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

　　signals such as:

　　apparently, arguably, hypothetically, ideally, possibly, seemingly, superficially hopefully, strangely, unexpectedly, regrettably

　　Use verbs such as:

　　could, would, may, might