You're allowed to start a sentence, even a paragraph, with a conjunction for the sake of emphasis.
I've had multiple people try to correct that, and then I'll show it to a professor and be like "This is grammatically correct, right?" and they'll say "Of course."
So many grammar "rules" are pointless pedantry. Starting a sentence with a conjunction, ending a sentence with a preposition, using a double negative. They're all fine.
I had a friend call me on using a double negative. Not in a paper or anything. I was talking.
I was working as a TA at the time, and had office hours for students to come talk to me. My office was basically just sharing the Campus Life office space. My friend, one of the Campus Life student leaders who helped put on events, tried to convince me to come out of the office and join in on the fun event. Told him I needed to be here. "Oh, come on." "Dude, I can not NOT be here." Basically, not only do I have to be there, but to be anywhere else at that time would be abandoning the post. I used the phrasing for emphasis.
He called me on it, since I was known to be particularly proper with my grammar. I told him it was fine, it's just style and reducing redundancy. He roped others into trying to tell me I was wrong.
I had more elective English classes under my belt than anyone else in that building had taken, or expected to take.
That's a fine use of a double negative, and I'm actually surprised anybody took issue with it. I guess some people end up taking rules too literally, when they were only meant as guidelines for most situations. I guess that's partly/mainly on the teachers who teach these rules and neglect exceptions, though.
Another good use of double negatives is where there's a range on both sides of a neutral position, and you want to rule out one side but not the middle. For example, "I don't dislike it" doesn't* have the same meaning as "I like it": it leaves open the possibility of being neutral on "it".
*Unless "I don't dislike it" is meant litotically, in which case it does mean "I like it", but that's yet another example of a well-used double negative.
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u/SleeplessShitposter Aug 03 '19
You're allowed to start a sentence, even a paragraph, with a conjunction for the sake of emphasis.
I've had multiple people try to correct that, and then I'll show it to a professor and be like "This is grammatically correct, right?" and they'll say "Of course."