Conjunctions...

[Azlen]

So I was watching Finding Forrester, a good movie with Sean Connery. At one point he is reading the lead character's writing and critiquing it. Then he notices a conjunction starting off the beginning of a sentence, and he tells the boy he can't do that. Well the young man goes into explaining why you can do that. But the problem is getting into the habit of doing it to much.

And I was confused on whether or not we can start sentences off with conjunctions or not. If someone could clarify me on this it would help very much.

ADD ON

What happened to the monthly writing tip, I was enjoying those, now I've run out of tips to read!

[Shadowed]

Well, it's partially a matter of style, but here's the basic ruling on why you're not supposed to:

From my understanding, a conjunction serves to bridge two different words, phrases, or parts of a sentence. Due to the fact that the beginning of a sentence does not have a preceding element, there is no connection, thus it is not acting as a conjunction; this means that it is grammatically incorrect, as it does not follow the rules dictating its use. That's the main reason why it's frowned upon, at least to the best of my knowledge.

[Alydia Ettermire]

This is pretty much everything you need to know about conjunctions at a basic level.

[Shadowed]

YES! The second I saw that was a YouTube link, that song came to mind.

[Alydia Ettermire]

Can't beat it for sheer awesome.

[Jericho]

Ah. Well.

[soapbox=jericho's opinion so have your grains of salt ready]

The thing to remember is that in writing (or more specifically, writing you intend for someone to read), there are actually no rules save one:

The One Rule to Rule Them All: Produce an effect in the reader.

Regardless of what you're writing or why, that's what you're trying to do, what you're supposed to be doing. Good writing is whatever does that well.

The other "rules" we create, like Put Punctuation After Sentences, Stories Have a Beginning, Middle, and End, Don't Start Sentences With Conjunctions, etc., are really just guidelines for Producing Effect that work 90% of the time. (Most grammar rules fall under the category of encouraging clarity, which is usually a must for a good effect.)

The trick is that once you get good at manipulating effect through those guidelines, you find that in some situations, you can produce even better effects by breaking them. So, if you're not being ungrammatical for the heck of it, but on purpose, to produce an effect, then you're going in the right direction. (Granted, in writing, it isn't just the thought that counts. It isn't enough to intend for something to have a certain effect...it has to actually have it :P )

[/soapbox]

[Slavegirl]

Sorry about the weekly writing tips --- I was the mod responsible for those. Between my divorce and finding out my child was autistic, things got a little out of hand. But I'm back now, so I'll try to start putting those out again. I have one condition though: I want people to comment and discuss as they have here. Previously that wasn't always the case.

[Max Dirks]

Sometimes I open with conjunctions to add suspense to my writing.

[Ebivoulya]

...I don't see how that would accomplish such a thing.

I'm of the old-school grammar nazi variety of writers who, while acknowledging that breaking certain rules can be used for effect and style, believe there's always a grammatically-correct way to accomplish the same thing. I usually try to suggest such alternatives when I see someone relying too heavily on those 'shortcuts.' I think it's only after you're good enough to do what you want without breaking any rules that you will have the wisdom to know if breaking those rules is actually necessary.

[Max Dirks]

I've found that many people don't treat periods, commas and semi-colons like they should as readers. When readers fail to pause at the correct time they pass over the suspense. I generally only use the conjunction "but" to begin a sentence to stress its importance to the story or to point out blatant irony. You're probably right though, Ebi, that the same suspense can be afforded through proper writing, but you're also forgetting writing lesson one: know your audience.