📂Writing

Avoid Starting Sentences with And, But, and So When Writing English Papers

Description

When writing academic papers, it is not advisable to start sentences with “and,” “but,” or “so.” First of all, these three words are all conjunctions, so starting a sentence with them is grammatically incorrect. Conjunctions are used to connect two sentences into one, so if the previous sentence ends with a period, the next sentence should not start with and/but/so. While these words are frequently used in speech, colloquial, and informal writing, they should not be used in academic papers or official documents. To connect separate sentences, adverbial conjunctions should be used.

Particularly, “and,” “but,” and “so” are translated to “그리고 (geurigo)”, “그러나 (geureona)”, and “그래서 (geuraeseo)” in Korean, respectively. Since these are adverbial conjunctions in Korean, native Korean speakers may naturally start sentences with “and/but/so,” so caution is required. Moreover, if the two sentences are logically well connected, there is no need to use an adverbial conjunction. This is also true in Korean writing; overusing adverbial conjunctions can result in poor quality writing, as shown below:

Today, I went to Chulsoo’s house. And I drank beer. But I also ate chicken. So I am full.

This concept can be easily understood by thinking of the absolute value function.

$$ \text{And/But/So로 시작하지 않는다} (\times) \implies \operatorname{abs}(x) $$

Instead of using “and,” the following expressions can be used:

• Moreover
• Furthermore
• Additionally
• In addition

Instead of using “but,” the following expressions can be used:

• However
• Meanwhile
• Nevertheless
• On the other hand

Instead of using “so,” the following expressions can be used:

• Therefore
• Then
• Thus
• Hence
• Accordingly

Examples

• and: For instance, suppose $g$ is confined within the circle, and it takes the value $A \cos n\theta$ within the circle where $n \gt 0$.

  For example, consider $g$ to be confined to a circle, and let it have the value $A \cos n\theta$ in the circle, where $n \gt 0$.¹

• but: Equation $(3)$ is an integral equation for two variables, but it can be reduced to an integral equation for a single variable as follows.

  Equation (3) is an integral equation in two variables, but it may be reduced to a set of integral equations in one variable as follows.¹

• so: $f(p, \phi)$ is a function of polar coordinates $(p, \phi)$ within the unit circle, so it can be expanded into a Fourier series.

  Now $f(p, \phi)$ is a function of polar coordinates $(p, \phi)$ in the unit circle, so it may be expanded in a Fourier series:¹