Don't write like lawyers. Observe this sentence from an actual student paper:
"Inductive risk, as stated by Heather Douglas, is the chance, possibility, or probability that one will be wrong in either accepting or rejecting a scientific hypothesis"
Why list "chance, possibility, or probability" when you could simply say "chance"? On some level, the author must be thinking that lawyers write this way, and it sure looks like formal writing. But here's the truth: the words "possibility" and "probability" don't add anything to the word "chance". Lawyers have to write like that because there is a chance that some douchebag will dispute the contract by saying "well, there wasn't a chance that the house will fall down, but an actual probability." The fact that honest people reading a contract in good faith would never make such an objection has no bearing on what will happen in a court of law.
But look, you don't have to write like you are going into court. Your audience is not going to grill you with bizarre and unreasonable objections. You don't have to imitate debased forms of communication. Don't write like lawyers.
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