What is a conjunction?

A word used to connect clauses or sentences or to coordinate words in the same clause.

Connecting Your Writing with Conjunctions

A conjunction is a part of speech that connects words, phrases, clauses, or sentences.

There are three types of conjunctions:

Coordinating conjunctions: These connect two words or groups of words that have equal importance in a sentence, such as and, but, or, nor, for, and yet.
Correlative conjunctions: These work in pairs to connect two words or groups of words that have equal importance in a sentence, such as either/or, neither/nor, and both/and.
Subordinating conjunctions: These connect a dependent clause to an independent clause, such as although, because, if, since, while, until, and when.

Conjunctions can be used to clarify the relationship between ideas and to add variety to sentence structure.

Catching Conjunctions in Literature

Conjunctions are versatile and frequently used in literature, here are some examples of how writers have used conjunctions in their works.

And

The opening sentence of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities is a perfect example of the power of conjunctions to create rhythm and momentum:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

But

Conjunctions can also be used for dramatic effect, such as in the opening of William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury:

Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.

They were coming toward where the flag was and I went along the fence.

Luster was hunting in the grass by the flower tree.

They took the flag out, and they were hitting.

Then they put the flag back and they went to the table, and he hit and the other hit.