Groucho Marx wrote in his thank you note: "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."
Tell her to return my voicemail message. Or else.These are both very good examples of starting sentences with coordinating conjunctions for emphasis.
Tell him to come to my office. And read the report.This is a fragment. The sentence starting with the coordinating conjunction doesn't make sense and doesn't need special emphasis. It is more of an afterthought.
The danger of starting sentences with coordinating conjunctions is that doing it too much quickly loses its effectiveness. I still don't like it and change it in most documents I proofread. Whether the attorney author accepts my changes is quite another thing, but at least I've made my point.
So the basic rule is to use coordinating conjunctions at the beginning of a sentence sparingly for emphasis but not in a formal writing. And not when I'm proofing your work.
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