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My academic write-up was reviewed by a referee who is probably a native English speaker, and he marked the following sentence of my article as "bad English", but I don't understand why:

This technique can improve the performance, thanks to its feature A and feature B.

What I meant was that its two features are the main reasons that this technique delivers better performance.

Is there something wrong with this way of using thanks to?

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  • Perhaps the comma is not necessary and thanks to its features A and B.? – Lucian Sava May 25 at 7:05
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Normally, there is nothing wrong with "thanks to". Actually, because of bad English, it is not used as much as it should be.

People use:

because of (= the source of something bad)

  • I broke my leg because of the slippery floor.

instead of

thanks to (= the source of something good)

  • I am successful in life _because of_ thanks to the efforts of my teachers.

way too often.

Regarding your particular case, you should ask the referee what is not OK / what is bad English. We cannot know what he expects.

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  • Interesting point that it's not used as much as it should be. Regarding your suggestion, it's not possible for me to contact the reviewer, as this is part of a single-round revision process for an academic paper. – narengi May 25 at 8:01
  • Using because of doesn't imply anything about good or bad, it's neutral. There is nothing wrong with I am successful in life because of the efforts of my teachers. Thanks to is different - it is only used for things you might give thanks for, which will be good things unless you're being sarcastic. – user96060 May 25 at 9:23
  • @Minty: grammatically, it is not wrong, but many people from many countries keep noticing the same thing: "because of" casts a bad light. Using it with something positive is awkward. It is considered to be OK only because too many people make the same mistake. – virolino May 25 at 10:10
  • It's not awkward at all, never was. The mistake is to think it's a mistake. – user96060 May 25 at 10:12
  • "Because" is totally neutral. "Because of", not so much. If you read in the (online) dictionaries, you will see that all examples for "because of" are on the negative side of things. – virolino May 25 at 10:16
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This technique can improve the performance, thanks to its A and B features.

But I prefer: due to its A and B features.

Thanks should really be used when there is a reason for it, involving people.

Thanks to his brother's help, he was able to pass the exam.

Others will tell you that thanks to and due to are interchangeable. Others includes dictionaries.

They basically are. That said, I still prefer to use "thanks to" something that involves a person's effort or intervention.

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We should use "thanks to" when there is someone that we can thank.

We would probably not say "thank you" to the features. So saying "... thanks to features A and B" is treating the features as people, or personifying them. Personification is common in poetry, but seems informal in a scientific paper.

It's not incorrect or "bad" English, but the register is a little off.

You can probably write this with "because of", "due to", or "as a result of" or similar.

There are also possible errors with "the performance" and "its feature A..."

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  • 2
    I didn't downvote, but Oxford Thesaurus of English gives this description and example for "thanks to": as a result of, owing to, due to, because of. Thanks to foreign loans, the economy was showing signs of recovery. – narengi May 25 at 8:20

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