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Tutorials: Grammar

Identifying and Correcting Comma Splices

To improve your awareness of sentence boundaries, see if you can find where the first independent clause ends and the second begins in each statement below.  Answers are at the bottom of the page.

(Hint:  The break should usually come at the nearest logical point before the simple subject of the second independent clause.) 

1. Rain on a summer day can be refreshing rain on a cold day can be miserable.

2. Many of the men who framed our Constitution were Deists they believed in a Creator knowable through nature and reason.

3. Cognac is not mentioned in Edgar Allan Poe’s works on each birthday since 1949, someone has left three roses and a bottle of cognac on his grave.

4. Knowledge about West Nile virus is limited transmission routes are still not completely understood.

5. Plants fed diluted pesticides grew 35% more rapidly than untreated plants we concluded that this was evidence of homesis.

6. My parents were surprised by the party they started to cry.

The correct sentence break points are indicated below in red.  The subjects of the independent clauses are in blue.

1. Rain on a summer day can be refreshing / rain on a cold day is miserable.

2. Many of the men who framed our Constitution were Deists / they believed in a Creator knowable through nature and reason.

3. Cognac is not mentioned in Edgar Allan Poe’s works / on each birthday since 1949, someone has left three roses and a bottle of cognac on his grave.

4. Knowledge about West Nile virus is limited / transmission routes are still not completely understood.

5. Plants fed diluted pesticides grew 35% more rapidly than untreated plants  /  we concluded that this was evidence of homesis.

6. My parents were surprised by the party,_/_ they started to cry.

Next, let’s look at how to correct comma splices and fused sentences once you’ve identified them.

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