Run-Together Sentences and Comma-splice Errors

Run-together sentences or comma splices are created when two sentences are joined with no
punctuation between them or with only a comma connecting them.

I like my lawn chair it is very comfortable. (run-together sentence)

I like my lawn chair, it is very comfortable. (comma splice)

Many comma splice errors can be fixed in one of three ways:

1. Use a period between the sentences. This choice is not ideal because it gives your reader
little information about how the sentences relate.
2. Use a semicolon instead of a comma between the two sentences.
3. Use a coordinator or subordinator to join the sentences. First, figure out the logical
relationship. Then, pick the coordinator or subordinator that best illustrates that
relationship
The good news about these types of errors is that they often indicate a growth ones development
as a writer. One of the marks of immature writing is long strings of short sentences with no
indication of the relationships between them. Consider the following:

I like my lawn chair. Its very comfortable. I bought it at a garage sale. I was twenty-three
at the time. I had just graduated from college. It was the only piece of furniture I could
afford.

The above writing is what we would call choppy grammatically correct, but stylistically
simplistic. So a RTS or comma splice error is often an indication that the writer at least saw a
close connection between the ideas/sentences, but simply did not join them in a clear way.

One way to correct RTS/comma splice errors is to punctuate them with a period separating the
two sentences. But as you can see from the example above, this more often than not only creates
choppy writing. Because semicolons function in a similar way as periods, these can also create
some choppy writing. So the better way to correct these errors is by using coordinators and
subordinators.

I like my lawn chair because its very comfortable. I bought it at a garage sale when I
was twenty-three. I had just graduated from college, so it was the only piece of furniture I
could afford.

As you can see, coordinators and subordinators not only join sentences, they show the logical
relationships between them. While a semi-colon or period can also be used to correct a run-
together sentence, it may not be the best choice to establish the type of logical relationship
between two ideas.
Below is a review of the coordinators, subordinators, and the relationships they convey.

Relationship Coordinators Subordinators

addition and, nor ------
alternatives or ------
cause-effect so, and so ------
effect-cause for because, since, as
opposition but, yet, and yet although, though, even
though, while, whereas
condition ------ if, unless
time ------ after, before, until, when, as
soon as, while, since

Proofreadingforcommaspliceerrors:
1. Readyourworkoutloud.Whenwereadaloud,weoftendropthetoneofourvoice,and
pauseslightly,whenwecometotheendofasentence.Ifyouhearyourvoicedropping
orpausing,lookforacommaspliceerror.
2. Trycirclingeverycommainyouressay.Thenchecktoseeifyouhaveasentenceboth
beforeandafterthecomma.Ifyoudo,youhaveacommaspliceerror.

Writers commonly make RTS and comma-splice errors when attempting to express two specific
types of relationships: opposition and cause-effect. So it helps to pay attention especially when
youre writing about these relationships.

Opposition
Error: Two-stroke lawn mowers and jet skis produce more pollution in one months use than a
car does all year, the four-stroke engines are much cleaner burning.
Revision: Two-stroke lawn mowers and jet skis produce more pollution in one months use than
a car does all year, but the four-stroke engines are much cleaner burning.
Revision: While two-stroke lawn mowers and jet skis produce more pollution in one months use
than a car does all year, the four-stroke engines are much cleaner burning.

Cause and Effect

Error: Many people know nothing about criminal justice, they can be easily fooled by
politicians yammering on about get tough on crime legislation.
Revision: Because many people know nothing about criminal justice, they can be easily fooled
by politicians yammering on about get tough on crime legislation.
Revision: Many people know nothing about criminal justice, and so they can be easily fooled by
politicians yammering on about get tough on crime legislation.
 BEWARE: Therefore and However

Some writers use the words therefore and however to fix RTS errors and show relationships of
cause-effect or opposition. But beware that these words do not join sentences. Use a period or a
semi-colon preceding any transition word. The following ARE errors.

Incorrect: Two-stroke lawn mowers and jet skis produce more pollution in one months use than
a car does all year, however the four-stroke engines are much cleaner burning.
Incorrect: Two-stroke lawn mowers and jet skis produce more pollution in one months use than
a car does all year however the four-stroke engines are much cleaner burning.
Correct: Two-stroke lawn mowers and jet skis produce more pollution in one months use than a
car does all year. However, the four-stroke engines are much cleaner burning.
Directions: In the exercises below, join the sentences using as many of the subordinators or
coordinators as you can.

1. I love my spring break, I wish that it was much longer.

2. One can reduce landfill by buying products with containers that have a #2 on
the bottle, it would be even better if companies offered less packaging with their
products.

3. On sunny days I find it especially difficult to make it to class I do not attend very
often anyway.

4. Gun control is a heated topic of discussion today, many people are outraged
by the sheer number of deaths associated with handgun possession.

5. I did not have to serve on a jury during summer break, I was lectured often by
my judgmental parents.

6. Dry cleaners use cancer-causing chemicals to clean clothes, they could use a
wet cleaning process that does not contain dangerous, polluting chemicals.

7. Alternatives exist for cleaning clothes, the consumer must choose in order to
make an alternative economically successful.

8. A female anaconda mates once a year, she does so in a very strange manner
with up to 12-15 males coiling around her for four weeks.

9. In the 1980s a person could buy a nice house in Berkeley for $300,000, today a nice
house there can cost more than $800,000.
 Arrangers in the Big Band Era
Directions: In the section below, identify and correct the run-together sentences using
coordinators or subordinators or punctuation.

The two people most directly responsible for the style of a band, and thus often for its

success or failure, were its leader and its arranger. The importance of the first is obvious, the

second is somewhat less so. And yet without the specific talents and contributions of the

arrangers, none of the bands would have had any individuality, all would have sounded very

much alike, the dance bands would never have become colorful, distinctive and entertaining

enough to attract such a large segment of the populace.

The primary role of the arrangers was to assemble the individual parts, many leaders

depended upon them for musical direction. Some worked closely with their writers in the

planning of arrangements others gave them completely free rein. Usually, after an arranger had

completed a work, he would be the one who would run it though with the musicians, he would

coach them in precisely how he wanted the notes to sound. Meanwhile the leader would listen,

and depending upon his knowledge of music, his patience and tolerance, hed approve, try to

improve or else disapprove of the arrangement.

But, often times, swinging riff pieces evolved from spontaneous sessions where one or

more musicians had been playing a well-known piece, others were experimenting with

variations. The experimentation itself might provide such a catchy phrase that it would become

the central theme of an entirely new work. Many of these experimentations were based on the

common twelve-bar-blues theme, the technique lent an element of spontaneity to the music.

Lionel Hamptons band thrived on this procedure. The Count Basie band, strapped as it was

financially through its early period, produced one catchy tune after another through this type of

experimentation.