If we imagine ourselves in the scene in which the witness speaks with a firm and confident voice saying "that is the man I saw", the most probable thing is that it convinces us because she is very sure of herself, the witness does not doubt it for a moment, she/he is stating it.
The word <u>averred</u> can be replaced by <u>stated</u> since they have the same meaning. Other synonims can be claim, declare or affirm.
Third-person point of view
Answer;
Sparse language
Explanation;
The feature that is most closely associated with modernist poetry is sparse language. This is to mean that the modernist poet did not use many words to express themselves and their thoughts and images.