How to avoid over-generalisations

Over-generalisations and absolute statements can undermine your overall claim. It is therefore important to review and soften  unfounded generalisations by using hedging.  Hedging can help you qualify your claims by limiting who/what is included in a category, topic or claim, and/or the frequency of the action.

The following two examples highlight how hedging can qualify your statements to avoid over-generalisations.

Example 1:

“Smoking causes death from cardiovascular disease.”

Example 2:

“A number of studies suggest that smoking is a major cause of cardiovascular disease, such as heart disease and stroke. For example, Fitzhugh’s analysis shows that smoking can often increase the risk of blood clots, potentially resulting in the amputation of limbs due to poor blood circulation.”

The second statement uses a range of hedging verbs and adverbs such as “a number of” (quantity), “often” (frequency) and “potentially” (probability) to avoid over-generalisation. This allows for exceptions and variations in degree, thus creating a more nuanced and credible text.

How to hedge in your reports and primary research

Qualifying your claims and acknowledging exceptions or limitations is especially important when reviewing literature, discussing your findings and drawing conclusions in a report and thesis.

These three examples show how you can include different hedging devices with more direct statements to achieve an appropriate level of certainty:

  1. “Whilst the findings of the study could be applied in most instances, there were some important exceptions. In particular, it was found that people with food allergies did not benefit from the changes to their diet, and in fact in some cases experienced negative reactions.”
  2. “The argument that sport is good for your health is hard to dispute, with the exception of instances when it leads to serious injury. For the majority of participants, adventure sports like rock-climbing are very beneficial; however, for a minority such sports result in permanent injury or even death.”
  3. “One limitation of the study was the relatively small sample size. For this reason, the findings cannot be generalised to the broader community based on this study alone.”

Here are some useful expressions for when you need to describe, analyse and draw conclusions in your studies. For further examples, you can access the Academic Phrasebank from The University of Manchester.



Reference list

Lingard L. (2020). The academic hedge Part I: Modal tuning in your research writing. Perspectives on medical education, 9(2), 107–110. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40037-019-00559-y

MacDonald, R., Hargreaves, D., & Miell, E. (2014). Identity. In W. Forde Thompson & Prof. W. Forde Thompson (Eds.), Music in the Social and Behavioural Sciences: An Encyclopaedia (pp. 573-575). SAGE Publications. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/monash/reader.action?docID=1883917&ppg=612

Taking it further

You may find these other resources on how to use Academic English and Critical thinking useful in crafting a claim which is nuanced and credible.