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Subject:Re: USAGE: "Therefore" and "thus" From:Joe Miller <joemiller -at- CANBERRA -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 27 Oct 1997 12:51:10 -0500
Carol Van Natta wrote:
>The word "thus" is a little harder sometimes, because engineers
>use it as shorthand for "in this way," "as a consequence of
>this action," "this demonstrates that," or like phrases. I
>usually try to figure out what the logical conclusion (if any )
>the engineer was trying to indentify, then see if the structure
>of the paragraph lets me get by without the conclusion
>identifier. If not, I still replace "thus" with something more
>friendly, because I find "thus" to be especially pretentious.
In fact, though engineers, or at least the ones I work with,
rarely use "in this way" -- they're more likely to use "in this
manner", mannered writing if ever there was any. Or even
(something) arranged "such that" (something else) will happen.
Like Carol, I prefer to use something more friendly and less
pretentious... I'd even settle for "therefore"; to my ear it's
far less grating than "thus".
