The Thinking Behind Grammar and Style
Surface and Depth
Draw a square in your imagination, and then from the two top points extend diagonal lines to transform that square into a cube. A few more lines up, down, and crosswise, and what you first perceived as a flat surface has taken on volume, another dimension. We can accomplish this same effect in written composition,…
But We Can Begin with But
Where it originated I don’t know, but the belief exists and seems to persist that a good writer does not begin a sentence with the word but. This is not true, as many traditional guides to English style affirm. It is true, certainly, that some occasions are better than others to begin a sentence in…
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