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In my writing I have the following statement:

We tried to account for this issue by doing this and that.

Is there a single verb that be substituted for "tried to account"?

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It's not completely clear what you're looking for. Are you looking for something like "rationalised" (that is, tried to explain why the issue happened); or are you looking for something like "compensated for" (like, if you were actually doing accountancy)? – user16269 Oct 18 '12 at 6:50
I am dealing with the second case. For example, I know that my method to measure a given quantity has some weaknesses. – jmsigner Oct 18 '12 at 7:25
What is wrong with 'tried to account'? Have you tried a thesaurus? – Mitch Oct 18 '12 at 13:07

4 Answers

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Your question and comment suggest that you modified your approach but did not fully resolve the issue you are citing. As such, the following may apply

We adjusted for X and Y.
We tweaked it to reflect X and Y.
We approximated for X and Y.
We estimated for X and Y.
We fudged it for X and Y. [suggests guessing]
We made a guesstimate for X and Y. [also suggests guessing]
We eyeballed it for X and Y. [for observable quantity issues]

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up vote 3 down vote

Trying to account for something usually requires thought rather than action, so your example doesn't really illustrate the question very well. Still, if you want an alternative to account for, I'd suggest explain.

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up vote 2 down vote

There are many possible meanings of "to account for" at play here.

We included this issue in our analysis...

We factored this issue into our analysis...

We compensated for this issue...

We circumvented (or worked around) this issue...

We confronted this issue...

We overcame this issue...

It seems like you really need to work on what you intend to say.

...One last:

We controlled for this issue...

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up vote 1 down vote

Perhaps "considered" might be an option?

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