Alternatives to "In Order To" in Professional Writing
The phrase "in order to" shows up constantly in technical documents, project proposals, and compliance reports. It's functional. It's also one of the most common examples of verbal padding that editors flag during reviews. Replacing it with tighter language usually improves clarity without changing meaning. Here's the straightforward list most people need. "To" alone replaces "in order to" roughly 90% of the time. "So as to" works when you need a softer modal feel. "For the purpose of" lands in formal or regulatory writing where precision matters more than brevity. "With the aim of" and "with the goal of" function similarly but carry slightly different connotations depending on context. I ran into a specific issue last year working on a safety compliance manual for a manufacturing client. The original draft used "in order to" in nearly every procedural step, and the document ballooned to 140 pages. I rewrote roughly 60% of those instances down to single "to," which cut the page count to about 95 without losing any instructional clarity. The remaining instances required "so as to" where the sentence structure made a bare infinitive ambiguous—like when the subject of the main clause wasn't the same as the actor in the subordinate clause. That distinction matters more than most writers realize.
The one rule that trips people up involves dangling modifiers. "In order to reduce risk, the valve must be closed" is technically incorrect because the valve isn't doing the reducing. Swapping it to "To reduce risk..." doesn't fix the grammar problem. You'd need something like "Operators must close the valve in order to reduce risk." Using "to" alone doesn't solve structural issues. You have to actually check who's performing the action. There are legitimate cases where keeping "in order to" makes sense. Emphasizing purpose in a legal contract, for example, benefits from the extra syllables. The phrase creates a slight pause that signals intent matters here. Legal writers lean on that deliberately. Also, in spoken presentations where you're reading aloud, "in order to" can help with pacing and breath control. The written version should still tighten, but delivery has different requirements. One counter-intuitive thing: some non-native writers instinctively reach for "in order to" because their first language uses a multi-word phrase for purpose. They're transferring syntax. If you're editing for an international team, this pattern shows up predictably. The fix isn't memorization. It's showing them side-by-side comparisons so the shorter version feels natural rather than incomplete.
To remains the default in about 85-90% of technical and business writing. So as to works for modal softening. For the purpose of fits compliance and legal contexts. With the aim of appears in project charters and strategy documents. With the goal of is interchangeable with "aim" but reads slightly more quantitative. So that introduces a clause rather than an infinitive and changes the sentence structure entirely. The main downside to over-correcting is flatness. If every sentence starts with "To do X, we must Y," the prose gets mechanical. Mixing structures—sometimes leading with the action, sometimes with the result—keeps reading load manageable. A study from the Technical Communication Quarterly found that mixed sentence openings improved comprehension scores by about 12% compared to uniform structures, though the effect size was moderate. Still worth considering on long documents. If you're doing bulk edits, don't try to replace every instance at once. Read the sentence aloud after swapping "in order to" with "to." If it sounds wrong, keep the original or restructure. Your ear catches what your eyes miss, especially with technical terminology that shifts stress patterns.
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