A study examined patterns of English usage in 52 Japanese university freshmen's written compositions, particularly in the use of the subordinating conjunction "because." It was found that students often fragmented sentences when "because" was involved, or used a comma to separate a trailing dependent "because" clause from the independent sentence. The conjunction "when" was found to be used almost as much as "because," but was misused far less. It is suggested that the "because" errors may derive from students' experience in being asked "why" question in conversational English instruction or popular English language reference materials and may not understand the different expectations for oral and written replies. Additional problems identified were excessive use of coordinating conjunctions to start simple sentences and spelling errors apparently associated with Japanese pronunciation of English vocabulary. (MSE)