Re: use of "however"

["Candie McKee" <kiruna91 -at- hotmail -dot- com>]

Mike,

I looked in 3 grammar handbooks for the answer to this question.  I did not 
find a standard rule that stated you should not start a sentence with 
"however."

The rules appear to be:

1. When used as an conjunctive adverb:  The word is an adverb.  It describes 
the relation of ideas in two clauses, and can move around in the sentence.
   ex.  Relaxation techniques have improved; however, few people know       
   them.   OR    Relaxation techniques have improved; few people           
know them, however.

2.  When two clauses are related by a conjunctive adverb:  They must be 
separated by a period or by a semicolon.


I do not know if this helps you or not.  When my professors edited my 
thesis, they did not say that "however" did not belong at the beginning of a 
sentence. One professor did suggest that I reword the sentence because she 
preferred not to see "however" at the beginning.  I remember this because I 
found it interesting that she was the only one out of four to make note of 
it.

Candie