Writing & Publishing Comma splice

[carolinamtne]

I was helping someone with punctuation for her story, and I encountered some comma splices. She said she had run the chapter through Grammarly, but they were still there. I ran them through ProWritingAid, and it did not pick them out either. Confused, I typed "comma splices" into my computer. I quit after checking ten sites, but they all came up with the same message that combining two sentences with a comma (and no conjunction) is a grammar error. The Grammarly.com site was one of the ten. So why didn't either Grammarly or PWA flag them?

 

[lynnmosher]

I haven't a clue! I think I'd email them both and ask them. They should pick those up.

 

[suspensewriter]

Maybe the rules of grammar have changed?

 

[Jeff Potts]

It's probably a stylistic thing.

There are many instances where omitting the conjunction sounds better than having one. Although I usually just break the sentence up as I usually like to mix short and long sentences in a paragraph to make the paragraph less monotonous.

 

[lynnmosher]

Except when you have sentences like this: He likes to cook he eats what he cooks.

 

[Wes B]

In our English classes, we get taught a few of the most useful rhetorical and grammatical structures, like metaphor, hyperbole, and personification. There are many others, possibly left out because they can be a bit more confusing. What the software allowed may have been an asyndeton, which is grammatically incorrect, but adds drama, as does it's mirror-twin, the polysyndeton. (If these seem troubling, then don't google the term enallage... )

It turns out that sometimes grammatical correctness doesn't march in step with dramatic effectiveness, and in that case, grammar often gets put on hold.

Or, to be a bit self-referential: bad grammar, great impact, no problem.

 

[carolinamtne]

Maybe the rules of grammar have changed?

Click to shrink...

For sure! But I checked these today, so ...

 

[carolinamtne]

It's probably a stylistic thing.

Click to shrink...

I'd agree with that, because writers don't always follow the rules. But Grammarly and PWA are supposed to be following the rules when they grammar check what is written. They're the ones who help writers who don't know.

 

[suspensewriter]

Yeah, but they're sneaky buggers!

 

[zx1ninja]

I say just get some super glue out.

 

[Rio1064]

Sometimes Grammarly does weird things. I'm terrible at punctuation, but even I catch it messing up sometimes. Just bought myself a book on grammar and punctuation. Trying to improve but I feel sorry for my future editor.

 

[Claire Tucker]

Maybe the rules of grammar have changed?

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They haven't, because I occasionally let an author break the comma-splice rule if it's for effect and works.

 

[carolinamtne]

Thanks, Claire, I figured you would know.

 

[Claire Tucker]

Thanks, Claire, I figured you would know.

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My pleasure

 

[zx1ninja]

So that's means no easy out with the super glue. And here I've got a big tube of gorilla glue and no where to use it Oh well