: Good news! You can say 'to' or 'in order to', and stop worrying about the rest. Reasons to use 'to': It's simple It's clear Readers will thank you for keeping your wordcount down Reasons

@Cofer669

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Good news! You can say 'to' or 'in order to', and stop worrying about the rest.

Reasons to use 'to':

It's simple
It's clear
Readers will thank you for keeping your wordcount down

Reasons to use 'in order to':

It's simple
It’s even clearer, because it avoids any confusion with the other meanings of 'to' (prepositional 'to', or infinitive 'to', for example)
That means readers will parse your sentence on the first try, understanding what you mean without having to double back and reread.

Reasons to use wordy alternatives: 'with the aim of', 'with a view to', 'for the purpose of', 'with the goal of', 'with the intention of', 'for the objective of', 'in an effort to':

You're convinced that finding ways to complicate your vocabulary... equals... literary merit?
You're convinced that to your audience this notion of literary merit is more important than communicating your ideas clearly.

Of course, I hope you’ll take my cheeky tone in the cheery spirit it’s intended. But seriously… just think! A shocking amount of academic prose, when trying to read it, feels like hacking through jungle with a blunt machete. But you can spend less time — less! — fumbling around looking for unnecessary vocab, and make yours feel like gliding down a crystal-blue river of clarity.

…Okay, okay, if you really want variety for its own sake, you can have ‘so as to’ ;)

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