Claire Wood wrote:
I've noticed some common faults with grammar and thought I should raise
this, just as a reminder or aid for anyone that is not a native-English
speaker/writer.
I've come across instances when editing documentation where conjunctions
(words that are used to connect two or more clauses, phrases or words
together to make longer constructions) are being used to start
sentences. The most common words that I've noticed are "because"
and "but". It is considered bad English to start a sentence with them. We
tend to encourage the use of "As" instead of "because" and "However" instead
of "but" at the beginning of sentences. There are other examples of words
to use as alternatives but I thought I'd stick with the most common ones
used in technical documentation.
[details snipped]
Where I have seen "but" being used in technical documents, at the beginning
of sentences, I've changed it for another conjunctive adverb that is more
acceptable at the beginning of sentences, for example "However".
[detailed snipped]
Don't ask me why we tend to do it this way, all I know is that is the proper
way.
If it is done differently elsewhere in the world I'd love to hear about it.
Starting a sentence with "Because" is quite acceptable, at least in
American and Australian English. I've co-authored a recently-published
book* on technical editing; although I did not write the grammar
portion, it definitely gave examples of using co-ordinating
conjunctions such as "Because" at the start of a sentence. My
co-authors even used "But" and "And" at the start of a sentence; I
don't like that usage, but as Gary notes, CMOS promotes it. BTW, in
the book we discourage the use of "As" in place of "Because"; the two
words have different meanings and are often interchangeable.
Many "rules" of grammar are actually conventions of usage, which vary
from one country or region to another. You might be interested in
reading an article I wrote on this topic: Escape from the grammar
trap, http://www.jeanweber.com/newsite/?page_id=23
* Technical Editing in the 21st Century, by Nicole Amare, Barry
Nowlin, and Jean Hollis Weber, Prentice Hall, February 18, 2010, ISBN
978-0131196773. (It's a textbook, so it's overpriced. Reference given
for information purposes only; I'm not trying to sell it to anyone here.)
--Jean
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