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