Weasel Word - Forms

Forms

• "A growing body of evidence..." (Where is the raw data for your review?)
• "People say..." (Which people? How do they know?)
• "It has been claimed that..." (By whom, where, when?)
• "Critics claim..." (Which critics?)
• "Clearly..." (As if the premise is undeniably true)
• "It stands to reason that..." (Again, as if the premise is undeniably true—see "Clearly" above)
• "Questions have been raised..." (Implies a fatal flaw has been discovered)
• "I heard that..." (Who told you? Is the source reliable?)
• "There is evidence that..." (What evidence? Is the source reliable?)
• "Experience shows that..." (Whose experience? What was the experience? How does it demonstrate this?)
• "It has been mentioned that..." (Who are these mentioners? Can they be trusted?)
• "Popular wisdom has it that..." (Is popular wisdom a test of truth?)
• "Commonsense has it/insists that..." (The common sense of whom? Who says so? See "Popular wisdom" above, and "It is known that" below)
• "It is known that..." (By whom and by what method is it known?)
• "Officially known as..." (By whom, where, when—who says so?)
• "It turns out that..." (How does it turn out?¹)
• "It was noted that..." (By whom, why, when?)
• "Nobody else's product is better than ours." (What is the evidence of this?)
• "Studies show..." (what studies?)
• "A recent study at a leading university..." (How recent is your study? At what university?)
• "(The phenomenon) came to be seen as..." (by whom?)
• "Some argue..." (who?)
• "Up to sixty percent..." (so, 59%? 50%? 10%?)
• "More than seventy percent..." (How many more? 70.01%? 80%? 90%?)
• "The vast majority..." (All, more than half—how many?)

¹It is important that real examples do not in fact explain, at a later stage of the argument, what exactly is meant by "it turns out that"; the whole needs to be looked at before it can be decided that it is a weasel term.

A 2009 study of Wikipedia found that most weasel words in it could be divided into three categories:

1. Numerically vague expressions (e.g. "some people", "experts", "many")
2. Use of the passive voice to avoid specifying an authority (e.g. "it is said")
3. Adverbs that weaken (e.g. "often", "probably")

Other forms of weasel words include:

• Non sequitur statements
• Use of euphemisms (e.g., replacing "firing staff" with "streamlining the workforce")
• Use of grammatical devices such as qualifiers and the subjunctive mood
• Vague generalizations