Any time I’m reading a piece of writing and I come across wishy-washy qualifiers, it immediately tells me that writer likely has no idea about the subject of the piece. Their actual knowledge of the subject becomes irrelevant, because they communicate a lack of confidence with their words. Even attaching degrees and qualifications at the byline won’t sway my mind – after all, the proof is always in the pudding.
What are these namby-pamby qualifiers that effectively whittle down the readers’ view of your proficiency with a topic (regardless of how otherwise impeccable your writing software shaped your piece into)? Check out the list below and see if you frequently employ these words:
- seem
- likely
- somewhat
- usually
- probably
- often
- appears
These words aren’t bad on their own. However, when they appear too frequently in your text, they immediately speak to your lack of authority. If you don’t even respect your own views or perception of the subject to state it without doubt, why should we bother reading about it?
Qualifiers, like the list above, shift responsibility away from the author. In effect, it’s akin to saying that “while these are my opinions and observations, I could be wrong for whatever reason.” That’s like an “expert” telling you do the following step, but adds that “If it doesn’t work, then it could be because of a million different things.” While we don’t discourage using qualifiers like the above (especially when you need to cover your ass), using them too much only means one thing: you need to go back and research your subject better.
