"Since John..., he..." Vs. "Since he..., Jo

Achab   Sat Sep 27, 2008 12:06 am GMT
Folks,

Do you think one of the following two sentences should be preferred over the other? As in whether one of them is better-flowing to the ears of native speakers, stuff like that. Or are they equivalent?

1) Since John read the paper only once in a blue moon, he had only a sketchy knowledge of current events.

2) Since he read the paper only once in a blue moon, John had only a sketchy knowledge of current events.

Quizzically,

Achab
Achab   Sat Sep 27, 2008 12:10 am GMT
The title of this thread should have been the following:

"Since John..., he..." Vs. "Since he..., John..."

I'm sure I typed the whole of it.

I wonder why it came off "beheaded". Well, no big a deal...

Even more quizzically,

Achab
RayH   Wed Oct 01, 2008 1:13 am GMT
I find both entirely acceptable and equivalent.
Another Guest   Mon Oct 06, 2008 6:15 am GMT
By itself, the first version is better, since it presents the antecedent before the pronoun. The second will cause readers to be a bit confused until they get to the part after the comma. But there are situations where putting the pronoun first reduces confusion. Compare "Since John had only met Bob once, he wasn't sure what gift to get" versus "Since he had only met Bob once, John wasn't sure what gift to get".