On 3/1/2010 8:28 PM, Jean Hollis Weber wrote:
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
Yes, "as" and "because" are usually not interchangeable. This usage
"rule" or choice has its parallels in the US English "that/which" usage:
"Blah... blah... blah because..." is parallel to "Blah... blah..." blah
that..." Similarly: "Blah... blah... blah, as..." is parallel to
"Blah... blah... blah, which..." In US English usage, "that" normally
does not use a comma, while "which" does have a comma preceding the "which".
The "that/which" US English may cause some difficulties to non-US
English writers or editors because (BTW, no comma here...) they were not
taught the "that/which" usage in their elementary-school education as
conveying two separate meanings. In fact, some mistakes using
"that/which" inappropriately in US legal contracts have been responsive
for occasional multimillion dollar legal judgments in court.
Gary
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Gary Schnabl
Southwest Detroit, two miles NORTH! of Canada--Windsor, that is...
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