![]() ![]() Dependent Clauses (Subordinate Clauses)Īn independent clause is a complete thought. ![]() To learn how to avoid creating comma splices, you need to learn the differences between independent and dependent clauses. Remember that longer sentences are not necessarily better sentences. How to Teach English Conversation ClassĪdding a period is the easiest way to avoid comma splices.'Be used to'" / 'Use to' / 'Get used to'.The Difference between "Other" & "Another".The Difference between 'a few/few/a little/little'.He also reminds me that "Elements of Style" allows for limited comma splicing, so I added a bit to this effect above. Update: Stan Carey, in a thoughtful post with lots of evidence, was softer on the comma splice than I am. Unless you're being aphoristic ("Man proposes, God disposes") or intentionally seeking a loose-knit style, beware that a comma splice is probably not worth the readers it will irritate. A full stop separates two thoughts more cleanly. The comma splice is unnecessary a brief pause between two related thoughts can be accomplished by a semicolon like the one in this sentence. Editors have made the comma splice so rare that they leap off the page (unpleasantly so, for me) when I spot one. MWDEU, which often debunks sticklerish rules with massed evidence from indisputably great writers, says "uncorrected examples are so hard to find in print" that "You should not try the device unless you are very sure of what you want it to accomplish." "Those weren't tough questions, those were kid-glove questions." - John Updike, Bech is Back, 1982 The Ambassador.responded with a blast of enthusiasm. White who put his name, in " The Elements of Style", to this crisp injunction: "Do not join independent clauses with a comma," though "Elements" allows for rare exceptions if the sentences are very short and closely related.)īy the 20th century, rulebooks commonly warned against the comma splice, with the effect that it now seems limited to informal writing such as letters, or in reported speech. White both used comma splices in letters. This trend continued into the 20th century, where Ronald Reagan and E.B. The New Jersey job was obtained, I contrived a copperplate press for it - (Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, 1771)īy the nineteenth century, MWDEU gives examples by Lord Byron, Jane Austin and Lewis Carroll, but only in personal letters. ![]() (It is hard to praise this book enough.) Sure enough, the comma splice was once part of the best English usage: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 - (Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, 1719) And I would notice my English teacher's injunction gave me a terror-loathing of comma splices that has never left me.īut, as ever, there are facts to be had, and in cases like this, the go-to reference is the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage. The Economist doesn't have a ruling on comma splices in the style book, but I don't recall ever having seen one in the newspaper. (She applied the same rule for fragments and run-on sentences.) My colleague, however, says it's a matter of style. My senior English teacher marked down any paper with even a single comma splice by two letter grades, so that an otherwise perfect A paper would receive a C. Ashbird, another commenter, was taught as I was: the comma-splice is an error. That's two independent clauses joined only by a comma, or a comma splice, sometimes called a "comma fault". ![]()
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