Comma splice

A comma splice is the use of a comma to join two independent clauses. For example:

It is nearly half past five, we cannot reach town before dark.

Although acceptable in some languages and compulsory in others (e.g. Bulgarian or French), comma splices are usually considered style errors in English. Some English style guides consider comma splices appropriate in certain situations, such as when being poetic or with short similar phrases.

Prescriptive view

The original 1918 edition of The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. advises using a semicolon, not a comma, to join two grammatically complete clauses, except when the clauses are "very short" and "similar in form", for example:

The gate swung apart, the bridge fell, the portcullis was drawn up.

The famous sentence I came, I saw, I conquered falls into the same category.

According to Joanne Buckley, comma splices often arise when writers use conjunctive adverbs to separate two independent clauses instead of using a coordinating conjunction. A coordinating conjunction is one of the seven words: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. A conjunctive adverb is a word like furthermore, however, or moreover.

A conjunctive adverb and a comma (or a conjunctive adverb between two commas) is not strong enough to separate two independent clauses and creates a comma splice; only semicolons and periods are strong enough to separate two independent clauses without a conjunction. For example, the following sentence contains a comma splice with a conjunctive adverb:

There is no admission fee, however, you will be responsible for any food you order.

Grammarians disagree as to whether a comma splice also constitutes a run-on sentence. Some run-on sentence definitions include comma splices, but others limit the term to independent clauses that are joined without punctuation, thereby excluding comma splices.

Comma splices are considered acceptable by some in passages of spoken (or interior) dialogue, and are sometimes used deliberately to emulate spoken language more closely. The comma splice is often considered acceptable in poetic writing. The editors of the Jerusalem Bible translate Isaiah 11:4 as:

His word is a rock that strikes the ruthless, his sentences bring death to the wicked.

In literature

Fowler's Modern English Usage describes the use of the comma splice by the authors Elizabeth Jolley and Iris Murdoch:

We are all accustomed to the … conjoined sentences that turn up from children or from our less literate friends… Curiously, this habit of writing comma-joined sentences is not uncommon in both older and present-day fiction. Modern examples: I have the bed still, it is in every way suitable for the old house where I live now (E. Jolley); Marcus … was of course already quite a famous man, Ludens had even heard of him from friends at Cambridge (I. Murdoch).

Author Lynne Truss writes: "so many highly respected writers observe the splice comma that a rather unfair rule emerges on this one: only do it if you're famous". Citing Samuel Beckett, E. M. Forster, and Somerset Maugham, she says: "Done knowingly by an established writer, the comma splice is effective, poetic, dashing. Done equally knowingly by people who are not published writers, it can look weak or presumptuous. Done ignorantly by ignorant people, it is awful".

External links

• The Elements of Style: full text of Strunk's 1918 edition