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As Well, Too (Start of Sentence)
Starting Well
By Evan Jenkins
A question from Robyn Packard, based in Toronto as marketing editor for the international business law firm Torys LLP:
“How do you feel about using ‘As well’ at the beginning of a sentence?”
Not well. That phrase, in that place, doesn’t violate any rule of grammar or usage. But it’s unnatural and seems terribly affected — pinky-in-the-air stuff, or some writing teacher’s half-baked idea of originality. Much the same could be said of “too” at the start of a sentence, where it crops up occasionally.
With perfectly idiomatic words and phrases like “in addition,” “besides,” “furthermore,” “moreover,” “also,” and good old reliable “and” available to us, we don’t need to hold up a sign to let everybody know we’re cute. (CJR, May/June 2006)
CJR
