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Suppose that the performance of a system depends on the efficiency of two sub systems called A and B. And I want to say something along this line:

A can compensate the poor performance of B, but B can not compensate the poor performance of A.

I am wondering how I can simplify this sentence into a more compact one with omitting the unnecessary repetitive (redundant?) parts. I would say:

A can compensate the poor performance of B, but not true the other way around.

I am wondering if my sentence is correct and idiomatic? If so, is it good for an academic and sort of formal writing?

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    'But not the other way round'. However the usual expression would be 'but not vice-versa'. dictionary.com/browse/vice-versa
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Feb 15, 2021 at 19:47
  • It is compensate for in English, in the sense you are using. A can compensate for *B's poor performance, but the inverse is not true.
    – Lambie
    Commented Apr 1, 2021 at 15:18

2 Answers 2

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Whereas A can compensate the poor performance of B, the opposite is not true.

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A can compensate the poor performance of B, whereas B cannot reciprocate.

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The most direct conversion is this:

A can compensate the poor performance of B, but B cannot that of A.

This combines two fairly basic concepts: removing a repeated verb (in this case, only the main verb but not the differing modals) in a parallel structure, and replacing a repeated noun with a pronoun.

The other suggestions are valid, and probably a bit easier to parse, but they don’t retain the exact same sense as this one does.

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