On Mon, Aug 27, 2001 at 08:09:09PM -0500, Douglas A. Reeves wrote:
"What's wrong, Ranma? What have you been up to?!" said Akane. "It can't
be anything good, or you wouldn't be scared!" If anything Ranma looked
more scared.
But if anything, Ranma looked even more scared.
Again, the original is correct, the correction is not.
First of all, the original is incorrect; it is missing a comma.
Never begin a sentence with a conjunction (such as "and" or "but")
Second of all, despite what your elementary school teachers may have told
you, it is perfectly acceptable to begin a sentence with a conjunction.
The reason elementary school teachers tell you never to start a sentence
with a conjunction is that it's easy to end up with a sentence fragment if
you do. So, as long as the sentence is complete, there is no problem here.
And indeed, 'But if anything, Ranma looked even more scared.' is a complete
sentence. It is grammatically correct. Whether the original author wants
to put the 'but' in there is a stylistic matter, as the original sentence
can be corrected simply by putting a comma after 'anything'.