In most prose, creative or otherwise, any of these alternatives will be an improvement over the comma splice. A semicolon is stronger than a comma.Ī period is stronger than a semicolon, and a semicolon is stronger than a comma.
#Comma splice examples how to#
Most of us also know how to fix such an error-for example, by replacing the comma with either a semicolon or a period or by supplying a coordinating conjunction:Ī period is stronger than a semicolon a semicolon is stronger than a comma.Ī period is stronger than a semicolon. The result is a type of run-on sentence, † and again, most writers and editors (and teachers too) will see this as an error. The comma splice, also known as a comma fault (both terms are in Merriam-Webster), is widely considered to be an error.Ī period is stronger than a semicolon, a semicolon is stronger than a comma. Most writers and editors learn not to join (or splice *) two independent clauses with a comma alone. Next time, Carol will be interviewing novelist, poet, and playwright Janet Burroway about the tenth edition of Writing Fiction, her best-selling guide for creative writers. And from time to time we’ll be interviewing writers to get their take on things.įor this first post, I’ll be taking a look at comma splices. We’ll look for examples from the real world and invent some of our own.
But this is our chance to show how those guidelines can be reinterpreted to take advantage of creative opportunities. Most of the time we’ll be sticking closely to the rules and recommendations in CMOS. At Fiction+ I’ll be inviting my colleague (and Shop Talk alum) Carol Saller to join me in writing about editorial and stylistic considerations for novels, stories, and other creative genres.
This is the first post in a brand-new section of Shop Talk called Fiction+.
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