To use various realizations of modality (particularly modalization) and intensity and to keep the balance of the right amount of conviction with tentativeness is at the heart of effective writing within the academic context [Halliday, Matthiessen 2014; Hyland 1998a, 1998b]. It is essential for novice writers to know how to negotiate with their readers and express the due amount of probability, usuality and degree of the statements’ truthfulness while discussing established facts, personal opinions or referring to other sources. These can be achieved through the usage of the devices that Holmes [1990] and Hyland [1998b] termed hedges and boosters. These devices are important elements of well-written academic papers.

Despite the importance of the skills in academic writing, which includes a proper usage of hedges and boosters, very little research has been conducted on academic writing in Albania [Toska 2015]. Thus, initiating research on these phenomena, which I name shprehje mbrojtëse ‘hedges’ and përforcues ‘boosters’, in this field is crucial.

This paper explores the way Albanian BA, MA and PhD students use hedges and boosters in their academic writings in Albanian (L1) and English (L2). It compares propositional subcategories of hedges (approximators, e.g. APPROXIMATELY) and boosters (intensifiers, e.g. TOTALLY) with authorial hedges (shields, e.g. I THINK) and boosters (emphasizers, e.g. CERTAINLY). The paper borrows concepts from the widely known theory of Systemic Functional Grammar [Halliday 1985; Halliday, Matthiessen 2014] to prove its usefulness in explaining hedges and boosters. The theory is interwoven with Prince et al.’s [1980] categorization of hedges and Quirk et al.’s [1985] model of boosters.

For the purposes of the study, two corpora of writings by Albanian students in Albanian (around 2.2 million words) and in English (around 600,000 words) are compiled. Each corpus contains texts by both male and female writers. Disciplinary domains pertain to both “soft” and “hard” sciences (Social Sciences, Languages and Literature, Medicine, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics and Informatics). Results of the quantitative analysis show that hedges are significantly favored by Albanians in L1. This indicates, among other interpretations, that they prefer to project a “humble” image about themselves in their academic writings and conform to their “low” vertical power and institutional roles within the scientific community.