The question of whether it's correct to say "and also" comes up constantly in business writing, and the short answer is: it's grammatically legal, but it's almost always doing more work than the sentence needs. Understanding why helps you spot the cases where "and also" genuinely earns its place and the cases where it's just clutter.
Why "and also" feels redundant
"And" and "also" do the same job. Both add information. Both signal continuation. Stacking them in a single phrase is like writing "but however" or "so therefore." The words don't cancel each other out, but they repeat the same instruction to the reader twice in a row.
Consider these two sentences:
- "The report covers revenue and also discusses market risks."
- "The report covers revenue and discusses market risks."
The second sentence delivers the same meaning with one fewer word. In formal business writing, that economy matters. Redundant connectors slow reading down and can make a document feel padded, especially in executive summaries or professional emails.
If you want a quick test: remove "also" from any sentence using "and also." If the sentence still means exactly the same thing, the "also" wasn't pulling weight. Cut it.
When "and also" is actually correct
There are real situations where "and also" works. Three of them stand out.
Emphasis on the addition. Sometimes a writer wants to signal that the second item is worth special attention. "The project came in under budget, and also under time" adds a beat of emphasis that plain "and" doesn't quite achieve. It's a stylistic choice, not a grammatical error.
Long, complex sentences. When a sentence already contains several clauses, "and also" can serve as a clearer signal than a lone "and." It tells the reader: this is another item, not a continuation of the last clause. This matters more in speech than writing, but written dialogue and transcripts benefit from it.
Parallel structure where "also" belongs in both clauses. "She edited the proposal and also reviewed the data" is slightly different from "She also edited the proposal and reviewed the data." The first version emphasises that she did both. The second positions "also" as modifying the whole statement. Placement changes meaning, and "and also" is sometimes the precise construction for the job.
The difference between "and also" and "also"
One of the most common missteps is treating "and also" and "also" as identical. They're not.
"Also" at the start of a sentence is a transition. It connects the new sentence to the previous one. "And also" inside a sentence is a connector between two clauses or items within the same sentence. Writers who confuse these end up with constructions like "Also and the report is attached," which is genuinely incorrect. Keep the two uses separate.
Starting a sentence with "also" is perfectly acceptable in modern business writing. Starting a sentence with "and also" is fine too, though it tends to read as informal. In formal reports and letters, stick to "also" alone at the sentence level and reserve "and also" for within-sentence use.
What to write instead
If "and also" feels clumsy in a sentence, you don't need to restructure everything. The fixes are small.
Drop "also" and keep "and." This works in almost every case. "The package includes the invoice and a receipt" is cleaner than "The package includes the invoice and also a receipt."
Use "in addition" or "additionally" when you want the additive emphasis and the sentence is long enough to carry a multi-syllable connector. These work best at the start of a new sentence rather than mid-clause. For guidance on using commas with introductory clauses and phrases, the rules apply to these transitions too.
Use "as well as" when listing parallel items. "The team will handle logistics as well as client communications" often reads more naturally than the "and also" version of the same sentence.
Use "furthermore" or "moreover" in formal writing where you're building an argument. These carry a weight that "and also" doesn't. They signal not just addition but escalation.
Common mistakes to watch for
The two errors that appear most often in edited documents are worth naming directly.
The first is piling connectors. "And also, furthermore, it's worth noting that..." is a sentence that hasn't decided how it wants to open. Pick one connector and commit to it. Writers who've read about starting sentences with conjunctions sometimes overcorrect by stacking multiple connectors to sound emphatic. The result is the opposite.
The second mistake is using "and also" to join items that aren't actually parallel. "She sent the email and also the meeting is on Tuesday" joins a verb phrase to an independent clause, which creates a structural mismatch. Rewrite it as two sentences: "She sent the email. The meeting is on Tuesday."
A note on spoken versus written English
"And also" is far more common in speech than in formal writing, and that's fine. Spoken English allows more redundancy because listeners don't have the luxury of re-reading. When people transcribe spoken language or write in a conversational register, "and also" sounds natural because it is natural in that context.
In business documents, presentations, and professional emails, the standard is tighter. Readers process text faster than speech and expect economy. Phrases that work in conversation can slow a document down when they appear on the page. The fix isn't to sound robotic. It's to let one connector do its job instead of two. Just as phrases borrowed from speech can land awkwardly in written correspondence, "and also" often reads as a spoken habit that didn't get edited out.
The bottom line: "and also" is correct. It isn't wrong. But in most sentences, cutting "also" and leaving "and" will produce a tighter, more professional result. Reserve "and also" for moments when the added emphasis genuinely serves the reader.