Johanna said: >'Since' with the meaning 'because' has been used for a number of centuries >now. > I take the import of her statement to be that the use of "since" to mean "because" is a non-issue. And isn't that one of the problems with the English-teaching profession--that we focus on issues that are either trivial or made up and ignore the big stuff, like teaching students to write "with clarity and grace." (This comes from an editor who changes the "which" of restrictive clauses to "that." How DO we get over these tendencies?) Bill McCleary William J. McCleary Editor: Composition Chronicle Associate Prof. of English Viceroy Publications Coordinator of Secondary English 3247 Bronson Hill Road SUNY at Cortland Livonia, NY 14487 607-753-2076 716-346-6859 [log in to unmask] [log in to unmask]