1

My question is about the use of the adverb "consistently" at the beginning of a sentence. For instance, in the sentence

Consistently with literature that pertains to acculturation and intercultural adaptation, our findings resulted in (...)".

I was told to correct the adverb to "consistent", in this sentence as well as in others (ex: "Consistently with the literature that asserts (...)", "Again consistently with literature, (...)"). What I mean is that the findings in our work are consistent with the findings of other works (after which I proceed to explaing in detail our findings).

Can you please explain to me if the use of this adverb here is incorrect, and if yes, why? It just feels strange to use an adjective here. I know I can change the sentence in a way that changes words and word order while maintaining the same meaning, but I would still like to learn if this usage is correct or not, for future reference.

If I should be posting this elsewhere, please indicate the proper forum/website.

Improve this question
1
  • 1
    Your own restatement uses the adjective consistent: "The findings in our work are consistent with the findings of other works." Consistently would work better if you were saying that the other literature consistently said XYZ. But you're saying that your findings matched up with theirs.
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Feb 19, 2023 at 16:53

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

The recommended correction is welcome:

*Consistently with literature that pertains to acculturation and intercultural adaptation, our findings resulted in...

The adverbial phrase headed by consistently, would have to modify a verb, in this case, resulted, but this make no sense: you do not mean that those findings resulted in a way that is consistent with that literature. You probably want your sentence to convey that our findings are consistent. So using a Gerundial Phrase (from which you can drop being) is recommended:

(Being) consistent with literature that pertains to acculturation and intercultural adaptation, our findings resulted in...

Improve this answer
1
  • To give it the benefit of the doubt, it presumably intends to say that the results were consistent, more than the raw measurements, although "our findings resulted..." is certainly awkward - "findings" could mean the raw results obtained from the study or the conclusion of the paper.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Feb 19, 2023 at 18:22

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .