Over the last few weeks, I've noticed a personal linguistic habit that annoys me. It seems that in many emails and postings, I have a habit of writing sentences with an "X-clause-but-Y-clause structure. To demonstrated, I'll quote from an email I sent to my brother last March.

"I checked our distributor who carries Dogfish, but they indicated that they thought that the company didn't brew enough for them to be able to stock it. So then I called Westy's, and they said they didn't currently have it but were expecting some in."

Note how both sentences end with a qualifying "but clause." These qualifying clauses are not always negative. Note how the first sentence ends on a negative note and the second sentence ends on an optimistic note. So, my "but clauses" are not always expressing negativity. Nonetheless, I am annoyed at myself for employing this construction so regularly. Consequently, I am beginning to edit myself when I find myself but-ing.