Should ‘and’ Ever Start With a Capital ‘A’?

Do you remember those wonderful English lessons that we all endured at school? Numerous spelling tests, essays and book reports on texts that you never wanted to read but were forced to.

Although I was never taught explicit grammar at school – apparently reading was sufficient for us to grasp the many foibles of English grammar – one thing always stuck in my mind. It was drummed into us over and over again.

‘Never start a sentence with and.‘

It was a rule that I have lived by for numerous years. Throughout University you would never find an ‘and’ with a capital ‘a’ anywhere in my assignments. So I was rather puzzled when I saw a sentence in a recent copy of The Observer starting with And.

I reached out for my faithful Fowler’s Modern English Usage and was aghast to read that the enforced prohibition that I and many others had stuck by all these years had been ‘cheerfully ignored by standard authors from Anglo Saxon times onwards’ (Fowler’s Modern English Usage, Third Edition, p.52). Even Shakespeare used it in King John.

Now I find myself rebelling against my old English teacher. As a copywriter it is my job to create copy that is persuasive. For example I have to be able to attract the right people to my clients’ websites and, once there, get them to buy or sign up for something. Basically the copywriting services I provide involve building rapport with the reader. Through my writing I am holding a conversation with them and therefore the inevitable happens. I start a sentence with ‘and’.

The only rule that counts in this business is to make the writing real, persuasive and friendly. If you do that, your reader will trust you, your clients will love you and you will be kept in work for many years to come.