English 102

The time has come again for a grammar lesson... (aka my biggest mistake on my latest book edits)

The Comma Splice

A comma splice is the use of a comma to join (splice) two independent clauses, where the clauses are not connected by a coordinating conjunction such as "and".

She gripped his wrist in an attempt to pull his hand away, the feelings were too raw, too intense

There are a few ways to correct it. Simply removing the comma is the wrong way! ;) There are a couple correct options.

Change the comma to another punctuation mark:
She gripped his wrist in an attempt to pull his hand away; the feelings were too raw, too intense.
She gripped his wrist in an attempt to pull his hand away - the feelings were too raw, too intense.

Write the two clauses as two separate sentences:
She gripped his wrist in an attempt to pull his hand away. The feelings were too raw, too intense.

Insert a coordinating conjunction following the comma:
She gripped his wrist in an attempt to pull his hand away, but the feelings were too raw, too intense.
She gripped his wrist in an attempt to pull his hand away, because the feelings were too raw, too intense.


Make one clause dependent on the other:

Because the feelings were too raw, too intense, she gripped his wrist in an attempt to pull his hand away.

As the feelings were too raw, too intense, she pulled away.

Use a semicolon or dash and a conjunctive adverb:

Apparently, there are times when a comma splice isn't an error. (They couldn't make it easy, could they?) Clock HERE or HERE for the difference.

As for my publisher, they don't like them. So, I'm simply going to get rid of them all and not argue the point. Much easier that way, and I can concentrate on my other mistakes.

(edited to add)

I almost forgot about this one! How do kids learn these days with out School House Rock on Saturday mornings? Since I'm working on comma splices, this is a good time to brush up on my conjunctions....