Could everyone do me a favor?
Be careful when you use the conjunction "as." I just saw this last Sunday: "The Big Ten is making a comeback, as they have not had schools in the top two of the rankings since back in 2006."
That's terrible, simply terrible. It's insipid stylistically and screams, "I can't be bothered with crisp prose." Just write, "The Big Ten is making a comeback: it has not had schools in the top two since 2006." Let the reader supply the obvious conjunction, instead of you supplying a vague one.
The conjunction "as" also tends to be ambiguous. It could mean "because," "since," or "while." It's not always bad, of course. Strunk and White supply a few examples of proper usage: "Chloe smells good, as a pretty girl should."
