“Qualification” refers to the careful use of language to modify or limit the scope and certainty of statements.
It’s a crucial tool for precise and honest writing.
- Purpose: Qualification allows writers to express degrees of certainty, limit the scope of claims, and add nuance to their statements.
- Balance: Qualification as counterbalances strong thinking. It’s like the clutch to the accelerator of bold ideas, allowing for precise control over how ideas are expressed.
- Spectrum of certainty: Qualifications aren’t just about expressing doubt. They can range from very uncertain (“perhaps”) to highly confident statements with minimal qualification.
- Misconceptions: Qualifications doesn’t always weaken writing. They are tools for more accurate and sophisticated expression.
- Complexity: Qualifications aren’t just scalars (like experimental error). They can express various aspects of a statement, including:
- How broadly it applies
- How the writer knows it
- The writer’s feelings about it
- How it could be falsified
- Refinement process: As writers refine their ideas, they often adjust the level of qualification. The goal is usually to reduce qualification where possible, but rarely to eliminate it entirely.
- Importance: The skilful use of qualification is not just a tax paid to avoid falsehoods, but an important skill in its own right.
Examples: Using phrases like “I think” or “perhaps” are forms of qualification. More subtle forms might include specifying the conditions under which a statement is true.