Writing Tip 156: Starting Sentences with a Conjunction

Starting sentences with conjunctionsPsst… I have a secret your old high school English teacher didn’t want you to know. It’s okay to begin with “And” or “But.”

There’s a good reason your English teachers didn’t want you starting sentences with a conjunction. Developing strong writing skills is all about learning clarity and precision, and academic writing especially requires a certain language formalitythe same formality that requires the proper usage of who vs. whom and semicolons. When students grow up and write professional correspondences, being in the habit of starting sentences in ways other than a conjunction will be a benefit to them.

But, of course, avoiding conjunctions at the start of sentences isn’t a hard rule.More