![]() ![]() Every style, no matter how innovative, needs to adhere to some sort of logic to be effective. In creative writing, of course, you can do whatever you want. What does it mean then, what can it all mean? Lily Briscoe asked herself, wondering whether, since she had been left alone, it behooved her to go to the kitchen to fetch another cup of coffee or wait here.Īnother question mark in place of a comma-“What does it mean then? What can it all mean?”-might suggest a little too strongly that Lily Briscoe is demanding an answer rather than taking refuge in her own thoughts to begin to make sense of the passage of time and the people that it leaves behind (as a writer or an artist might do). Consider the opening sentence of the third and final section of Virginia Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse (first published in 1927): (Dickens is so nineteenth century.) But in that famous catalog of dichotomies that opens the book? Anything other than commas would have spoiled the momentum.Ĭomma splices are especially suited to dialogue or interior discourse, in part because people repeat themselves. To be fair, the punctuation in the rest of the novel is more conventional in fact, it’s filled with semicolons, not comma splices. ![]() In short, the period was so far like the present period that. We were all going direct to Heaven we were all going direct the other way. It was the age of wisdom it was the age of foolishness. . . It was the best of times it was the worst of times. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way-in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.Īn overzealous editor would’ve fixed all of that (while also removing the comma before “that”) without another thought: The classic example is from A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens: In fiction, comma splices are less of a big deal. Which alternative you choose will depend on context and tone. A conjunction implies a specific relationship between the two clauses. A parenthesis presents the second clause as. A period marks a definitive break (a full stop, in British parlance). A semicolon provides a more formal way of conveying a close relationship. The comma, the weakest of the available marks, suggests the closest possible relationship between the two ideas. It’s an option.Ī comma splice isn’t an error-it’s an option.Ī comma splice isn’t an error (it’s an option).Ī comma splice isn’t an error, so it’s an option.Įach alternative introduces a different emphasis. ![]() For example, where the clauses are repetitive and short, a comma splice can work well, especially if the tone is informal:Ī comma splice isn’t an error, it’s an option.Ī comma splice isn’t an error it’s an option.Ī comma splice isn’t an error. Is a comma splice ever “correct”?Įven Strunk and White recognized that a comma splice is sometimes the best choice. 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. ![]() 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. ![]()
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