5 exercises — practise the precise meaning of "as such" versus cause-and-effect connectors in technical writing.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Choose the sentence that uses "as such" correctly, referring back to a previously stated status.
"The field is marked deprecated; as such, new integrations should avoid it" is correct: "as such" here means "in that capacity/status", referring back to "deprecated" as the identity/status just mentioned, and the recommendation logically follows from that status. Option B, C, and D use "as such" where the writer intends pure cause-and-effect (a crash causing a page, a traffic spike causing latency, failures causing a rollback), which is better expressed with "as a result" or "therefore" rather than "as such", since no prior status or category is being referred back to.
2 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "as a result" for pure cause-and-effect, rather than "as such"?
"The database ran out of disk space; as a result, writes began failing" is correct: this is a direct cause-and-effect relationship, which "as a result" expresses clearly, without implying any prior status or category. Option B misuses "as such", which would only be correct if referring back to a previously named status or role, not a cause-effect chain. Option C keeps "as a result" but changes the first clause to describe a role, not a cause, so the causal connector no longer fits the content logically. Option D combines "therefore" and "such" into a nonstandard, ungrammatical connector.
3 / 5
Select the sentence where "as such" correctly refers back to a category just mentioned, not a cause.
"This endpoint is a public API; as such, it must maintain backward compatibility" is correct: "as such" refers back to the category "public API" just named, and the requirement follows from that category/status, the classic correct use of "as such". Option B pairs "as such" with an unrelated cause (a 500 error), which does not name a status the pronoun "it" is acting "as". Option C substitutes "as a result", which frames the requirement as caused by being a public API rather than following from its status/category, a less precise fit than "as such" here. Option D misplaces the comma, putting it after "it" instead of after "such", disrupting the standard punctuation.
4 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "therefore" for a logical conclusion rather than "as such"?
"All three replicas reported the same checksum mismatch; therefore, the corruption occurred before replication" is correct: "therefore" correctly signals a logical conclusion drawn from evidence, exactly what this sentence expresses. Option B substitutes "as such", which would require a prior status or category to refer back to, not an evidentiary conclusion, so it is a weaker fit here. Option C keeps "therefore" but changes the premise to an unrelated fact (read-only status), which does not logically lead to the conclusion about corruption timing. Option D combines "as" and "therefore" into a nonstandard, ungrammatical phrase.
5 / 5
Choose the sentence that correctly distinguishes "as such" from "as a result" in a security advisory.
"This library is unmaintained; as such, we recommend migrating away from it before the next major release" is correct: "as such" refers back to the status "unmaintained" just described, and the recommendation follows in that capacity. Option B applies "as such" to a specific bug rather than a general status, which reads more like a direct cause than a status reference, making "as a result" the better fit there instead. Option C uses "as a result", implying the recommendation is a direct causal consequence rather than following from the library's ongoing status, a less precise choice than "as such" for this context. Option D reverses the words into "such as", which means "for example" and is unrelated to the intended meaning.