A comma splice occurs when two independent sentences or clauses are spliced together with a comma.
Examples:
- Wharfinger just found thirty dollars, he wants to buy a bucket of soy.
- Everything2 is a nifty website, posting here improves my writing skills.
There is a complete clause before the comma and after the comma. There are several ways to correct comma splices:
- Separate the clauses and make them separate sentences.
- Wharfinger just found thirty dollars. He wants to buy a bucket of soy.
- Everything2 is a nifty website. Posting here improves my writing skills.
- Link the two closely related clauses with a coordinating conjunction, such as and, but, or, nor, for, so or yet.
- Wharfinger just found thirty dollars, so he wants to buy a bucket of soy.
- Everything2 is a nifty website, and posting here improves my writing skills.
- Link the closely related clauses with a semicolon.
- Wharfinger just found thirty dollars; he wants to buy a bucket of soy.
- Everything2 is a nifty website; posting here improves my writing skills.
- Reword the sentence to create one independent clause.
- Wharfinger wants to buy a bucket of soy with the money he found.
- Posting on the nifty website Everything2 helps to improve my writing skills.
Run-on Sentences
The secret to writing well is to write concisely. Everyone is guilty of padding their writing with fluff and flowery language. Run-on sentences usually appear when you're trying to shove too much information into one sentence. A fellow Everything2 member named Lith pointed out that most run-on sentences are actually comma splices without the comma.
Every sentence must have a separate idea. A well crafted sentence has one main noun and an associated verb. Modifiers for the nouns and verbs will reveal your style of writing.
Examples of Run-On Sentences:
- I enjoy reading her nodes she writes funny stuff.
- I posted a node about trolls they really make me angry and when I find one under a bridge I will make him write a coherent node and then I will make him post it.
Use the same suggestions for separating comma splices. Break up these sentences into complete sentences, or use coordinating conjunctions.
- I enjoy reading her nodes. She writes funny stuff.
- I posted a node about trolls. They really make me angry. When I find one under a bridge I will make him write a coherent node. I will then make him post it.
Suggestions for modifying this node are welcome. Please /msg Rancid_Pickle in the chatterbox if you have any suggestions. Special thanks to Wharfinger for unknowingly volunteering to buy that bucket of soy.