迷信としての文頭and, but使用の禁止

Style: Toward Clarity and Grace (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing & Publishing)

• Joseph M. Williams, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace, with two chapters coauthored by Gregory G. Colomb (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), 182.

　英語のスタイルについての基本書である本書のなかで、Williamsはいくつかの「言語上のフォークロア」を挙げています。それは多くの編集者や教師によって守るべきルールとされているけれども、本当のところルールではないもののことです。優れた書き手はそのような「ルール」を無視しています。そのなかの一つに文頭のandとbutがあります。

Never begin a sentence with a coordinating conjunction such as and or but. Allegedly, not this (a passage that violates the "rule" twice):

But, it will be asked, is tact not an individual gift, therefore highly variable in its choices? And if that is so, what guidance can a manual offer, other than that of its author's prejudices - mere impressionism? (Wilson Follett, Modern American Usage: A Guide, edited and completed by Jacques Barzun et al.)

As I said earlier, Gowers called this rule a "faintly lingering superstition." Just about any highly regarded writer of nonfictional prose begins sentences with and or but, some more than once a page.