What modalisation does
Modalisation means giving a statement a degree of certainty. Posture is the stance you take while doing it: are you speaking for yourself, endorsing someone else's claim, or keeping it at a distance? French academic texts usually frame a claim with a fixed opening formula and leave the claim itself unchanged.
One claim, five degrees
The claim stays the same: educational inequality has grown. Only the framing changes. Watch the mood: the formulas of doubt take the subjunctive.
From certain to cautious
Force est de constater que les inégalités scolaires se sont creusées.
One cannot but conclude that educational inequality has grown.
Undeniable, often for an unwelcome fact. Indicative.
Tout porte à croire que les inégalités scolaires se sont creusées.
Everything points to educational inequality having grown.
Strong indications, no proof. Indicative.
Il semble que les inégalités scolaires se soient creusées.
It appears that educational inequality has grown.
Probable. Subjunctive.
Il serait permis d'avancer que les inégalités scolaires se sont creusées.
One might venture that educational inequality has grown.
Your own claim, put forward cautiously. Indicative.
Il n'est pas exclu que les inégalités scolaires se soient creusées.
It cannot be ruled out that educational inequality has grown.
Merely possible. Subjunctive.
Endorsing or distancing other people's claims
When you cite others, the lead-in shows whether you side with them. Comme + verb turns their claim into a fact you share. Selon stays neutral. À en croire lets doubt show through.
Endorsement and distance
You endorse it
Comme l'a montré Bourdieu, l'école reproduit les hiérarchies sociales.
As Bourdieu has shown, schools reproduce social hierarchies.
Ainsi que le souligne l'auteure, les données restent lacunaires.
As the author points out, the data remain incomplete.
You keep your distance
Selon Bourdieu, l'école reproduit les hiérarchies sociales.
According to Bourdieu, schools reproduce social hierarchies.
À en croire l'auteure, les données seraient exhaustives.
If the author is to be believed, the data are exhaustive.
À en croire often comes with the conditionnel, which doubles the distance. After comme l'a montré, on the other hand, you use the indicative, because you have just signed up to the claim.
Your own voice
French academic writing traditionally uses the nous d'auteur, even when a single person is writing. Je is gaining ground in some fields, and on is kept for what everyone accepts. With the nous d'auteur, predicative adjectives and participles agree with the real person: singular, and feminine if the author is a woman.
The nous d'auteur
Nous montrerons d'abord que l'hypothèse initiale ne tient pas.
I will first show that the initial hypothesis does not hold.
Announcing the line of argument.
Nous sommes convaincue que ce corpus reste représentatif.
I am convinced that this corpus remains representative.
One female author, hence convaincue in the singular.
On admet généralement que la mobilité sociale a ralenti.
It is generally accepted that social mobility has slowed.
Consensus in the field, not your own claim.
English academic writing increasingly lets single authors say I. In French that still reads as personal in many fields; the nous d'auteur is the usual choice and does not sound pompous, unlike the royal we in English.
