Need a word that combines the elements ''related to this' and 'following from this.'

Question

I'm looking for a word/phrase that has a meaning which roughly contains the elements of being 'related to the previous points' and 'following from the previous points, but not in a causative way'.

Here is the exact excerpt that I am referring to. For context, this is an professional assessment report I am writing about a school student. It is deidentified.

"...It seems more likely, based on the information above, that X’s literacy skills have been a key barrier to his academic success. There is also likely a degree to which X’s motivation and engagement at school impact his learning, considering his negative self-perception, and relationship with school. Notably though, X’s perception of himself as a learner is closely linked to his literacy abilities, thus hopefully these two areas will improve reciprocally."

I have italicised/bolded 'notably though' because that is the part I am trying to replace. I also had 'however' there previously but it is also not quite what I want. While either of these would suffice, I am just looking for something with subtly different, which would fit perfectly.

"However" doesn't feel right because the idea is not negatively related to both of the previous points really. It is related, and follows from them, but not in a causative way or a 'similarly' way, just in a logical progression. I did also try 'relatedly' (which I have seen elsewhere on this site is arguably a word), but that also doesn't quite fully capture the connection.

'Notably though' also works there, but it too doesn't capture the relatedness of this idea to the previous two ideas.

I feel like the semantic features I'm looking for here are so subtle that I can't even put my finger on what they are. Basically I feel that the other words have elements of meaning that are appropriate, but also elements that are innapropriate.

I just want something that allows me to say "hey, this sentence just makes sense going after these two points. It doesn't follow them in a temporal or causative way, but it does come after them. It isn't similar or opposite, but it is related.

Does a better word exist!?

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

Either will work on its own. "Related to this (or in relation to this), blah" carries the notion that blah "follows on". Likewise, "Following from this" implies that the proceeding relates to the preceding.

However, if you want to just have a loose notion that what you want to say next "is related" to what you've just said, you don't need any connecting phrase. Having the two sentences in the same paragraph achieves this.

• "...It seems more likely, based on the information above, that X’s literacy skills have been a key barrier to his academic success. There is also likely a degree to which X’s motivation and engagement at school impact his learning, considering his negative self-perception, and relationship with school. [deleted] X’s perception of himself as a learner is closely linked to his literacy abilities, thus hopefully these two areas will improve reciprocally."

Answer 2

I think that "Notably though" sufficeth in making your point, to the extent that:

• I consider it unlikely that any intended reader would miss your point.

• I doubt that few, if any, would think its use inappropriate in the context or even feel that the term "stands" out as they read the text.

You could consider introducing an element of "... in my opinion ..." but, as your text is probably seen as an opinion in the context, "facts" stated are probably already seen as opinions.

Perhaps something like:

"In my opinion, X’s perception of himself as a learner is closely linked to his literacy abilities, and so I'd consider it [very] likely that these two areas will improve reciprocally."

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Peripheral: While "reciprocally" carries your meaning well enough, I feel it is not the best term in this context. Reciprocal here conveys an impression of both aspects asymptoting to some common level - which may not necessarily be a high one. While readers are liable to infer your meaning as "improve in an interactively supportive way to some much better level", that's not actually what the term means.

Better, perhaps, may be "mutually" or "interactively" (less good) or ...