Two writing errors that people often make
are comma splices and fused sentences, and
they have a lot in common. So if we look
at the first example here, we read,
"apparently you can eat rose petals, we
had some on our dessert the other night."
When you read that aloud, you can hear
that there's this big pause in the
middle. And we call this here a comma splice.
So this is a comma splice where
we've put a comma between two separate
sentences, and we haven't properly
connected these sentences,
let's say, with a conjunction. So that's
called a comma splice. The second example
is basically the same, but now we don't
have the comma at all. And we call this a
fused sentence. So if you see one of
these kind of abbreviations in your
writing, if professor marks your writing,
let's say, then that's what that means--
"cs" stands for comma splice, and "fs" stands
for fused sentence. You will also come across
the term, sometimes, "run-on sentence." And
this one is a little bit harder to
define. Some people use the term "run-on"
for either of these two things--for
comma splices or fused sentences--other
people use the term "run-on" only for a
fused sentence or sometimes just for any
sentence that goes on for a little bit
too long.
We're going to ignore this term for the
most part for now, but just be aware that
you may come across the term "run-on
sentence" as well.
So the first thing to recognize then
is that these are fairly common problems,
and there are three ways typically to
fix one of these mistakes. The easiest
way is to put a period in. So number one
would be, "add a period." And we can just
stick a period right there, and then we
would capitalize the next word. Another
way to fix it (this is number two) is to
add a semi-colon. I wouldn't always do
this though because if you add a
semi-colon between two clauses that are
not connected with a conjunction yet, you
really have to make sure that these
clauses have something in common, that
they're fairly balanced, that they are of
equal weight, and that they nicely go
together like that. So only do it if
you're sure
that the semicolon would be a good
addition.
And then the third way to change things
and make it proper is to add a
conjunction. So if you can find a
suitable conjunction that works, then
that's great.
In this case you could say, "Apparently
you can eat rose petals, so we had
some on our dessert the other night." And
then if we stick "so" in here, "so"
becomes the conjunction that ties these
things together. Those are the three ways
to fix comma splices and fused sentences.
Now that we know how comma splices and
fused sentences work, or rather don't work,
I just want to observe a couple of
things to end this video. The first thing
is that if you have very short clauses,
as in this example here, so "Please be
seated, it's time to start," then it's
probably okay,
occasionally, to use a comma splice. So a
comma splice is not always a negative
thing.
It's more common, for instance, in informal
writing--if you're writing an email or a
letter to somebody. In academic writing
you probably really want to avoid comma
splices, but it's not as if the comma
splice is absolutely taboo.
So that's one thing to recognize: that
with short clauses, sometimes that comma
splice is okay. Second thing to recognize is
that one of the most frequent causes of
comma splices is the use of a
conjunctive adverb. So "however" is one of
these examples, and we
don't have time here to review all the
conjunctive adverbs. If you go to the
website, there's a separate section about
that. But examples would be "however" or
"moreover" or "nevertheless," and I tend to
think of these words as kind of the big
conjunctions--they are conjunctions
that don't tie together so much parts of
the same sentence, but they tie an entire
sentence to a previous sentence. And
that's why what you need to do here is
you need to put a period
or semi-colon and start with a
capital.
So "However...." Again, this is one of
the most common mistakes that people
make. If you are writing more casually, I
suppose you could sometimes do this, but
even then I would stay away from using a
conjunctive adverb in the middle of two
clauses to tie them together. So, "I refuse
to buy gossip magazines. However,"
and then we read to the end. That's
it for comma splices and fused sentences.
Watch out for them. The best advice I can
give you is just to read your sentences
aloud, and then you'll often hear that
there's something missing and that you
need a proper pause.