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When writing I find myself using the phrase "in that" when tying together an opinion or point of debate. I am needing some alternative phrases that have the same meaning to spice up my writing. Any suggestions?

Example:

The same can be said about Twinkies; in that over-consumption can lead to obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.

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You could use insofar as, but you really wouldn't want to repeat either of these very close together in your writing. Try writing nothing at all; I think you'll find it reads just as fluently, if not better. Or recast the sentence so it starts with Overconsumption of Twinkies can also lead to obesity,.... – FumbleFingers Oct 17 '11 at 1:33
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I could be wrong, but I think the semicolon in your instance should be replaced by a comma; merely leaving the semicolon and removing "in that" could be just as effective. – zpletan Oct 17 '11 at 2:57
@zpletan: There is no hard-and-fast rule in play here. Increasingly the modern tendency is to use a comma where in the past it would have been a semicolon. But in OP's example you probably wouldn't, simply because that clashes with two more commas later in the sentence which are being used in a different way. – FumbleFingers Oct 17 '11 at 3:16
I think as is the most innocuous option, but @zpletan is right that the semicolon needs to be a comma. – onomatomaniak Oct 17 '11 at 6:56

4 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

A colon seems a good alternative (though a little more context to the sentence would better help me understand:

The same can be said about Twinkies: over-consumption can lead to
obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.
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1  
I don't see why you wouldn't just leave OP's original semicolon unchanged, while discarding his in that. A full-on colon seems ott to me. – FumbleFingers Oct 17 '11 at 2:32
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Partly because I am a serial abuser of the colon, and with all this talk of tasty Twinkies treats, I am thinking about abusing my other colon too. However, the OP's goal it to make a causative link between the two clauses: the reason the same can be said about Twinkies is because of all that over-consumption. A semicolon seems a little too weak since the causative link is so strong. However, I am guessing a little at the context of the sentence, and if I guess wrong, you might be right. – Fraser Orr Oct 17 '11 at 3:03
A semicolon is the correct punctuation to use here. In fact, it would be grammatically correct to just admit "in that" altogether, with the semicolon already there! – Noldorin Oct 17 '11 at 3:08
@Noldorin: I think you meant omit, not admit. Certainly that's what I meant in my original comment when I said replace in that with nothing at all. – FumbleFingers Oct 17 '11 at 3:12
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@FumbleFingers: Yes indeed; I wrote this comment at 3:00am, so please forgive. :-) Didn't fully read your comment, for similar reason. Glad we agree on it though? – Noldorin Oct 17 '11 at 19:44
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up vote 1 down vote

Depending on the situation, you could use because, since, or as for a one-word replacement.

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up vote 0 down vote
  • For the reason that...
  • because...

Found here. Perhaps not exactly spicy.

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up vote 0 down vote

"As such" also works. "Insofar as" and semicolons are good alternatives, as is the dash ( -- ).

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