• Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radio
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    4 months ago

    What about learning these phrases instead:

    • I believe
    • I seem to recall
    • As I understand it
    • It seems to me that
    • In my experience

    In other words, make it clear to the reader what your level of skill or knowledge is.

    Whilst chewing on that, consider adding a source if you have one (or six).

    Source: I’ve been here a while and it’s stood me in good stead during online (and offline) conversation over the decades.

      • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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        4 months ago

        If you’re actually informed, couching your opinion like this dulls its impact for no good reason. It’s good to speak/write confidently when you have cause to be confident.

        Hedging is great for situations where you aren’t confident, but should otherwise be used sparingly.

    • ButtBidet [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      4 months ago

      I fully support this, and I do this too. It saves me from looking like a dickhead. Honestly I won’t drop one of the “I believe” modifiers until after 10+ hours (usually 30+ hours) of not social media reading on a topic.