![]() ![]() The characters are speaking and thinking, after all – not writing. Alice Munro uses one in “The Peace of Utrecht” when she has Aunt Annie say, “I washed this by hand, it looks like new.” George Saunders uses one in “The Tenth of December” when he has his narrator think, “This was concerning, this was very concerning.” In both cases, the comma splice makes the line feel like it belongs to the character rather than the author. Most people don’t speak or think with semicolons, and so the comma splice can make a line feel more like spoken language or internal thought rather than writing.Īnd in fact, many fiction writers use comma splices intentionally for those exact qualities. A semicolon in that context might feel too rigid or fussy. That’s probably why people use them a lot in text messages, even people who know better. The comma splice does seem to capture something more colloquial, unguarded, spur-of-the-moment. Then again, there are other writing situations where we might want a less formal tone. At the very least, it makes the writing feel less formal, which probably isn’t a quality you want when you’re putting together a term paper or a business report. ![]() The comma splice, on the other hand, is like a sign post pointing the wrong direction, or with the pointer ripped off. All of these constructions show slightly different nuances of meaning, and those nuances are signaled by the punctuation, helping to ease the reader through the flow of ideas. Or, because each clause can stand on its own, you could just use a period. ![]() Or you could keep the comma and add a coordinating conjunction: “I ate the last waffle, and it was delicious.” Or you could, depending on your meaning, possibly use a subordinating conjunction, a dash, a colon, or parentheses. When you join two sentences (or independent clauses) with a comma and no conjunction (such as and, but, if), its called a comma splice. Conference for Antiracist Teaching, Language and Assessment.Fall 2023 Undergraduate Course Descriptions.Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies (MAIS).Scientific, Technical, and Professional Communication Certificate. ![]()
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