There’s no rule that prohibits you from starting a sentence with short words like but, so, also, because, therefore, thus, and so on.
In user assistance, using these words at the beginning of a sentence is not poor style. Using these words is much better than clumsy and overblown phrases such as as a consequence of, as a result of, due to the fact that, owing to the fact that, and so on.
However, bear in mind that most readers don’t read instructions from start to finish. Thus, don’t start a new paragraph with a word that relates to the previous paragraph. If you’re doing so, this is an indicator that you probably shouldn’t start a new paragraph here.
|