the new english? Totally different point

[Duane Campbell]

Speaking of the new English ...

Several years ago I started seeing in newspapers, especially in editorial
writing, a sentence beginning with a conjunction followed by a comma.
More recently it has become pervasive.

I'm not going to be so schoolmarmish to suggest that you can't begin a
sentence with a conjunction. I do it myself. But that damn comma really
bugs me. The whole point of starting with a conjunction is for flow, and
the comma disrupts that.

Since I write for newspapers for a living, I have several different
manuals of style, and not all of them were transcribed by monks. The
prescriptive rule is that an opening phrase _may_ be set off by a comma
but never an opening single word. And none of the books I have even
contemplate -- contemplates? -- following an opening conjunction with a
comma.

Ok. I know. Things change. But generally things change for a reason. (I
suppose that demonstrates I am not a professional linguist.) This
conjunction/comma convention has no rationale, in fact seems counter to
good, readable writing. Does anyone have any idea of the genesis of it?

I had an extended email and letters-to-the-editor discussion about this
(and other things) with a professor of journalism. He did not give me any
reason to be optimistic about the future of newspaper writing.

D

I am Duane Campbell and I approve this message