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The Editor's view of the news

Using “On the other hand” in a story

Writing “On the other hand” is a common phrase for many South Asian writers – Indians, Pakistanis and Nepalis use this a lot, but the way they often use it isn’t good English.

You can’t say “on the other hand” if you didn’t say “on one hand” and explain something else.

In this case, “on the other hand” is what we call a “crutch phrase” – something you say when you don’t know what to say, but you want to fill empty space with something.

In all cases I have seen, just deleting that text makes it read better.

“Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the other hand has welcomed the handover of responsibilities, calling it an important step for the young nation.”

Here is the sentence with that phrase removed, but it still needs more.

“Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the handover of responsibilities, calling it an important step for the young nation.”

“has” is also superfluous here and should be deleted

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the handover of responsibilities, calling it an important step for the young nation.

This is much more elegant – simple, to the point, with no filler words

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