WAYS OF SHOWING AND AVOIDING COMMITMENT
Ways of showing commitment
Use first person pronoun as subject:
I, We
Use verbs with first person subject:
advocate, believe, feel, know, mean, think, understand
Use personalized expressions:
it seems to me, it appears, from my point of view, in my view, in my opinion
Use attitudinal signals such as:
assuredly, certainly, definitely, indisputably, undeniably, undoubtedly, unquestionably, clearly, obviously, plainly,fortunately, unfortunately, unhappily, significantly, rightly, wrongly
Use verbs like should, must, ought to
Ways of hedging or avoiding commitment
Avoid using first person pronouns
Use impersonal subjects, such as it
Use passive voice so as to avoid specifying an agent or doer such as:
It can be imagined that ...
Large numbers of foreign students have been admitted ...
Use verbs (often with an impersonal subject) such as:
hear, guess, imagine, suggest, suppose
Use signals such as:
apparently, arguably, hypothetically, ideally, possibly, seemingly, superficially, hopefully, strangely, unexpectedly, regrettably
Use verbs such as:
could, would, may, might