yup, whereas is a problem. I am not even sure that it and thus should be called conjunctive adverbs. The conjunctive adverbs are moveable in ways that the coordinating conjunctions are not--however, therefore, moreover, nonetheless, etc. don't have to come between the independent clauses. But like the coordinate conjunctions, thus and whereas are not moveable. One could look at thus as a kind of absolute adverb, I guess. Maybe our lists are wrong! > ---------- > From: Jim Dubinsky[SMTP:[log in to unmask]] > Reply To: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar > Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 1998 12:10 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Conjunctive Adverbs & Coordinating Conjunctions > > Hi. I'm writing to get some feedback about the function of the word > "whereas" and the oft-printed list of coordinating conjunctions. > > Background. In my technical writing classes, I give 10 minute editing > quizzes to encourage students to think about style and presentation. > A > question came up the other day when we discussed the following > sentence: > > One benefit of running is that the number of red blood cells are > increased, > thus more oxygen can be carried per quart of blood. > > I used the sentence to illustrate two errors: a subject-verb > agreement > ("number . . . is" not "number. . . are") and a sentence boundary > error > ("thus" serving as a conjunctive adverb, which requires a semicolon > before > it). > > Students didn't argue about the first, but some wanted to argue that > "thus" > was not a conjunctive adverb; it functioned as a coordinating > conjunction, > requiring a comma, not a semicolon. > > In discussing this question with a colleague, we concluded that "thus" > was > indeed a conjunctive adverb. As we continued the discussion, we began > to > wonder about coordinating conjunctions and the mnemonic BOYS FAN (But, > Or,Yet, For, And, Nor, So). We wondered where (or whether) words like > "thus" and "whereas" fit. "Whereas" caused us the most problem. > > In a sentence similar to the one I used-- > > In the first case we have blah-blah, whereas in the second case we > have > yak-yak. > > we debated the function of "whereas." Is it a coordinating > conjunction? > Or would it function as "thus" did in the example I used? [we're > leaning > toward the former] > > Any thoughts or help on this question? > > Jim > > > Jim Dubinsky > Assistant Professor > English Department > Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University > Blacksburg, VA 24061-0112 > > http://athena.english.vt.edu/~dubinsky > [log in to unmask] (540) 231-7909 >