25. Conjunction Positioning

.

Some conjunctions can start any sentence, but others start only in special circumstances

DEFINITION OF CONJUNCTIONS 

“Do not put a conjunction at the beginning of a sentence” is a rule that many learners of English say they were given at school. The rule, however, is too broad: sometimes you can start a sentence with a conjunction, and sometimes you cannot. I want to try and explain this.

Before anything else, there is a need to be clear about what exactly conjunctions are. A fairly full description can be read within these pages in 174. Eight Things to Know about Conjunctions. However, it is useful here to look more closely at the common idea that a conjunction “joins two sentences into one”.

There are a number of problems with this idea. Firstly, it implies that sentences with a conjunction are derived from smaller sentences, when in reality writers may create them directly. The idea of joined sentences probably comes from the most common type of exercise for learning about conjunctions: making a single conjunction sentence out of two smaller ones. Secondly, the idea of sentence-joining is not very helpful if a student writer is unsure what a sentence is in the first place. Thirdly, this idea is not sufficient to distinguish conjunctions from other “sentence-joining” words, such as relative pronouns and participles (for a fuller list, see 30. When to Write a Full Stop).

I would prefer to say that conjunctions, rather than “joining” independent expressions together, require sentences to contain wording that would not otherwise be allowed. This extra wording is not a “sentence” but an extra verb-containing statement. The conjunction must usually be at its start (though see 88. Exotic Grammar Structures 1, #5). Extra statements would not be allowed without a conjunction (or other “joining device”) because of the rule that a new verb makes a new sentence (see 30. When to Write a Full Stop).

To appreciate how a conjunction necessitates the involvement of an extra verb, consider these conjunction-containing statements:

(a) After one falls asleep, …

(b) One falls asleep and …

If the conjunctions (underlined) were removed, we would be left with complete sentences. However, as they are written, the two sentences are incomplete, and any way of completing them correctly has to contain a second verb, such as dreams.

The only apparent exception to the rule that every conjunction necessitates an extra verb in a sentence is listing uses of and and or:

(c) Sleep and exercise are necessary for health.

Despite these, however, the verb rule seems well worth keeping. We might just add that and and or have an alternative use – listing – to that of joining verbs together (for more about listing, see 54. Sentence Lists 1).

The proposed alternative to the “sentence-joining” description of conjunctions helps the first two of the problems mentioned above to be avoided: there is no reference to previously-composed sentences, and the words “verb-containing statement” give more precise guidance on what must also be added to a sentence when a conjunction is.

The third problem – the need to distinguish conjunctions from other joining devices that necessitate an extra verb in a sentence – can be addressed by highlighting another feature of conjunctions: their indication of how the statement immediately after them is related to the rest of the sentence. For example, and mostly indicates that the words after it are saying something additional to, or later than, what the rest of the sentence says; but indicates oppositeness or unexpectedness; and after indicates an earlier time.

This feature of conjunctions cannot be used by itself to characterise them, since it is also possessed by connectors, e.g. furthermore and however. The verb-adding property is the main means of distinguishing conjunctions from connectors: the verb necessitated by a connector must be with it in a new sentence (see 40. Conjunctions versus Connectors).

.

WRONG CONJUNCTION STARTS

There seem to be two main kinds of mistake that lead teachers to speak of never beginning a sentence with a conjunction. They may be illustrated by the second sentence in each of these examples:

(d) *New roads cause traffic congestion. Because drivers flock to use them.

(e) *New roads cause traffic congestion. And they are expensive.

The problem in each case is that the conjunction (underlined) has only one verb in its sentence. The other verb that it requires is in the sentence before. One possible correction is changing the conjunction into a similar-meaning connector – this is because in (d) and moreover in (e). Simpler, though, is to remove the full stop before the conjunction. It so happens that doing this will also make the conjunction a mid-sentence one instead of the first word in its sentence. Perhaps it is this effect that leads to the call never to begin a sentence with a conjunction.

One reason why it is easy to write “sentences” like the second ones above might be the fact that they are possible in spoken English. Indeed, examples like (e) are even common in some kinds of writing, such as journalism. It is only in formal written English that beginning with a conjunction in these ways is rare (see 166. Appropriacy in Professional English).

.

WHEN A CONJUNCTION CAN START A SENTENCE

In examples (d) and (e) above, the conjunctions are both written between the two verbs that they join. Example (d), however, can also be written with the conjunction before both verbs, and hence at the start of a sentence, like this:

(f) Because drivers flock to use them, new roads cause congestion.

Sentence (a) shows the same kind of thing. Sentence (e), on the other hand, cannot be rewritten in this way; the conjunction and must always go between the two verbs. There are many conjunctions like because and only a few like and. There is no logical reason for a conjunction to be of one kind or the other, any more than there is a logical reason for some nouns being countable and some not, or some verbs being transitive and some not. You just have to remember which kind each conjunction is. Other conjunctions like and are but, yet, so, or, nor and for.

This insight allows us to make a more precise rule about conjunction positions. Firstly, it is true that conjunctions like and should not start a sentence in formal writing; instead we must either remove any full stop before the conjunction or replace the conjunction with a connector. The second part of the rule is that a conjunction like because may begin a sentence, but only when both of the linked verbs come after it, as in example (f). You cannot begin a sentence with because when it is written between the two linked verbs, as in (d).

To sum up, the rule at the start of this post may be rephrased like this: “Do not put a conjunction at the start of a sentence in formal writing unless both of the verbs linked by the conjunction are written after it”. To become more familiar with what this means, try the following exercise.

.

PRACTICE EXERCISE: CONJUNCTIONS & FULL STOPS

Below are some short passages with missing full stops. The task is to locate the full stops by reference to verbs and conjunctions. There are three verbs involved each time (underlined). Two should be linked together in the same sentence by a conjunction that is also present, while the third will be separated by the full stop. Answers are given afterwards.

.

1. After World War One ended a peace treaty was signed in a railway carriage in Versailles near Paris the peace did not last for very long.

2. Married women seek employment much more frequently today than in the past because social conditions have changed so much one change is family size.

3. There is much disagreement about the cause of global warming most scientists are convinced that human activity is responsible while a few believe in some other reason like sunspots.

4. Every sentence contains at least one verb if any additional verb is added to the sentence a joining word like a conjunction must also be present.

5. Exotic animals are being killed at an alarming rate many will become extinct unless the world’s governments manage to pass much stronger preventative laws.

6. Many young people choose to smoke although they know the long-term dangers to their health the distant future does not seem to them something worth a lot of worry.

.

ANSWERS: 1 = after Paris (conj = after);   2 = after so much (conj = because);  3 = after warming (conj = while);   4 = after one verb (conj = if);   5 = after rate (conj = unless);   6 = after EITHER smoke OR health (conj = although).

24. Good & Bad Repetition

.

Each different way of repeating something can be done in a good or a bad way

WAYS OF REPEATING

The concept of repetition is a familiar everyday one. In language, there are various kinds. It is possible to repeat single words or phrases, and also whole statements. We can in addition repeat with the same words or with a paraphrase, where only the meaning is repeated (see 80. How to Paraphrase). This discussion is about all of these types of repetition in writing (for repetition in speaking, see 186. Language in Oral Presentations). All can be either good or bad.

.

TYPES OF BAD REPETITION

Many writers believe that repetition of exact words should be avoided because it shows a lack of skill/maturity as a writer, or a failure to consider the reader, who must be entertained by variety in the language s/he is presented with. This belief is evidenced by the frequency with which single ideas are repeated in different words in texts (creating a major reading difficulty for readers whose mother tongue is not English – see 5. Repetition with Synonyms). Exact-word repetition certainly is undesirable if done excessively, but in moderation it can be acceptable or even good (see the next section).

Exact-word repetition can be of grammar words as well as of ordinary vocabulary. One example that writing manuals often warn against is constant use of and to link short statements together. English has various alternatives that can reduce this repetition, for example connectors like after this and verbs in the -ing (participle) form (see 128. Imperative Verbs in Formal Writing,  210. Process Descriptions, #4, and 282. Features of History Writing, #3 and #5). 

Repetition in different words is sometimes bad too. One common error is unnecessarily explaining a word with a synonym, like this:

(a) *The function of classroom assistants is to assist, or help, teachers.

There is no problem understanding assist here, so providing a synonym is unnecessary. The best correction is using help by itself (assist is rather repetitive of the earlier assistants). Another word-level error is so-called “tautology”: unintentionally expressing the same meaning twice in a sentence. Consider this:

(b) *Deforestation has such harmful effects as reduced rainfall, soil erosion, flooding, and so on.

There are two indications here that the list is incomplete: such … as and and so on. The sentence does not need both, and is better without and so on (see 1. Simple Example-Giving).

Similar to tautology is the error of naming something twice by means of a noun and pronoun together, e.g.:

(c) *Students at university they have many distractions from study.

This repetition with they would be quite common in spoken conversation, but should be avoided in formal written English. Another version begins with for (*For me, I think that …). For a way to keep the emphasis here without the repetition, see 125. Stress and Emphasis. 

When the repetition is a whole statement, there is a risk of making the reader feel s/he is being told the same thing twice. One place where this often occurs is the first sentence of an essay, since it is tempting there for the writer to say what the essay is about despite this having already been made clear through the title. Another danger area in essays is when the writer is returning to a previously-mentioned point and wants to remind the reader what it was. If this is not done in the right way, the reader easily feels that the same point is being made twice.

Lecturers and teachers see this last kind of bad repetition as evidence of either poor organization or insufficient knowledge (a way of filling a page when the writer does not have enough to say!). Some students, for sure, are guilty of these failings. However, I suspect that many who are accused of them are not really guilty, but are showing a weakness in English: they do not know how to use the language to achieve good repetition. This kind of bad repetition is hence more a language mistake than a content one (see 170. Logical Errors in Written English).

One useful vocabulary expression that can solve the problem of statement repetition is as mentioned above (see the end of 104. Naming Data Sources with “As”). For some grammar solutions, see 37. Subordination: Grammar for Good Repetition.

.

TYPES OF GOOD REPETITION

An obvious and common type of individual word that can be legitimately repeated in a text is the kind that is having multiple different things said about it (see, for example, 131. Uses of “Action” Nouns, #1). In addition to this, there are three important uses of written repetition that I wish to highlight: linking, reminding and clarifying.

Repetition for Linking

Linking is necessary in order to help a reader follow the flow of a text. Links do not always have to be made by means of repetition, but they often are. The repetition is probably more often of a single word or phrase than of a statement.

1. Linking with Word/Phrase Repetition

Although the first sentence of an extended response to a question, such as an essay, should not repeat the question, it can still show a link to it by repeating some of it in a phrase. For details, see 297. Types of Response to a Question, #6.

After the first sentence, repetition of a single word becomes a more likely way of showing a link. The repetition may or may not use exactly the same word. Consider this:

(d) Economic recessions cause bankruptcies. Bankruptcies harm whole communities.

The link between these two sentences is clear from the occurrence of the same idea (“bankruptcies”) in both. If there were no repeated idea in the second sentence, we would find it more difficult to understand why the two sentences were being said together.

The repetition above is with the same word. It could have been done instead with a pronoun (These – see 28. Pronoun Errors), a paraphrase (Losing all of one’s money – see 80. How to Paraphrase) or a more general word (Such disasters). I chose to use straight repetition above in order to emphasise that for linking it is just as acceptable as other types, even if less common. My subjective feeling is that the consecutive occurrences of the same word in (d) have a rhythm and a psychological effect that its alternatives do not.

As mentioned above, repetition is not the only way to show a link. Consider this alternative:

(e) Economic recessions cause bankruptcies. Harm is suffered by whole communities.

We can still understand here that the second sentence gives a consequence, but in the absence of repetition we have to work harder at it, making use of our general life knowledge (see 18. Relations Between Sentences). Writers will often help the reader in such situations by including a connector at the start of sentence 2, such as consequently (see 32. Expressing Consequences), or a connector synonym (see 112. Synonyms of Connectors).

 .

2. Linking with Statement Repetition

This kind of linking is often found in chronological descriptions of specific or general events (see 222. Information Orders in Texts). Consider the following extract from an economics book (Keynes and After, by Michael Stewart, published in 1970 by Pelican). The statement repetitions are underlined:

(f) (According to Marx), competition forces capitalist firms to invest their profits in labour-saving machinery, for if they do not do this their efficiency will drop, and they will be forced out of business. However, if labour-saving machinery is installed, there will be a fall in employment, and hence a rise in the number of the unemployed. As unemployment rises, wages (if not already at subsistence level) will tend to fall – for those who still have jobs will be forced by the capitalists to accept lower wages under threat of being replaced by the “reserve army” of the unemployed. Yet according to Marx, a fall in employment also meant a fall in profits, because the value of what is produced depends on the number of man-hours involved in producing it. This fall in profits before long leads to a crisis.

Here, labour-saving machinery is installed repeats invest … in labour-saving machinery while unemployment rises repeats a rise in the number of the unemployed. The repetition is necessary in order to say a second thing about each event: its consequence instead of its cause. For details of the grammatical structures enabling these and other statement repetitions to suggest reminding rather than just saying the same thing twice, see 37. Subordination: Grammar for Good Repetition.

.

Repetition for Reminding

Reminding is necessary when we want to say something new about a point first mentioned some time before. An example in (f) is the words Yet according to Marx, a fall in employment also meant a fall in profits. The underlined words are an exact repetition of part of sentence 2. They show a link to that earlier sentence, but they also remind the reader of what was said there. How they do this without appearing to be telling the reader the same thing twice is, once again, discussed elsewhere (see 37. Subordination: Grammar for Good Repetition and 156. Mentioning What the Reader Knows Already).

.

Repetition for Clarifying

This type of repetition is always with different wording, either a single word/phrase or a longer statement. Often you can add in other words between the two mentions:

WORD REPETITION

(g) The scapulas, (in other words) the shoulder blades, are in a posterior position just below each shoulder.

STATEMENT REPETITION

(h) Excessive intake of alcoholic beverages produces deleterious physical effects. (In other words,) it is unhealthy to drink too much.

The reason why a writer might want to say the same thing once in complicated language and again more simply involves who the readers are expected to be. The writer might expect them to include both experts in the topic (here doctors, perhaps) and ordinary people, so that both ways of giving the message are needed; or the readers may be students who are trying to learn the more technical way of talking about their subject, but still need some help.

The repetition in (g) is an example of “apposition” (see 77. Pairing of Same-Meaning Nouns). Repetition for clarifying can take various other forms besides that and the kind in (h): for a detailed survey, see 286. Repeating in Different Words.

In the bad form of this repetition type − sentence (a) − neither of the ways of stating the point is particularly technical. That means there is nothing to clarify and hence nothing to repeat.