54 Commas
mcheney
There are lots of rules for comma use, and they’re all worth learning, but I’m only going to call your attention to one particular rule…
In American English, commas are the wimps of the punctuation playground. Just about every other type of punctuation is stronger. This is important to remember, because a common error is what’s called a comma splice — a comma that tries to hold two independent clauses together. While it may be able to do this in British English, and it can certainly do it in German German (and all other types of German, as far as I know), we don’t make ’em so strong over here. Thus, this is an error:
Independent clauses have subjects and verbs, they’re a lot of fun to write!
That’s an overstressed American comma, and it’s going to collapse. What will solve the problem? Just about anything else:
Independent clauses have subjects and verbs. They’re a lot of fun to write!
Independent clauses have subjects and verbs; they’re a lot of fun to write!
Independent clauses have subjects and verbs: they’re a lot of fun to write!
Independent clauses have subjects and verbs — they’re a lot of fun to write!
Stylistically, I, personally, prefer the first and second solutions, but the second two are certainly not wrong.
