RUN-ON: Tony is dishonest he steals data for a living.Īs you can see in these two sentences, comma splices and run-on sentences are similar Ideas, often leading to sentence-level errors like these:ĬOMMA SPLICE: Tony is dishonest, he steals data for a living. To essay, writers often become lax in clearly indicating where one complete idea endsĪnd where the next begins, as well as how they perceive the relationship between those (In all examples, subjects are bold and verbs are italicized.)Īlthough this seems pretty straightforward, in the heat of unloading ideas from brain Transmission of thought from writer to reader.Ī comma splice occurs when only a comma separates two independent sentences.Ī run-on (or fused sentence) occurs when no punctuation at all separates independent Adventurous writers pull it off regularly.Comma Splices and Run-On Sentences Understanding & Identifying Comma Splices and Run-OnsĬomma splices and run-ons are major sentence errors that interfere with efficient 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.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |