“On the other hand” means you’re still weighing two sides. “Besides” means you’ve already decided, and you’re just piling on extra reasons. That’s the whole difference, and it’s worth learning because mixing them up doesn’t just sound a bit off — it can make your argument read as one-sided when you didn’t mean it to.
Both phrases show up constantly in discussion and introduction sections, usually right where a paper is comparing two methods, two materials, or two explanations. Here’s how to tell them apart, with real examples from edited papers.
What “on the other hand” actually signals
“On the other hand” tells the reader you’re genuinely deliberating — laying out a real counterpoint before you’ve reached a conclusion. That’s why the full structure “on one hand… on the other hand…” turns up so often: it’s two live options, side by side.
A sentence we edited on carbon nanotubes does this cleanly: it lists the advantages of metallic carbon nanotubes, then adds, “On the other hand, their fabrication is a challenging and time-consuming process…” At that point in the paragraph, the author hasn’t picked a side yet. The reader is still being shown both pans of the scale.
What “besides” actually signals
“Besides” does something different. It introduces an extra idea after the decision has already been made — the reasoning that follows isn’t weighed, it’s just stacked on top of a conclusion you’ve already reached.
In the same paper, once the authors had ruled out the nanotubes, they wrote: “Besides, the speed of existing technology is suitable for our purposes.” Notice the shift — this isn’t a competing consideration anymore. It’s a justification for a choice that’s already final.
That’s exactly why “besides” can backfire in academic writing. Because it arrives after the decision, it can read as dismissive, or as reaching for whatever supports a conclusion you’d already settled on — which is the opposite of how you want a methods justification to sound. Careful writers use it sparingly for this reason: stacking “extra” reasons on top of a decision tends to dilute the argument rather than strengthen it, because it suggests the first reason wasn’t quite enough on its own.
If what you actually want is one more piece of solid evidence — not a rationalisation — reach for “moreover” or “in addition” instead. Both add support without implying you’re backfilling a decision already made.
There’s a video that goes further into this exact distinction, “in addition” versus “besides,” if you’d rather watch it explained than read it:
The one-line test
Before you type either phrase, ask yourself: am I still deciding, or have I already decided and I’m just adding support? Still deciding → “on the other hand.” Already decided → “besides” — or, better, “moreover” or “in addition.” That question takes about two seconds and it’s the whole rule.
This is expanded from Writing Tip 10 on our site, which is worth bookmarking if you want the short version to check against later. And if transition words like these are a recurring snag for you rather than an occasional one, Chapter 3 of How to Fix Your Academic English and Publish Your Research Faster is built entirely around them, with more before-and-after examples than fit in a blog post.
Word choices like this are also exactly what a second pair of eyes catches during editing — a “besides” that’s quietly undermining your argument doesn’t usually flag itself. If you’d rather have someone else check this kind of thing across a full manuscript, that’s what our Level 3 editing are for.
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