Comment by JesseAldridge

It's the word "modality" that throws me. The word by itself is pretty vague -- "somehow related to a mode". The linked Wikipedia article is dense and confusing. You explain it as a way of modifying a statement. Then you say a publication is an "extended modality". That requires another mental stretch. How does the abstract idea of "a publication" connect to modifying a statement? One expects you to explain that in the following sentences, but you don't really. Instead you follow with the seemingly unrelated statement, "A researcher may wish to state a conclusion: “water boils at 100 degrees celsius”. Convention dictates that he should initially add various hedges to his conclusion: ..." So when writing a publication a researcher will customarily add hedges. What does that have to do with a publication being an "extended modality"? Is it really necessary to use such an obscure term? It seems like it shouldn't be this hard to understand what you're saying.