Thursday, May 20, 2010

And

When I was in first grade, my teacher told us to never use the word "and" to begin a sentence. It was bad grammar. Microsoft Word told me this once, too. So when I'm typing for school, or on my blog (because this is the last place I write properly) I try to do it the right way - not start my sentences with "and". But you might have noticed, that I do end up starting my sentences that way, because half way through the post, I get frustrated, having took too long to get my idea out, because I'm trying to do it right. I try to eliminate the "and", or make it into one big sentence, but no matter what, it ends up sounding very wrong. And I think it's unfair! How can you say it's not allowed when it sounds so annoyingly good, and strings phrases together? Of course to compromise, there is the semi-colon but who ever figures out how to use that correctly, and there we have more issues with being grammatically correct. What's so horrific if I start these sentences with "and"? It's a beautiful, helpful word.

2 comments:

Lola Bellybutton said...

yes. you may see that in my writing i use and often. my writing teacher (Ryan) says that most good writers, you will find, break the rules of "proper writing." run on sentences or sentences that start with and. it's like painting. picasso could and did draw incredibly realistic, beautiful portraiture, but he chose to draw unrealistically, with noses on foreheads and breasts at bellies. Once you understand how to write/draw/do NAYTHING well, you can break the rules.

Mountain Spirit said...

well thank you. i feel much safer to hear that. cause ive probably devoted at least a day's worth total, of time trying to figure out how to reword things for both "and" sentences and run on sentences. like that one was.