First of all, does everyone remember which words are conjunctions? Maybe not, so here is a list:
- and
- but
- or
- nor
- so
- yet
- for
Now, think back to elementary school. Did your teachers let you begin sentences with any of these words? I doubt it. My teachers certainly didn’t.
It is acceptable, though, to start sentences with conjunctions–with one caveat. Just don’t overdo it. Don’t start too many sentences in a paragraph or essay or other piece of writing with these words or it will sound rather strange.
So, why did our elementary teachers discourage us from using a conjunction at the start of a sentence? It is most likely because they didn’t want to confuse us. Teachers had a difficult enough time trying to explain all of the different ways in which conjunctions could be used.
First of all, teachers needed to explain that conjunctions can be used to join to nouns, verbs, adjectives, or adverbs in a sentence. Since this is the most basic usage of conjunctions, this is probably the one most of us learned first. Here are a few examples:
- My friend has a [dog] and a [cat]. — joining two nouns
- Don’t [throw] or [bounce] the ball in the house. — joining two verbs
- The cake is [rich], yet [delicious]! — joining two adjectives
- He is writing his essay [slowly], but [carefully]. — joining two adverbs
Teachers also had to explain that conjunctions were words that tied two complete thoughts together in a sentence. The main idea that teachers wanted to get across here to students was that conjunctions brought together two independent clauses in one sentence, as in these examples:
- [Candy is tasty], but [it is also bad for your teeth].
- [It is cold outside], so [you shouldn’t go swimming].
Each phrase inside the brackets–such as [Candy is tasty]–can stand alone as its own sentence. This is called an independent clause. And, conjunctions are words which can bring two independent clauses together to form one sentence.
Teachers most likely told students that conjunctions could not be used at the beginning of a sentence as a means to get students to understand independent clauses and how they relate to conjunctions. Teachers were well aware of the fact that sentences can begin with conjunctions; however, they were also well aware of the fact that many students would not be able to do so successfully.
Teachers would not have minded if all of their students understood how to correctly write sentences like these:
- She is going to the store. And, she will be buying bread, milk, and cheese.
- Playing sports is what the boys like to do. But, they will have to play after school.
Instead, though, teachers knew that it was likely that many students would get confused and begin writing sentence fragments beginning with conjunctions. Here are a couple of examples:
- She is going to the store to buy bread. And milk and cheese, too.
- Playing sports is what the boys like to do. But, after school.
If a person were talking, the above two examples would sound fine; however, when writing, those examples are incorrect because they each lack a verb.
Errors like these are very common for students. And, teachers know this; therefore, it is simply much easier to instruct students to completely avoid beginning sentences with conjunctions.
Adult writers should be aware, though, that it is acceptable to start sentences with conjunctions.
By the way, did you happen to notice that I started a few of my sentences with conjunctions in this post? 
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