Sentence opening with "So,"
sentence-initial-soon by default (info)English
A sentence that opens with "So,", a spoken pause carried into writing
Example
How to fix
Delete "So," and reread. If the link is needed, use a word that says what it is ("Therefore", "As a result").
Why it matters
"So," at the head of a sentence carries a spoken pause into writing. It joins the sentence to the last without saying how (a reason, a result, a change of topic). "So far" and "So that", without the comma, open a sentence on their own terms and are not counted.
What it does not flag
Only "So," with its comma. "So far", "So that" and "So the board decided" are not counted. Only in English documents; the fiction and speech presets turn it off, since a spoken tone is their form.
Turning it off or relaxing it
Technical details
- Layer
- L2
- Status
- stable
- Severity
- info
- Languages
- en
- Suited to
- business, technical, blog, legal, docs, academic, literature, speech
- Reads from the document
- pos
Levels
Set a level for this rule under rules in chaff.yaml. With nothing set, it runs at the level its genre gives it (see By genre below).
| strict | reported once 1 sentences open with "So," |
|---|---|
| normal | reported once 1 sentences open with "So," |
| relaxed | reported once 3 sentences open with "So," |
By genre
- Runs by default in
- technical/spec, technical/readme, blog/tech, blog/essay, blog/owned-media, business/proposal, business/report, business/email, business/press-release, business/meeting-notes, docs/manual, docs/faq, docs/glossary, academic/paper
- Turned off by the genre in
- legal/contract, legal/statute, legal/judgment, legal/patent, literature/fiction, literature/essay, literature/poetry, literature/play, speech/address, speech/transcript
Message
{count} sentences open with "{matched}" ({limit} needed)
Rewrite depth (chaff fix-plan --depth): light — words and sentences; the structure and the voice stay
This page is built from the rule's definition file:packages/chaff/rules/sentence-initial-so.yaml