The dreaded comma splice is something my students use all the time and I am forever pointing it out to them. It does seem to be becoming very common, though, as I've noticed it in published fiction - but not very often, so I suspect most editors don't like it either.

As with everything else to do with grammar, it's fine if it's deliberately used for effect and occurs within a text that clearly evidences the writer knows their stuff. When it makes an appearance because the writer doesn't realise it's grammatically incorrect then it's just an error.

I also cringe when I see "chic lit" instead of "chick lit". Not the same thing at all, although perhaps novels such as "The Devil Wears Prada" could be called "chic lit". And, of course, anything written by a Vogue journalist!

I agree about the tools of the trade. When I met writers who say, 'Oh, no. I'm allergic to computers.', it makes me feel like asking 'Every met a plumber allergic to spanners?'

Incidentally, just because I taught grammar doesn't mean to say I consider myself an expert - just that I know there are rules and I try to stick to them. Mostly.

I'm not a reliable proof-reader, either. It's wasy to blind to one's own mistakes, especially if they're habitual. It's always a good idea to run something by someone else before sending it out. Still, that's something else, I suppose.

Sheila

<Added>

Comma splice. That's a good one.

<Added>

I think there's something wrong with this keyboard.

Ever met a plumber

It's easy to be blind

I'm not a reliable proof-reader

Me too, Sheila. If I read my stuff out loud I get a whole different set of punctuation to the set I put in if I read it in my head. I'm forever swapping commas for conecting words like and, or replacing ands with a comma and an -ing., or replacing semicolons with full stops.
I have to say I dislike colons and semi-colons when I come across them in prose, as I find them jarring.

A writer I particularly like uses splicing commas a lot (certainly in one of her books) to very good effect. It helps create a really quite unusual overall voice for the story.

So now I've started doing it too. Not sure I have the requisite skill to make it work though. Not quite. Not yet. Working on it.

Colin, you're preaching to the converted. Your comments felt aimed at me - I hope they weren't!

Deb

Oh, I find them very elegant,so I like to read texts which use them liberally. However, I agree they are rather old- fashioned, so I try to avoid using them.

Increasingly these days there's a big gap between what I like to read and how I write. If I were an editor and came across a few semi-colons and colons I'd suspect the writer was showing off.

Sheila

Personally I like long sentences divided by commas, and I've seen quite a few authors use it to good effect. It is usually obvious when a comma is out of place, but less obvious when one is missing. I find I automatically pop one in if I pause for thought, before continuing - such as there - and I'm not sure if that's gramatically correct or not.

If I were an editor and came across a few semi-colons and colons I'd suspect the writer was showing off.

I think this is because most people being education before the national curriculum came into play probably missed out - unless they were at school wayyyy before it came into play, when grammar was taught proper. When I was at school I think we brushed over the subject, but were told not to worry about things like that unless we did A level English. And yet now, I work in a school where the children in year 6 (10-11 year olds) use semi-colons correctly, and in context as they are writing - ie, rather than putting them in afterwards because they think it needs it. They realise they are splicing sentences. Personally, I think this is amazing, but only because it was something that was missing from my own education, and something I had to learn at a much later date.

And Deb, no. I don't think so. It was general. Otherwise I would have said so.

The problem, of course, is that readers vary and, as a published writer, you don't have much control over who chooses to read your stuff. So a writer's "deliberately done for stylistic effect" can be a reader's "crap writing".

I seem to be able to spot a comma splice at twenty paces as they just leap off the page at me and pull me out of the narrative, which is incredibly irritating. But other readers may not notice them at all. I do think, though, that comma splices can often be the result of a lazy approach to sentence construction.

There are lots of ways to join sentences together, you can use a semi-colon or a conjunction, sometimes it's just better to rewrite the sentence, relying on commas to do a job they aren't designed for isn't really a good idea. (I need a smilie here but don't know how to do them on this forum!)

Please would someone explain what a comma splice is? Is it the use of a comma where a semi colon or colon is the correct punctuation, or is it the correct punctuation of a long sentence? Or is it something else entirely?

It's incorrect. It's when a comma is used to separate 2 independent clauses instead of a full stop, or semi colon, or conjunction.





<Added>

Now I know my writing's not going well today. I'm finding talking about splicing commas much more interesting.

(Although, perhaps a little sadly, i generally do find discussions about grammar really quite interesting. Hmm.)

sod it, let's get really anal about it:

instead of a full stop, or semi colon, or conjunction.

should be "comma + conjunction" - one alone is as bad as the other. (not being nasty, I really enjoy these debates. It's the equivalent of arguing football stats.)

Roses are red. Violets are blue.
Roses are red; violets are blue.
roses are red, but violets are blue.

a comma splice would be

roses are red, violets are blue.

Having a very quick look at the page I've just written, I guess this is an example of a comma splice:

She was just a baby the last time I saw her but that was a few seasons ago, she would be walking by now.

<Added>

and presumably here should be a comma before but.

<Added>

but can I use a semicolon or a dash instead of ..ago. She...?

and a conjunction splice too, if such a thing exists. There should be a comma before the "but" - oooh, just noticed your added at the bottom before I pressed send

But now you've spotted it, what will you do? Chuck in a semicolon or revise? I try to revise as much as possible, but sometimes, and this might be one, you just want it all together.

As it stands, it should be:

She was just a baby the last time I saw her, but that was a few seasons ago; she would be walking by now.

But, it's common practice to use a dash instead of a semicolon, or even a colon. Think of them as arrows pointing to a reason.

She was just a baby the last time I saw her, but that was a few seasons ago - she would be walking by now.

I don't think anyone would be too picky about that.