Friday, November 30, 2018

word choice - Using "because", "as", or "since" when explaining the reason or relevance of something in an adverbial clause?



I have several units of information that I want to put into one, or two well-formed sentences:




  • Our product previously only supported Type-X adapters (which are widely used).


  • A few weeks ago the company producing Type-X adapters released information stating they will stop producing and distributing Type-X adapters.

  • We added support for Type-Y and Type-Z adapters to our product.



if I remember correctly, "because" is the most widely used conjunction to express A is the reason for B, but it is also possible to use as or since in some cases - I'm not a 100% sure when I can use which.



In the sentences I want to build, it's important to note that Type-X adapters are being discontinued is not the direct or singular reason for we now support Type-Y and Type-Z - We started to support those because we noticed more customers switching to them, it's meant to "future-proof" our product - but it is relevant to explaining how our product is fit for the future.



My instict says that using because here would be wrong, because it's not a direct cause-effect relation. Using 'since' feels right to me, so I arrive at this:





All models of [product name] build 2014 or later now fully support Type-Y and Type-Z adapters in addition to Type-X. This makes [product name] fit for the future, since [company name] recently announced they will discontinue their Type-X series.




Is this well-formed? Is since the correct conjuntion to use here? What are the rules for when to use because, since, and as?


Answer



Your use of the conjunction "since" in this case is helpful to the reader. What may be less clear is that you're telling her that type Y and Z adapters will be an adequate replacement for type X. Perhaps being more direct about that point will make the language seem better formed.


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