Commas

Commas From Grammar girl YOU DO NOT NEED TO WRITE THIS IN YOUR NOTES People will argue that authors should be allowed to make stylistic choices about writing, and include comma splices or whatever quirks they want as a matter of art. They’ll point to best-sellers such as E.E. Cummings who used all lowercase letters or Cormac McCarthy who is known to use as little punctuation as possible, often avoiding commas, apostrophes and quotation marks. Occasionally, someone brilliant intentional bucks the rules and still succeeds, but it’s much more common for writers to have consistent errors like comma splices in their manuscripts not because they are brilliant renegades, but because they actually don’t know the rules.

Review: What is an independent clause? How do independent clauses relate to commas? ULTRA Review: What is a coordinating conjunction? Easy way to remember coordinating conjunctions Write down your definition of an independent clause here! One comma rule is to connect independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction. Short words that connect words, phrases, and clauses. For And Nor But Or Yet So

Commas When one of the FANBOYS is used to connect two independent clauses (two complete sentences), a comma must come before the coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS). Example: RIGHT: My pet penguin has a head cold, so he has a very stuffy squawk. WRONG: My cat visited the groomer, he now looks like a skinned rat. Write two sentences containing two independent clauses jointed by one of the FANBOYS.

Comma Splice How to fix a comma splice. When you use a comma to join two independent clauses without the coordinating conjunction. Example: I ate chicken for dinner, I thought it was good. You can either use a semicolon or add a coordinating conjunction: I ate chicken for dinner; I thought it was good. I ate chicken for dinner, and I thought it was good. I ate chicken for dinner. I thought it was good. DO NOT DO THIS! IT IS VERY WRONG!