Writers often use commas inappropriately because they force them into sentences where they do not rightfully belong. The act of joining two independent clauses with a comma is called a “comma splice.” The word splice is used because the comma literally fuses, or “splices,” the two complete thoughts together. In order to make this common error easier to understand, I have personified the comma as a big bully who steals the show where other punctuation is due. The victims that get left out of sentences with two independent clauses are periods, semicolons, and coordinating conjunctions.
Periods are extremely useful in cases where the two clauses are not directly related. For example:
[wrong] The cat ran home, the dog ate the bone.
[correct] The cat ran home. The dog ate the bone.
Semicolons are used when the clauses are related, and it makes sense that they are expressed in a one sentence. For example:
[wrong] The cat ran home, the dog chased her the whole way.
[correct] The cat ran home; the dog chased her the whole way.
Lastly, the coordinating conjunctions, for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so, may be used when the sentence makes sense to use them. For example:
[wrong] The cat ran home, the dog chased her the whole way.
[correct] The cat ran home, and the dog chased her the whole way.
Hopefully, this illustration of comma splicing helps writers to understand that using commas where periods, semicolons, and coordinating conjunctions should be given credit makes commas look like bullies. So, let’s give the other punctuation a shot, and knockout comma splices for good!
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