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Johan Hiemstra wondered: <<I'm currently writing some articles about
restoring cars, I just realized I tend to use 'hence' a lot in my
writing. I think it just looks/fits better than 'so' for example. Just
a personal preference I guess.>>
It may also reflect dialect differences between American- and
British-influenced English. Here in Canada, I see "hence" used
sufficiently often in place of "thus" or "therefore" that I have to
assume that this is fairly standard usage. My American wife (also an
editor) disagrees, saying that she found the word a bit formal and
possibly antique for American usage. She also noted that like me, she
wouldn't change it unless explicitly instructed to do so by a project's
style guide.
<<I can use any of the other synonyms for "hence", but that feels a bit
cheap and inconsistent. My actually question (being that English is not
my mother's tongue): is 'hence' too old fashion or uncommon? I want to
keep it simple because of the diverse audience.>>
If you're using the word enough that you yourself are finding that it
stands out, then you should consider cutting down on the usage and
using other wordings. (I find in my own writing that I have to let it
sit for several days between revisions for such repetition to become
apparent to me.) That advice doubly true if you're writing for an
American audience, since my very limited editorial sample size (me and
my wife <g>) suggests it may be less appropriate for Americans.
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