Discussion Groups / English Usage / November 2006

I would say that it is *syntactically correct* English, but poor
style.  I would prefer, "We do such and such, as described in
[XYZ97a]", or "We follow the protocol of [XYZ97a]: do such and such",
or "We do such and such, which is based on the procedure described by
Mumblefrotz (2002c)".  Some may feel that my rephrasings are not much
better style than the one I deprecate.  The best way to rephrase it
will depend on the nature of "[citation]" and how different the
procedure described therein is from the one in the paper.

-GAWollman

It seems correct to me (is that authoritative enough?) -- but likely to
produce awkward constructions, so native speakers might be likely to
produce something better.  "Analogously to the British railways' adoption
of GMT, the American ones led their nation in adopting time zones."
There are lots of ways to improve that, but it's correct.

Since the original poster did not cite an actual sentence, I can't say
whether it's a correct usage *of* "analogously to".

First, without a sentence for context, it is impossible to say for
sure.

Second, the adverb "analogously" certainly exists, in that it can be
found in dictionaries and in some actual uses.

Third, while "analogously" may be a "real word", it is almost certain
to be something between poor and terrible style to use, the foremost
(but, as will be seen, far from only) reason being that it is an ugly
mouthful easily replaced by simpler words or phrases.

Fourth, while "analogously" may itself be technically valid, the phrase
"analogously to" is another matter; "analogously" is most likely to be
at least possible when used as a so-called "sentence adverb", which
"analogously to" could not be.

Examination of the first batch of Google hits for the form suggests
that in most or all cases, the phrase is being used as a thoughtless
and bombastic nonsense, in that it is, first off, falsely trying to
compare a verb to a noun.  Here is a typical case:

. "Try to proceed analogously to our development of. electrostatics."

Moreover, it is equally clear that the form is commonly misused for
cases in which equality or near-equality, not analogy, is what is
(almost surely) meant:

. "Analogously to hypercycles, different sysers should be inserted into
different compartments for effective competition."

(That one also has the flaw of trying to compare a verb to a noun.)

Examples could be multiplied at length.  If there is a sound use for
"analogously to"--that is, a use in which it is not only technically
correct but also the simplest or clearest way of expressing the
thought--I cannot ofhand think of it.

More generally, the form--as with the modern efflorescence of "more
importantly"--merely (in my opinion) manifests the growing tendency to
drop in the longest, most pompous word or phrase that pops into the
consciousness, with litle or no thought for what it is actually
supposed to be saying, on the supposed ground that the longer and
clumsier the form, the greater must be  the erudition it manifesting
(or some such feeling).

"Similarly to" would appear to be preferable, provided it agrees with
the [citation].

CW