RE: "and then," or simply "then"?

["Sean Brierley" <sbrierley -at- Accu-Time -dot- com>]

Perhaps I was that editor? Bwahahahahahahahahahaha.

I don't know what to say. Language has rules: grammar. Studies show that
teaching grammar does not improve writing. However, using the rules
incorrectly is ... Incorrect? I'm so confused.

Bottom line: do we care about all the rules or only some of them? Why?
And, what should we do about it in either case?

Cheers,

Sean

-----Original Message-----
From: Van Boening, Tammy [mailto:Tammy -dot- VanBoening -at- chartercom -dot- com] 
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2008 2:03 PM
To: Sean Brierley; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: "and then," or simply "then"?


Sean,

Did you have the same editor that I had? Exactly how you have given
these two examples is how an editor from you know where dictated that we
use the "then" option; never mind that all other editors went along with
today's language (as Richard stated, the semi-literate, or as I call
them, "functional illiterates") and just used "then" with a comma before
it (as Chris has indicated.)

So, you can be as strict as possible and use one of the ways Sean
describes below, or be consistent at least and cater to the least common
denominator and use "then" with only a comma in front of it.
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