The Penguin Dictionary of American English Usage and Style : A ...

26 as
his movie roles—tromping around in
farmer’s boots and overalls.
Change the phrase in dashes to “as often
as not. . . .” The sentence appeared in a
newspaper’s television review. Was the
omission of a two-letter word meant to
save space? Plenty of it remained at the
end of the paragraph.
Sometimes the as . . . as pattern is
copied when it is not needed: “As hot as
it was, I shivered.” The opening “As” is
unnecessary (and archaic). There is no
simile or comparison here. The second
as means though.
“As best as” is not a legitimate form.
See AS BEST.
A personal pronoun following
as . . . as can be subjective or objective:
“He is as big as I” (that is, as big as I
am). But “They pay Sam as much as me”
(that is, as much as they pay me). See
also Pronouns, 10E.
A sentence may need only a single as if
one of the two things being compared
came up in a previous sentence. “It sells
for $1,500. The competing product is
twice as expensive” or “just as expensive.”
Just as appears to be the model for
redundancies in the press like “equally
as speedy.” Equally speedy would be
correct.
4. With NOT
In a negative comparison, switching
to so . . . as is an option. You can say either
“Charles is not as tall as his sister”
or “Charles is not so tall as his sister.” A
few grammarians prefer the latter form.
A construction that can be confusing
goes as follows: “The line-item veto is
not an economy device, as a number of
reformers think.” Do they think it is or it
is not? Literally the sentence is expressing
the negative, but that may not be the
intended meaning. Similarly, a lexicographer
writes:
...Orm had not used unntill (as the
editors of the work and of the OED
believed) but its northern variant inntill.
. . .
Literally the parenthetical clause says the
editors believed the negative, although
the context suggests the reverse. A
clearer wording would be “the
editors . . . believed that he had done
so.”
(What follows “but” does not make
grammatical sense. Either add a verb,
e.g., “but had used its northern variant,”
or place “not” after “used.” See BUT, 6.)
This was stated in a news broadcast
on a radio network:
The VA considers alcoholism willful
misconduct, not a disease, as most of
the medical profession does.
“Does” ties in with nothing; but since
the only other verb in the sentence is
“considers,” the second clause seems
to say that most of the medical profession
also considers alcoholism willful
misconduct. An opposite message may
have been intended, although there was
no explanation. Whatever the message
was should have been in a separate sentence.
5. With WELL
The phrase as well as has primarily
meant and not only. Though forced to
bear the extra sense of and in addition, it
has not fully adapted itself to that role.
Classified as a conjunction, it is considerably
weaker than the conjunction and.
This is an example of its distinctive
use: “Gertrude, as well as I, is going to
the meeting” (not “are” going or “am”
going). The number of the verb remains
singular, and the person of the verb conforms
to the main subject. As well as implies
the addition of a new fact (that
Gertrude is going) to a fact already
known (that I am going).
A dictionary’s sole example is “skillful
as well as strong,” which illustrates
the newer use, that of simple addition.