Hedging in Medical and Pharmaceutical Academic Writing

The use of the English language as the global and universal language of science and technology has led English to be the main language in scientific articles. This study, in particular, aims to analyze how frequently different categories of hedging are used in 50 medical and pharmaceutical articles, with 25 articles written by female writers and 25 articles written by male writers. The data is analyzed qualitatively. The results show that there are no significant differences between male and female writers in the use of hedging devices in writing medical and pharmaceutical articles. The findings reveal that the modal verbs are considered the most used hedging devices with 1539 occurrences, while the lexical verbs are considered the least used hedging devices with 29 occurrences. In support of previous literature, it concludes that hedging devices are employed as communicative tactics to qualify writers' commitment, lessen the impact of the researchers' claims, convey probability, preserve the writers' reputation, influence readers, and prevent any potential rejection of their claims. Moreover, the findings indicated that the use of hedging devices was an inevitable strategy that could allow writers and authors of scientific genres to present their findings more effectively and precisely, therefore saving their face from any criticism in the future.