Steve,
I'm not a writing teacher or an editor, and so my take on this might be skewed a bit by my linguistics. However, it's important to bear in mind that function and form are distinct. Your terms "conjunctive adverb" and "coordinating conjunction" are frequently taken to name lists of words, and a lot of people seem to think that those lists can't overlap. In fact, they are functions that words can carry out, and the same word can carry out more than one function. So "claim" can be a noun or a verb. Whether an editor, teacher, or writer wants to allow "so" as a conjunctive adverb and put a comma after it depends very much on audience, genre, level of formality (register), and personal taste. My sense is that "so" can be a conjunctive adverb in less formal writing but not so well in the most formal registers. But that's a personal judgment.
Herb
Herbert F. W. Stahlke, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor of English
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306
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From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Benton, Steve [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2013 2:57 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: So
If the word "so" appears by itself as the beginning of a sentence,
should it be followed by a comma? It seems to me that the answer
depends on whether or not "so" can be classified as a "conjunctive
adverb" similar to "consequently" in addition to being classified as a
coordinating conjunction.
A follow-up question: what counts as an authoritative answer to this
question? Is there a reference book that readers of the listserv trust
more than others when considering questions of this sort?
Steve Benton
East Central University
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