How to sound more cautious.

Cautious language is important in academic writing . Caution is needed to avoid making statements that are too simplistic:

            Crime is linked to poor education.

Such statements are rarely completely true. There is usually an exception that needs to be considered. Caution can be shown in several ways:

Crime may be linked to poor education.          (modal verb)

            Crime is frequently linked to poor education. (adverb)

            Crime tends to be linked to poor education.     (verb)

v  Complete the table below with more examples of  each:

Modals	Adverbs	Verbs
can	commonly	tends to

Another way to express caution is to use quite, rather or fairly before an adjective.

            A fairly accurate summary

            A rather inconvenient location

            Quite a significant discovery

v  Insert quite/rather/fairly in the following to emphasize caution:

1. These company´s efforts to save energy were successful.
2. This survey was a comprehensive study of student opinion.
3. His second book had a hostile reception.
4. The first year students were fascinated by her lectures.
5. The latest type of arthritis drug is expensive.