 1980, p. 5). One’s race is significant for conversation as it rests as an attribute that could be pre-judged as an adverse thing in relation to opinion of one’s schooling, intellect, competences and possession. For example, â€Å"to be of a White race, brings with it privileges. Whites are more likely to enjoy positive assumptions about themselves in school-settings† (Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clark, Curran, 2004, p. 32) . Distinguishing this point may assist as the first of many steps for preparing pre-service teachers. An encouraging approach towards students from ethnically varied backgrounds expressively influences their education, confidence in themselves and general improvement in educational presentation. By valuing ethnic transformations and accumulating teaching associated to the philosophy of the children, programs develop comprehensively. Academic service learning impacts pre service teachers’ observations of socioeconomic status. Teacher education projects need to cover inequalities amongst income levels. While conversation is an initial topic for starting, nothing can change a pre service teacher’s knowledge in an economic level dissimilar from their own. Functioning in a disadvantaged urban setting affords personalities from middle-income families with an accurate opinion of the exclusive difficulties of low-income lives. Members also working with similar studies arose to query stereotypical opinions repeatedly spread through media as well as politics developed from households (Boyle-Baise, 2002). A number of studies discovered that liaising with someone who is diverse in areas of gender, culture, religion, primary language, socio-economic status, and learning capabilities resulted in constructive approach and behaviour modification (Boyle-Baise, 2002). Pre service teachers were more assured and enthusiastic to communicate and cooperate with a very different populace of students, and established more suitable dialect, approaches and behaviour after service learning involvements (Flores Yee-Sakamoto, 2003). Research by Malone, Jones and Stallings (2001) found that pre-service teachers were â€Å"transformed in significant ways by a tutoring experience that was integrated into their teacher education course† (Malone, Jones Stallings, 2001, p. 112). They found specific aids when the teachers were put with the student in which were knowingly unalike in terms of socio-economic status and culture. Malone, Jones and Stallings (2001) research also found that students found new empathies about their inaccurate presumptions and stereotypes. While primarily considering that they were unprejudiced and reasonable, many papers and articles replicated their increasing attentiveness that they often made unjustified conventions and replied in stereotypical means. Academic service learning helps pre service teachers recognise and consent to linguistic differences. When a systems development, particularly a learning course, comprises of an academic service learning section that proposes understanding with a nation that varies from a pre service teacher’s personal involvements, pre service teachers receive valued wareness into divergent linguistic lists, dialects, and diverse linguistic alternatives (Clark, Nystrom Perez, 1996). In such a position, where pre service teachers perceive linguistics knowingly unalike from their own, they start to comprehend the difficulties of linguistic education and the difficulties diverse linguistic lists and dialects place on learning education. In a surrounding of belief and care obtained through such courses, pre service teachers observed linguistic modification together as, representation of a nation and as a probable hindrance in terms of contact with chance, regardless of the increasing culture and language multiplicity in our schoolrooms today. â€Å"Teacher effectiveness programs continue to apply pedagogy of decades past† (Malone, Jones and Stallings, 2001, p. 82). Kea and Utley (1998) state â€Å"our schools need teachers who know who they are teaching, what to teach, and methodologies to teach them† (Kea Utley, 1998, p. 47). In other words, we want pre service teachers who can practice superior research based education; that is pedagogy approachable to the education of sensitive and societal requirements of culturally and linguistically diverse learners with and without incapacities in urban schools. Academic service learning is suitable as a way for organising pre service teachers for urban schoolrooms. Academic service learning modules propose prospects for learners urban communities. Such accurate involvements are vibrant, reproductive and, in many cases, cannot be duplicated (Flores and Yee-Sakamotop, 2003). In the initial parts of multinational learning and literacy, academic service learning modules can support pre service teachers in an investigation of their current politics and understanding. Academic service learning field involvements help pre service teachers obtain trustworthy experiences in urban surroundings and alter learners’ approaches toward children who are diverse from themselves (Flores and Yee-Sakamotop, 2003). These outcomes help organise pre service teachers to work confidently in urban surroundings. There is nothing more significant when our students and teachers are at the heart of learning† (Kea and Utley, 1998, p. viii). In conclusion many of the approaches, features, personalities, and talents that are compulsory for pre service teachers are dynamic to consider and support different students in the schoolroom and for creating their surroundings harmless and likeable. Teacher effectiveness programs are vital in providing pre service teachers chances to absorb and practice traditionally applicable pedagogy. Applying programs and field practices that are dedicated to a variety, allows pre service teachers to participate in pedagogy with understanding and observe all groups with means for knowledge and community fairness. Regrettably, several pre service teachers are not enthusiastic to challenge the problems of teaching for diversity, â€Å"which is complicated, multi-layered and deeply connected to the values found in the dominant society† (Flores Yee-Sakamotop, 2003, p64).