
Yes: Our server put up with 90 minutes of my dad’s corny jokes, so I tipped her 30%.No: Our server put up with 90 minutes of my dad’s corny jokes, I tipped her 30%.They’re just like BTS, except that they’re coordinating conjunctions. It’s time to call in the FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet and so. Join those two independent clauses with a comma and a coordinating conjunction. The sentence, just like this frazzled mother, needs something a little stronger. In this case, a semicolon isn’t the best way to remedy the comma splice. The ideas are related, but they’re not very closely related. In the second example, it’s not difficult to see why the fact that the speaker’s husband is late to bail her out is on her mind, but it’s not as directly linked to #ToiletRemote.

The first example works because the second independent clause “I put him in timeout” is the direct consequence of the first independent clause “My son threw the remote control in the toilet.” These two events are very closely related, and the first idea flows quickly and logically into the next.

Take a look at these two examples to see what I’m talking about: While they can make your writing look more sophisticated than Natalie Portman discussing South African wines while wearing a monocle, it’s important to reserve this method only for when the two sentences are very closely related in subject matter. Semicolons aren’t for the faint of grammatical heart.


Break those two independent clauses into two separate sentences using a period.
#Comma splice definition full#
There are four main ways to eliminate a comma splice - five if you count just throwing that term paper full of them in a garbage can fire and calling it a day, but we’re going to pursue a less combustible route:ġ. How about this for a comma splice definition: It’s an insanely common grammar issue that’s relatively easy to find and fix. It’s an insidious type of run-on sentence that’s responsible for toppling otherwise well-written communication and reducing the ideas within to rubble. What Is a Comma Splice?Ī comma splice occurs when you join two complete sentences with a comma.
#Comma splice definition how to#
Here’s how to rid your content of the treacherous comma splice for good.
#Comma splice definition movie#
It may have a cool name that evokes swordplay (or perhaps that creepy Adrien Brody movie you rented back in 2009), but comma splices are a scourge on academic and professional writing. We’re talking about thousands of papers, and one of the most common errors I found - if not the most common error - was the comma splice. Over the course of those nine luxurious, champagne-soaked years of commuting from one side of Chicago to the other on my yacht and getting paid in rubies and Kanye West concert tickets, I graded a lot of student papers. Before I embarked on the glamorous, jewel-encrusted life of a freelancer, I taught college English for close to a decade.
