What do you think of the use of "so" and "well" as sentence starters in writing?

As an ad copywriter, I learned to write sentences in short bursts, and often, starting one with “So” was both necessary and effective. However, I don’t do much of that kind of writing anymore and now tend write complete sentence for the kind of materials I do write. On the spoken side, everybody at my office but especially engineers starts sentences with “So,” and I dislike it, not just because it sounds like the “in” thing to do, but more importantly, because it’s rarely necessary.

For example, why start a meeting with the sentence, “Today we’ll be discussing such-in-such” with ‘So’? I just don’t get that.

“Well” lends too much “I told you so” or “if you’d been paying attention” to anything that comes after it. I generally find it offputting in both written or oral forms, though the spoken word can be soft, diffusing a bit of its bite. “So” is often just filler in oral language—I see it as the way to start a sentence when there seems to be an odd interlude.

In writing dialog, both words could be useful; but for general narrative text, I find them distracting. So, was that what you were looking for . . . well????

Well, I use them both. So, I guess they are ok with me.

So, yeah. I get what you’re saying. But, well… I also do this.

But not when I’m writing professionally.

I hate it. I do it way too often, myself.

This is where I see the difference between e-writing (emails, Fluther posts, tweets, and on-line comment sections) and writing that is intended for a more formal publication. Most emails and other on-line writing is essentially a proxy for conversation, and this carries the informality of conversation. At least at Fluther there is a modicum of standards to keep it legible, but the tone itself is often conversational. I use “So..” and “Well” as initiating words all the time.

But in business or more formal writing, I would avoid them and not use them, because they are conversational crutches.

So at the beginning of any paragraph being spoken, particularly in answering a question, is very annoying. I don’t see it used that much in writing. So, I’m not sure there’s anything to do about it. Well, at least I can try not to do it myself, y’know.

I don’t like it. I do it, myself, but I don’t like it. It seems kind of lazy. Inappropriate.

I think you catch yourself doing it, and just delete all the words you don’t really need.

I say “well” to start off many of my posts here and many of my sentences, but only the first sentence, if my memory is correct. It doesn’t bother me, but I would think that “well” along with “so” is unacceptable in “formal writing”. When it comes to speaking, again it doesn’t really bother me. “Like” gets a bit on my nerves though. So many…like…people use…like…the word “like”....like….way too….like….much.
I once had a math teacher who said “alright” in excess. I started to keep a tally for one period of every time “alright” was said, but ended up stopping after only 20 minutes where the count was up to 83 “alright“s. A great teacher, however