My homework, which the dog did not eat, is unfortunately unavailable at this time. Otherwise setting off phrases, especially non-restrictive phrases and appositives, like this:. The house was on fire, so I decided not to go back for my homework. Going BEFORE A CONJUNCTION when you use a conjunction to separate two independent clauses, like this:. Because the house was on fire, I decided not to go back for my homework. Separating DEPENDENT clauses from independent ones, like this:. I forgot my homework, my raincoat, my lunch, and my. When all you do is smack a comma between them, nope, that’s not gonna work.Ĭommas are fantastic! The things they are best at are: You can do that, but you have to do it carefully. Is this you? Maybe! Don’t worry: it’s totally fixable.Ĭomma splices happen when you have two INDEPENDENT clauses that you want to put into one sentence. Adventurous writers pull it off regularly.Comma splices are one of the most common sentence-level errors among intro college writers. In informal writing, though, a comma splice can be carried off successfully with the right kind of clauses: not too long, and preferably related. In writing assignments a comma splice is typically regarded as an error. Language writer Stan Carey has an extensive list of examples of comma splices in action, some of which work better than others. They must have been swimming, they're still wet and glistering. On the white beach, ground-up coral and broken bones, a group of the children are walking. It's also very common in poetry and is found in fiction too: Letters and speech (both fictitious and transcribed) demonstrate language at the less formal end of the spectrum, and that is where the comma splice is most at home. "The toxic anger built up, the confusion built up…." The comma similarly used turns up in transcriptions of actual speech: The two independent clauses about Tyler read as though they are spoken so rapidly that any punctuation other than a comma would hardly seem possible. "He grew up in Tennessee, he has a horse named Custard-" In the next example, the speech is fictitious: Further evidence for this hypothesis can be found in modern transcriptions of speech. It seems most probable that the origin of the comma splice is the use of the comma to represent a relatively brief pause in speech (18th-century prose is closer to actual speech than it often appears now, and letters are often a close approximation of speech). Well, I won't talk about myself, it is not a healthy topic. to be an authoress, indeed I do not think publishing at all creditable either to men or women…. I have found your white mittens, they were folded up within my clean nightcap…. 
But even as the standards of punctuation were evolving during the 19th century to those we're familiar with, the older, looser punctuation continued to be employed in the personal letters of well-known writers: Eighteenth century punctuation did not follow the conventions that we practice today. No one was correcting these writers back in their day there was, in fact, nothing to correct. The New Jersey job was obtained, I contrived a copperplate press for it.… Jonathan Swift, Polite Conversation, 1738 Why, sure Betty, thou art bewitcht, this Cream is burnt too. And by "older" we mean really old:Īs to the old one, I knew not what to do with him, he was so fierce I durst not go into the pit to him…. In fact, they seem to be survivors from an older, looser form of punctuation. (longer) The hat does not fit, and it's so tight that my brain hurts when I wear it.Ĭomma splices are not a new phenomenon. The hat does not fit because it's too tight.With a comma splice: The hat does not fit, it's too tight.
If the second clause is long, you can also keep the comma before the conjunction.) Examples of each solution You can 1) make each clause its own sentence, 2) you can join the clauses with a semicolon instead of a comma, or 3) or you can replace the comma with a conjunction like and, but, because, or although. To avoid a comma splice you can do one of several things. (Quick review: an independent clause is a part of a sentence that has its own subject and verb and could be used by itself as a simple sentence but is instead part of a larger sentence.) Comma splices are a subspecies of run-on sentence a run-on sentence is when two independent clauses are joined without the correct conjunction or punctuation. So what is it exactly? A comma splice is a joining of two independent clauses with nothing but a comma. "The hat does not fit, it's too tight." Though regarded as an error in formal writing assignments, it can be carried off successfully in informal writing. A comma splice is the joining of two independent clauses with a comma, e.g.
0 kommentar(er)
