by
nathan l. winegar
• • •
Recently
The Geneseo Republic
teamed with the community's sole local Internet service provider to
provide the Geneseo metropolitan area with something it sorely lacks:
a gay bar.
Wait, I mean an online
message board where people can log on and talk about the paper
and whatever else happens to be on their minds that day. And don't
think the decision makers in this country aren't checking out the
site for guidance in forming national policy.
Anyway, the message board also includes a section
where people can ask me questions about the newspaper. Today I present
to you a recent exchange from that section:
reader:
Nathan,
I was always instructed that one should NEVER start a sentence with
any of the seven coordinating conjunctions: and, but, or, nor, for,
yet, so.
Not to put you on the spot, here is a quote from your latest article,
"Reservations about war."
“I’m a pretty laid-back guy. It takes a lot to get
me worked up. And while these negative thoughts are
by no means all-consuming, they are somewhere they’ve never
been before: in my mind. And I don’t like it.”
My question: How are you able to cheat from this English Writing rule
— never start a sentence using coordinating conjunctions, —
as an editor of a newspaper? It's not
just you that is doing this; many newspaper editors and novel writers
are cheating the same rule.
Just Wondering
nathan:
Dear Wondering,
Never using conjunctions at the beginning of sentences is a rule I
also learned in my early elementary school career. But, obviously,
I no longer agree with it. Or, more precisely, I think it is a rule
that teachers make up to help their students avoid writing sentence
fragments. For what it’s worth, I think using conjunctions at
the beginning of sentences is an effective way of reducing run-ons.
And it keeps the length of sentences short.
Yet I can see how overuse of sentences front-loaded with conjunctions
can dilute the effectiveness of a piece of writing (a good example
being the portion of my column you cited). So, in general, I try to
limit my use of the technique. But by no means is it an absolute rule,
as your teachers would have you believe.
reader:
:
I am glad to hear that you are not pursuing a career in Writing; I
assure you if you had, you would eventually fail. Only those who have
a vintage career in writing, one who has been writing for 20 plus
years and has been graciously rewarded, has the distinct privilege
of breaking the rules every now and then. Never mind. It doesn’t
matter. You only write for the Geneseo Republic, not the New York
Times or Washington Post.
Nathan L. Winegar retired in disgrace from
The Geneseo Republic in February 2003, shortly after this exchange.
He is now applying to law schools.
