Conor Williamson offers up a cute piece of snark up on the topic of "11 ways to hedge your claims like an academic." Fearing the worst--i.e., that I might sound like an academic--I ran some Underbelly searches and find to my surprise that I actually do fairly well. I couldn't find any examples of "put simply;" none of "put another way" (though I did find "put it this way," also "put the point another way," which amount to the same thing). Just two for "as a result;" four for "rather" (I included only rather-with-a-comma to cut out the non-qualifier uses), five for "in sum." "In other words"--I count only five in my own work though I must say others use it a lot. "However" comes in at eight; "I've argued" (in various forms) at eight; "as it happens" at 12.
But--uh oh, here is a biggie: "indeed" weighs in at a gorrila-in-the-room 74. Do I use "indeed" as a lazy, slipshod maid-of-all work qualifier, pressed into service when I can't think of anything else? On the evidence, I'd have to confess: 'deed I do."
But--uh oh, here is a biggie: "indeed" weighs in at a gorrila-in-the-room 74. Do I use "indeed" as a lazy, slipshod maid-of-all work qualifier, pressed into service when I can't think of anything else? On the evidence, I'd have to confess: 'deed I do."
No comments:
Post a Comment