Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »

Review Suggested Edit

You can't approve or reject suggested edits because you haven't yet earned the Edit Posts ability.

Approved.
This suggested edit was approved and applied to the post almost 2 years ago by gmcgath‭.

71 / 255
  • It depends on the context, but generally "in doing so" refers to something that happens along with or as part of the action, and "by doing so" refers to a result of the action. In many cases either one works. Here are a couple of cases where one is preferable to the other:
  • "Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and in doing so sank several American ships." It's part of the same action, so you wouldn't use "by doing do."
  • "Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and by doing so made bombing attacks on Japan inevitable." It's a later consequence, so you wouldn't use "in doing so." This is less clear than the first example, though.
  • "Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and in/by doing so entered war with the US." In this case you can view starting war either as an aspect or a consequence of the attack, so I think either one is appropriate.
  • It depends on the context, but generally "in doing so" refers to something that happens along with or as part of the action, and "by doing so" refers to a result of the action. In many cases either one works. Here are a couple of cases where one is preferable to the other:
  • - Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and *in doing so* sank several American ships."
  • It's part of the same action, so you wouldn't use "by doing do."
  • - Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and *by doing so* made bombing attacks on Japan inevitable.
  • It's a later consequence, so you wouldn't use "in doing so." This is less clear than the first example, though.
  • - Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and *in/by doing so* entered war with the US.
  • In this case you can view starting war either as an aspect or a consequence of the attack, so I think either one is appropriate.

Suggested almost 2 years ago by fedorqui‭