Authenticity of scientific literature: analyzing the usage of hedging in adapted scientific literature
TL;DR
While some reduction in hedging occurs during the adaptation process, ASL preserves essential rhetorical features of scientific discourse and can thus serve as a valuable resource in science education.
Abstract
Adapted scientific literature (ASL) is increasingly used in educational contexts to make authentic science texts accessible to students. One hallmark of scientific writing is the use of hedging - linguistic means to express uncertainty or tentativeness. This study investigates whether ASL maintains this characteristic feature, and to what extent its usage of hedging aligns with original scientific articles. Using a machine learning approach, we trained classifiers on the BioScope corpus to automatically detect hedging in English and German texts. We then analyzed corpora consisting of original research articles, their adapted counterparts, and textbook excerpts. Our results show that ASL retains the typical distributional pattern of hedging - particularly its increased frequency in the introduction and discussion sections - but the overall proportion of hedging expressions is reduced compared to the original texts. In contrast, textbook texts contain very little hedging and present scientific knowledge as more certain. These findings suggest that ASL offers a linguistically authentic alternative to original scientific literature and may help learners engage with the epistemic practices of science more realistically. While some reduction in hedging occurs during the adaptation process, ASL preserves essential rhetorical features of scientific discourse and can thus serve as a valuable resource in science education.