Sentence rephrasing issues

Question

This is a question from sentence correction.

Incorrect: The possibility of an attack on Indian Point, a nuclear power plant, has caused local governmental officials to plan evacuation routes, build shelters, and offering citizens potassium pills so there will be fewer casualties in case of a leak.

.

Correct: The possibility of an attack on Indian Point, a nuclear power plant, has caused local governmental officials to plan evacuation routes, build shelters, and offer citizens potassium pills in order to have fewer casualties in case of a leak.

The word "offering" is changed to "offer" in order to make the sentence parallel.

But I don't understand the reason of changing the phrase from "so there will be" to "in order to have". Can anyone explain me the reason? If I retain the first as it is, will the meaning remain the same?

Answer 1

Keep in mind that this sentence is in perfect tense. However, "so there will be" is future tense. Therefore, planing evacuation routes takes place before the sentence is said, while "fewer casualties" exist afterward.

However, you may not want that implication; maybe the leak has already happened. Therefore, it is better to use "in order to have" because that doesn't specify the tense.

Also, stylistically, "in order to have" sounds better; it is generally a stylistic rule that full infinitives ("to [verb]") sound better than gerunds ("[verb]ing") in cases in which both can be used.