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I have two paragraphs in my paper, the previous paragraph ends with

This shows that TF-IDF is still an important feature for text analysis task

and my next paragraph starts with

On the other hand, various studies suggested that LDA may not work on short documents due to insufficient context

Is there another way of begin my next paragraph instead of saying On the other hand but keep the meaning of contrasting?

Mari-Lou A
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drhanlau
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    For what it's worth, I use "on the other hand" in professional contexts all the time. – jprete Dec 05 '11 at 19:12
  • If someone did vote down one this thread, may I know the reason? – drhanlau Dec 05 '11 at 23:48
  • @jprete: I think it's fine with using "on the other hand" by all means, just that I have 2 consideration here. 1) I wish to have a less verbose tone. 2) Like Anthony mentioned below, I don't really have a first hand for my the other hand. – drhanlau Dec 05 '11 at 23:50

8 Answers8

51

"Conversely, various studies suggested that LDA may not work on short documents due to insufficient context."

D Krueger
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There's nothing wrong with On the other hand in any context.

Barrie England
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  • Hi Barrie, you are right, just that I find it a bit lengthy IMO. – drhanlau Dec 05 '11 at 07:58
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    @cherhan: The alternatives on offer aren't much shorter. In any case, length is sometimes what you need to show you're changing direction. – Barrie England Dec 05 '11 at 08:06
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    *Any* context? –  Dec 05 '11 at 14:17
  • @cherhan: While the phrase isn't wrong, even in an academic context, I am certain many readers would feel that it doesn't look as academic as it could. Since there are other choices that work at least as well and don't suffer from this, you might as well choose one of those and avoid this one. (Conversely, which you accepted, is an excellent choice. It's both more academic-sounding and more concise.) – John Y Dec 05 '11 at 22:59
  • @JohnY: thanks, that's exactly what I meant, because I don't really want to sound verbose. – drhanlau Dec 05 '11 at 23:47
20

You could write

"By contrast, various studies suggested that LDA may not work on short documents due to insufficient context."

Both conversely, "with a reversed relationship", and on the contrary are ok if you are writing about parallel cases; by contrast (or in contrast) suggests a difference but not necessarily a paralled or directly opposite relation.

James Waldby - jwpat7
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10

"However, various studies suggested that LDA may not work on short documents due to insufficient context"

Your text is ok, but since you are looking for a short version, here is my contribution :)

user182630
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7

'On the contrary, various studies have suggested that LDA may not work on short documents due to insufficient context.'

Rads
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4

Alternatively, you could use "alternatively." :-)

Sue Kearney
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    I am not sure, but what I would like to express is something contrast, contradict, opposite, instead of an alternate option. – drhanlau Dec 05 '11 at 08:05
3

In contrariety... ^Another way of saying on the contrary

Fraan
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1

I always went with the idea that if you use the phrase "on the other hand", somewhere previously there needs to be the "first" hand.

On the one hand, the cake was really expensive. On the other hand, it looked really good.

Anthony
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