WAYS OF SHOWING AND AVOIDING COMMITMENT

Ways of showing commitment

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

Use signals such as:
apparently, arguably, hypothetically, ideally, possibly, seemingly, superficially, hopefully, strangely, unexpectedly, regrettably

Use verbs such as:
could, would, may, might