The Comma Splice and Compound Predicate Conundrums: How to Comma Correctly

Let’s examine the following: “Editing your writing is essential, ghastly grammar annoys readers.” Here you actually have two complete sentences (a subject and a predicate on each side of the comma) connected, or “spliced” together, with a comma. This is a comma splice, something you don’t want in your writing. But don’t despair—there are several ways to address it.

One option is to simply replace the comma with a period, turning this into the two complete sentences it already is. “Editing your writing is essential. Ghastly grammar annoys readers.” If your two sentences are closely related, as these are, you could substitute a semicolon instead. “Editing your writing is essential; ghastly grammar annoys readers.”

Alternatively, inserting an appropriate conjunction following the comma, such as “and,” “but,” “or,” “yet,” or “so,” would also solve your grammatical dilemma. “Editing your writing is essential, and ghastly grammar annoys readers.” If you have two independent clauses that are short, closely related, and connected with a conjunction, you don’t need a comma. “Jane writes and John edits.”

When you fix your sentence by inserting a conjunction, make sure you continue to have complete sentences on each side of the comma. “Jane loves to read anything she can get her hands on, and she despises ghastly grammar,” not “Jane loves to read anything she can get her hands on, and despises ghastly grammar.” The latter sentence has a compound predicate, with two predicates, “loves” and “despises,” referring to the subject “Jane.” Since there is no subject in the second half of the sentence, you usually don’t comma before the conjunction. “Jane loves to read anything she can get her hands on and despises ghastly grammar.” However, some style manuals suggest using a comma if needed for clarity when two predicates connected by a conjunction (especially “but”) share a subject. “Jane saw the author who signed her book, and fainted.” Without the comma, it would be unclear who fainted, Jane or the author.

Turning one of the independent clauses into a dependent clause would also solve your comma splice dilemma. “Because ghastly grammar annoys readers, editing your writing is essential.”

Now before you settle in to cut all comma splices from your writing, there is another exception to this rule. If you have very short sentences that parallel each other, it is acceptable to use commas to join them. “I drafted, I edited, I published.”

So, in short, if you have two complete sentences “spliced” together with nothing but a comma or two predicates referring to one subject, you should take a second look. Don’t let your writing suffer from comma trauma. Take the confusion out of when to comma, and conquer your comma conundrums with these easy solutions.