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Is the use of the introductory word first awkward or confusing in the following paragraph if I don't include another sentence starting with secondly?

In the process of learning them, I deeply felt that there were many more obstacles to overcome for girls than for boys in order to learn technology. First, generally speaking, girls are not as good at logical thinking or as familiar with various softwares as boys are. Another related fact is that professors tend to hire boys as their research assistants, which means that boys are given more opportunities to practice their technologies.

I do not use secondly to follow the adverb first. Do you think this makes my writing less clear? I myself sometimes find the use of "first, second" awkward.

Hellion
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benlogos
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    Yes I do (answering your last question). 'First[ly]' is an ordering marker here and as such is best followed by at least one other, although 'next' or 'then' would work. // I've corrected other faults, but wouldn't follow 'First ...' with 'Secondly ...' – Edwin Ashworth Dec 29 '14 at 17:29
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    On an unrelated note, your first sentence is quite awkwardly constructed and, as such, reads rather ambiguous. The verb 'learning' isn't clearly attributable to anyone and could refer to your experiences learning technology; girls' experiences learning technology; boys' experiences learning technology; or some combination of the foregoing. I would rewrite it and also try to place 'technology' somewhere nearer the beginning of the sentence for clarity. – James Stott Dec 29 '14 at 17:50
  • Or don't use First at all. Especially, don't do it if you're not intending to actually assert an order of importance or cardinality beyond an implied order simply by making a list. – SrJoven Dec 29 '14 at 18:53
  • Hi James Stott, if the text is a girl relating her own experience, then what will you say about the use of "learning them". Is it still ambiguous? – benlogos Dec 29 '14 at 23:25

3 Answers3

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First doesn't have to be followed by second (or firstly by secondly), in that it is logical to state something comes first and let it be inferred that something else is second.

However, it really doesn't help the reader's flow, so while it isn't something that one must do, it's generally something that one is better doing.

It's not even clear to me whether your "first" is your (spurious) claim that girls are less good at logical thinking, your "second" their lack of familiarity with software and the point on research assistant hiring an additional point, or if your "first" is both the logical-thinking and software-familiarity claims and the point about professors your "second".

I myself sometimes find the use of "first, second" awkward.

Then do something else again.

Personally, I often find myself writing something that starts with a "first…" and doesn't continue with a "second…". It often helps to change it to follow that pattern, but it often helps more to abandon it.

Jon Hanna
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You can write first but not second.

Or you can write second but not first.

Or you can write first and second.

But in all of those scenarios, you have to have two clearly-identifiable ideas.

So I think your usage is fine.

Makenna
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First is always followed by second, third etc. Firstly by secondly etc. More recent objections about usage of first or firstly have been more about style than substance: commentators don’t like firstly because it’s longer than first. Even though they are both adverbs, first and firstly are hardly interchangeable in all situations: we never say “firstly of all” or “I firstly noticed it yesterday,” but these differences amount to idiomatic usage—the habits of centuries—and not grammar. In writing, first is much more common than firstly and is probably the best bet for most situations, even if the only reason is that a reader may wonder if firstly is proper and be distracted by this word choice. You might say that the conspiracy has succeeded by maintaining this word's slightly disrespectable reputation.

user243606
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