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How to Avoid Comma Splices
A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses (clauses that could be full sentences on their own) are joined with a comma but no conjunction. Conjunctions are connecting words like "but," "so," "and," "yet," and so on.
Here are some examples of "sentences" that include comma splices:
- I don't like hummingbirds, their wings beat too fast for my taste.
- That's not a bus driver, that's a parking enforcement agent!
- We got sick of waiting, we just left.
Luckily, comma splices are easy to correct. When it comes to correcting a comma splice, you have a few options. You can use a period to separate the two independent clauses into complete sentences, you can add a conjunction, or you can replace the comma with a semicolon.
Let's take a look at corrected versions of the examples above:
- I don't like hummingbirds. Their wings beat too fast for my taste.
- That's not a bus driver; that's a parking enforcement agent!
- We got sick of waiting, so we just left.
In the first example, the independent clauses were separated into two complete sentences. In the second, the comma was replaced with a semicolon. In the third, the conjunction "so" was incorporated after the comma. Each sentence is now grammatically correct.
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