Read the Skills bank – Identifying the parts in a long sentence at the end of the Course Book unit. Decide when, if at all, to refer students to it. The best time is probably at the very end of the lesson or the beginning of the next lesson, as a summary/revision.
Lesson aims
• identify the writer’s stance on information from the use of marked words
• identify the writer’s level of confidence in the research or information
• infer implicit ideas
Further practice in: • finding the main information in a sentence
Introduction
Introduce the idea of degree of confidence in information, which is usually shown in academic writing. More often that not, writers will avoid very categorical statements such as ‘X was the cause of Y’ and will demonstrate the extent to which they are sure about something through various different linguistic devices such as modals and hedging words and phrases.
Put this table on the board to help explain the idea: 100% ***
X caused Y
definitely true. The writer is very confident
75% ** 50% *
possibly true. The writer is very tentative
X probably/is likely to
probably true. The writer is have caused Y a little tentative