What would be the best linking word for this context? [closed]
Closed by System on Aug 22, 2017 at 13:05
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Irrespective of all such debates on the limitations for rationally, one may consider a decision rational when it satisfies condition X. ______ in this paper a decision is considered rational when it satisfies condition X.
What is the best choice for the blank above? The first sentence talks about a possibility (that of considering a decision rational when it satisfies condition X), and the second sentence says that in the present paper that possibility is taken as the basis of the line of argument.
So, what I am looking for is a transition word for such kind of cases when those sentences are coming in a row. I know of many transition words but like to know the best choice for cases like the one above.
So far, I am hesitant between "likewise", "thus", "correspondingly", and "accordingly". I would appreciate any new suggestion or any view on which of the mentioned linking words are the best and why.
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1 answer
Your construction is poor. Your first line effectively says "I am ignoring all debate about rationality and applying my own definition, a decision is rational when it satisfies condition X."
Why reference all the debate only to dismiss it?
Plus, if I or any other professor is reading this; I reject your dismissal out of hand: No author gets to unilaterally redefine the meaning of a word like "rational", and I shall be the judge of whether condition X is sufficient or not.
Say, "For the purposes of this paper, we shall consider a decision rational if and only if it satisfies condition X."
Or instead of "we" (commonly used in academic papers even for a single author; it includes the audience) you could say "the author", or "I" for presentation in other venues.
Even then my caveat about retaining the right to decide for myself whether X is good enough remains, but at least I am forewarned and can read the paper in the light it was written. Perhaps more subtle variations of "rational" need not be considered.
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