There’s a primary school rule that haunts every copywriter I’ve ever met.

It makes us tear out our hair in debriefs, bang our heads against the table in meetings and, worst of all, bore our art directors to tears with passionate rants about language.

The rule is this: “Never start a sentence with and.”

Here’s a fun thing to do.

Read that rule, out loud, to a copywriter near you. Watch as their eyes roll towards heaven, their face reddens and they start furiously defending and. It really is the single most frustrating thing you can say to a writer.

See, copywriters write to sell.

We’re not putting together a formal business proposal, writing a thesis or doing a Grade 2 test where it would be inappropriate to start (or end) with and.

We’re writing to convince someone to take action – whether it’s to buy a can of soup, vote Green or take out a home loan. In this environment, starting with and is one of the most powerful ways to add drama to our writing. And emphasis.

And pacing.

There’s no word like it for really adding some punch to your writing or making the important bits really stand out.

Actually, until this morning I thought it was the rule itself that was incorrect (or just old fashioned), but it turns out I’d simply forgotten the definition of a sentence. If Grade 2 is as far back for you as it is for me, here’s a refresher:

A sentence is a group of words that includes a subject and a verb and expresses a complete idea.

So truth is, we’re technically not breaking any school rules by starting with and. Because the ’sentences’ that start with and, but or because are not strictly sentences. They rely on you having read something before them. They don’t express a complete thought. So they’re just phrases.

And there’s no rule (Grade 2 or otherwise) that says you can’t start a phrase with and.

xk

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Tags: and, grammar, sentence