Boosting Language
Boosting language strengthens a writer’s degree of certainty or commitment to a claim. In academic writing, boosters such as “clearly,” “certainly,” or strong modal choices should be used selectively and only when the evidence justifies the confidence expressed.
Boosters are words or constructions that strengthen a claim or signal high confidence. Use them when the evidence supports that level of certainty; otherwise a hedge may be more accurate.
Key details
Important caveats
Scope Boundary
Boosters are not automatically better or worse than hedges. Appropriate stance depends on evidence, disciplinary conventions, and the strength of the claim.
Further guidance
Application
Choose a booster only when the evidence and context warrant certainty; compare with hedging language when the claim remains probabilistic, limited, or open to alternatives.
Core Rule
Use boosting language to signal strong commitment or confidence in a claim, not merely to make prose sound more forceful.
Sources and evidence
Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.
- Hedges: Softening Claims in Academic Writing — George Mason University Writing Center (opens in a new tab)George Mason University Writing Center · Boosters as language that strengthens claims, contrasted with hedges in academic writing
- The language of literature reviews — Monash University (opens in a new tab)Monash University · Academic guidance defining boosters as confidence/certainty language and contrasting them with hedges