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Subject:In order to - and localization? From:Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, Mary Dulin <Mary -dot- Dulin -at- writestuff -dot- com> Date:Mon, 22 May 2006 12:56:22 -0400
Mary Dulin wondered: <<I was taught that using the phrase "in order to"
in technical communication is bad, i.e., imprecise, wordy, unnecessary,
and especially bad form when documents are to be translated. A
co-worker was taught just the opposite - that especially in documents
that will be translated, "in order to" is preferred, as the meaning
comes across better when instructions are translated.>>
As in all rules of thumb, it pays to remember another rule of thumb
<g>: even when the rule works for the majority of cases, it generally
has numerous exceptions. In general, you should never apply such rules
if you don't understand why they work--and thus, when and where they do
not work.
Here, the distinction depends on where the phrase occurs within a
sentence. At the start of a sentence, "To X" provides the context
clearly and in the minimum number of words. That makes "in order to"
two words longer than necessary.
However, in the middle of a sentence, "in order to" sometimes provides
that small extra clue that avoids confusion. This is most common in a
sentence that already has many other "to" clauses. "To get to Toronto
to attend the meeting, it's important to head west on the 401 from
Montreal, not east, in order to ensure that you're driving in the right
direction." Yes, that's a bad sentence, and rewriting would help. It's
only provided to illustrate the specific point rasied by Mary; I
regularly encounter examples where "in order to" or "so as to" provides
necessary clarification, but I'm failing to retrieve them right now.
Time for more coffee!
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