As the title says, what is the difference between (for example):
するように and ようにする
I keep mixing these up all the time 
1 Like
Both are connected. するように alone doesn’t mean much. But for example 勉強するようにする can mean “to (make and effort and) study”. 勉強するように言う can mean “to tell someone to (make an effort and) study”. If we focus on the xようにverb part, then it means something like “to try to do a verb in an x way or for x purpose”. Another example would be, 健康になりますように when praying, meaning something like “I wish to become healthy”, with the verb after ように being implicit, for example here it could be 願います. 選手になるように毎日走る, “I run everyday in order to become an athlete”.
In short, xようにする implies some effort required in order to do x and a decision to do it, where xようにy means to do y in an x way. Depending on the y part, it can carry the same meaning of effort required as ようにする. Honestly I don’t think the difference here is important enough. I don’t think you do yourself any real harm if you just think about it as “to do y in an x way”. At least that’s my understanding.
Also colloquially ＜Verb＞ように implying a wish:
Is a derivation from (a)〜ように祈る。
In other words it is still just ように＜verb＞
So you are praying for the purpose of something.
In that sense it is a distinction without a difference. Just one is expressionistic variation of the other with a particular connotation.
1 Like
For reference I suggest this chart: the many faces of よう. The author’s of the chart original post, I made a chart of all grammar points that use “よう”
1 Like
Man, that chart would’ve been clearer if he had added more rows instead of cramming two or more variations into one row, or at least made the distinction between the variations with sub-letters (i.e. Row 1a = Try to B; Row 1b = To try NOT to B, etc).
His verb chart is even more complicated, lol. I applaud his efforts though.
You have to match the numbers in the left and right side…
I got that much.