The document discusses tone in academic writing. It should be believable, balanced, and sensible, without sounding overconfident. To achieve this, academic writers often use hedging markers when presenting new ideas to decrease certainty and invite discussion. Hedging markers are words or phrases that soften a statement, such as "appears" and "may be", making claims more cautious and reducing their impact. This helps the writer accomplish the objective of informing and persuading readers without asserting claims definitively.