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This is a question from my midterms English test:

Overall, family support is a two-way street; it's important to both give and receive support. ______, strong family bonds help create a sense of security and responsibility, which benefits everyone.

I chose In the end, because people in a family both give and receive support, so in the end, everyone benefits.

My friends chose As a result, because since people in a family both give and receive support, everyone benefits from mutual support as a result.

The other two answers are In general and After that, but I think both of them are incorrect. In general is wrong because Overall already exists. After that doesn't suit the question's context.

I see both answers as correct in this context: am I wrong, or have I misinterpreted the question?

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  • It's hard to know exactly what the intended meaning is. Does the writer think family bonds do not exist until after family members have supported each other?
    – Stuart F
    Commented Nov 8 at 13:44
  • I'm also indecisive between the two answers for this reason. The question doesn't clarify the author's intended message.
    – yuep
    Commented Nov 8 at 13:54

2 Answers 2

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The sentence connector (pragmatic marker) here does not felicitously introduce a result, but a restatement, an elaboration, and/or a summary.

  • 'As a result' doesn't work well (two statements have been made ... as a result of which?) And neither statement really results in the following statement. The other alternatives are far more sensible:
  • 'In the end' works as a summariser
  • 'To put it another way' would work as a reformulation marker
  • 'In particular' would work as an elaboration marker / particulariser.
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    Also, I'd think omitting a connector altogether works too. "Overall, family support is a two-way street; it's important to both give and receive support. Strong family bonds help create a sense of security..." Or, if the research part is true/applicable, "...give and receive support. Research shows that strong family bonds help create a sense of security..." [These are aside from OP's quiz/test answer options, just wanted to note]
    – BruceWayne
    Commented Nov 9 at 1:39
  • It would’ve been easier if it was a short free-response question. English test questions here suffer from ambiguity and syntactic uncertainty almost every time, but thanks for the answer!
    – yuep
    Commented Nov 9 at 7:19
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    @Bruce Wayne. The best suggestion, I'd say (though the writer may want to focus on say a summary): I'd suggest that the 'Strong family bonds ...' statement lies somewhere between a restatement and an elaboration of the preceding statement/s.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Nov 9 at 12:11
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Overall, family support is a two-way street; it's important to both give and receive support. In the end, strong family bonds help create a sense of security and responsibility, which benefits everyone.

I think that both can be correct; "as a result" is obviously correct, and it is to be understood that strong bonds derive from that behaviour, although this fact is not explicitly stated.

If you check the meaning of "in the end", there are two possibilities (OLD). The first is "after a long time", but it doesn't take a long time for the strong bonds to create a sense of security; this consequence is soon felt after some little while, and that meaning does not correspond to anything that makes much sense. The second is "after everything has been considered"; first the writer states that a certain behaviour is important; then he says that, everything considered ("when this behaviour is adhered to", understated) or, said differently, after an analysis of the situation (when this behaviour is the norm), the strong family bonds that result or that this behaviour amounts to (not clear which, but that seems to have no incidence on the logic of the paragraph as a whole) does help to create a sense of security. He/she is thus claiming that an analysis of the situation shows why it is important.

Given that this second meaning of "in the end" is understood to be the relevant one, the meaning of the small paragraph seems to be clear also when using this idiomatic expression.

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    Nope, that would not follow as a result.
    – HippoSawrUs
    Commented Nov 8 at 16:18
  • @HippoSawrUs We are not discussing the validity of a contention, but only whether or not an expression can be used logically in the formulation of a contention. To put it simply, strong bonds and equivalently feelings of security follow as a result of sharing.
    – LPH
    Commented Nov 8 at 17:23
  • Note famous last 3 words: Which benefits everyone...in the end.
    – HippoSawrUs
    Commented Nov 9 at 6:21

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