The ways in which...

[smallaxe]

Until I started in Anthropology, I'd never seen so many people use 'the ways in which'... What is wrong with 'how'?!?! Is this a social science thing?

I suppose my question here is... do you use 'the ways in which', and if so, why that construction instead of another one? 

[fuzzylogician]

Nope, I don't really use it. But I would venture a guess that I do use other field-specific constructions that you might not find outside my field with quite the same frequency. They come from the writings of influential scholars, and I don't find it weird or surprising. Every field has its own lingo, and these expressions are just one part of it. 

[smallaxe]

I do just wonder how it came to be, and why so many people adopt it - i.e. people in my program who didn't say it at the beginning of the year have started to throw in 'the ways in which' into their speech. I find it interesting how many of us start using these terms... I imagine in an effort to sound 'more academic'...