Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
Splice, Splice Baby: All About Comma Splices
photo credit: Zach Klein
In any career, you have those days where you start to wonder if anything you do matters at all. I feel like that a lot lately. I was grading papers last night when I came across the following “sentence” in a student’s short story:
Katie walked over the bridge, her boyfriend was with another girl down below.
As I progressed through the stack, I came across four more before tossing the papers to the floor in disgust. I’d be angry if it weren’t for the fact that I catch grown adults making the same mistake on a daily basis. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a few in the notes I’ve gotten back from their parents.
Unfortunately, no amount of ranting is going to solve the problem. If you’re reading this and you don’t see the problem with the quoted sentence above, keep reading.
Identifying the Problem
The sentence above is a comma splice. If I were an English textbook, I’d tell you that a comma splice is when a sentence has been formed out of two independent clauses that are joined by a comma with no conjunction. You’d look at me like I was either completely crazy or totally irrelevant, and we’d go our separate ways. I don’t consider that an option, so I’m going to try to explain this a little more clearly.
In normal terms, a comma splice is when you try to combine two simple sentences by sticking a comma in between the two of them. Remember the criteria for declaring something a sentence:
- Subject: This is the “who” or “what” of a sentence, and it’s usually at the beginning.
- Predicate: At its most basic, this is the verb - the “what’s going on” part of the sentence.
In the example above, we have two simple sentences:
- Katie walked over the bridge. Subject? Katie. Predicate? …walked over the bridge.
- Her boyfriend was with another girl down below. Subject? Her boyfriend. Predicate? …was with another girl down below.
Don’t Worry, We Have Options
Sometimes I’ll point out a comma splice to a student, only to see him grab an eraser to get rid of the offending comma. That doesn’t solve the problem. Erasing the comma merely creates a new problem, the run-on sentence. Luckily, there are a number of ways to fix a comma splice that don’t involve committing further sins against grammar.
Presto Change-O:
The semicolon was created for exactly this kind of situation. Change the comma to a semicolon and you’re in the clear.
Katie walked over the bridge; her boyfriend was with another girl down below.
You Gotta Keep ‘Em Separated:
Just separate the sentences and move along.
Katie walked over the bridge. Her boyfriend was with another girl down below.
Depends…
It won’t work in all situations, but you can remedy many comma splices by making one section of the sentence dependent on the other.
As Katie walked over the bridge, her boyfriend was with another girl down below.
Remember Conjunction Junction?
I noticed Schoolhouse Rock t-shirts in the local Hot Topic a while back, so I’m assuming modern teens have some idea what I’m talking about. Conjunctions are those handy sentence-joiners like and, but, or, yet, nor, so, and for. Just add one to the sentence above and suddenly, everything works. Other acceptable conjunctions include after, although, unless, as, because, even though, if, since, until, when, and while.
Katie walked over the bridge, but her boyfriend was with another girl down below.
OR
Katie walked over the bridge, even though her boyfriend was with another girl down below.
A Few Notes
After a lesson like this one, I can always expect at least one student to bring me a copy of some classic work that includes the error in question. Although it might bother some teachers, it thrills me to think that a student would take the time to investigate the matter to prove me wrong.
For those students, I have just one rule: If a publishing house has spent thousands of dollars editing, publishing, and promoting your work, I’ll forgive a couple of well-placed comma splices. If not, I (and most everyone else) will just assume that you lack an understanding of the rule.