Sentence Fragments and Run-on sentences

[Shwenn]

Strangely, Lynne Truss (of "Eats Shoots and Leaves") made the same tongue-in-cheek observation I did. From Wikipedia:

Lynne Truss[4] observes: "so many highly respected writers observe the splice comma that a rather unfair rule emerges on this one: only do it if you're famous." She cites Samuel Beckett, E. M. Forster, and Somerset Maugham. "Done knowingly by an established writer, the comma splice is effective, poetic, dashing. Done equally knowingly by people who are not published writers, it can look weak or presumptuous. Done ignorantly by ignorant people, it is awful."

There are better, less elitist versions of this rule, I'm sure, but it's a pretty good start. It's a rule to be broken only when you know exactly how and when NOT to break it.

Okay, now, that really messes up the minds of people who learn almost all their grammar from reading. I didn't think the comman splice thing was even really a rule. I thought it was like splitting infinitives, one of those things nobody actually cares about.

[Clevernick]

Okay, now, that really messes up the minds of people who learn almost all their grammar from reading. I didn't think the comman splice thing was even really a rule. I thought it was like splitting infinitives, one of those things nobody actually cares about.

Yeah, it bothers people. It bothers me, at least, since it looks breathless and weak when I read it. Examples from some other writer:

Getting this over and done with quickly was in everyone's best interests I thought, I could live with the discomfort for the two weeks.

Looks basically unpunctuated and impossible to read aloud. Try:

Getting this over and done with quickly was in everyone's best interests, I thought. I could live with the discomfort for the two weeks.

I'd have to conclude that commas are not periods, and no amount of apathy will make them periods...

I, too, get all my grammar knowledge from reading, not from grammar teachers. The teachers just showed me what to call the errors. And yeah, I see them and they pop me right out of the story.

[Mad Lews]

I'd have to conclude that commas are not periods, and no amount of apathy will make them periods...

I suspect very few of the ladies are apathetic about periods; Commas on the other hand...


Mad