Writing can definitely be overly “self-aware” sometimes (trust me I know!) but “classic style” is waaaayyy too restrictive.
My rule of thumb would be:
Write sentences that are maximally informative to your reader.
If you know that ϕ and you expect that the reader’s beliefs about the subject matter would significantly change if they also knew ϕ, then write that ϕ.
This will include sentences about the document and the author — rather than just the subject.
I don’t think people do all the hedging because they think it would be informative. That’s the problem. The policy of advocating classic style is that people are either bad at using meta-discourse well, or they’re unconsciously using it in pursuit of a goal other than being maximally informative. By eliminating it and sticking with classic style, the writer comes closer to being maximally informative in most cases.
Writing can definitely be overly “self-aware” sometimes (trust me I know!) but “classic style” is waaaayyy too restrictive.
My rule of thumb would be:
Write sentences that are maximally informative to your reader.
If you know that ϕ and you expect that the reader’s beliefs about the subject matter would significantly change if they also knew ϕ, then write that ϕ.
This will include sentences about the document and the author — rather than just the subject.
I don’t think people do all the hedging because they think it would be informative. That’s the problem. The policy of advocating classic style is that people are either bad at using meta-discourse well, or they’re unconsciously using it in pursuit of a goal other than being maximally informative. By eliminating it and sticking with classic style, the writer comes closer to being maximally informative in most cases.