A comma splice is the use of a comma to join two independent clauses. For example:
It is nearly half past five, we cannot reach town before dark.[1]
Although acceptable in some languages and compulsory in others, comma splices are usually considered style errors in English.
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Comma splices are condemned in The Elements of Style, a popular American English style guide by E.B. White and William Strunk, Jr.[2]
According to Joanne Buckley,[3] comma splices often arise when writers use conjunctive adverbs to separate two independent clauses instead of using a coordinating conjunction. A coordinating conjunction is one of the following seven words: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. A conjunctive adverb is a word like furthermore, however, or moreover. A conjunctive adverb and a comma (or a conjunctive adverb between two commas) is not strong enough to separate two independent clauses and creates a comma splice. For example, "There is no admission fee, however you will be responsible for any food you order," contains—Buckley believes—a comma splice with a conjunctive adverb.
Only semicolons and periods are strong enough to separate two independent clauses without a conjunction. (Note that although Buckley refers specifically to coordinating conjunctions, it is equally acceptable to use other conjunctions such as although or since.)
Grammarians disagree as to whether a comma splice also constitutes a run-on sentence. Some run-on sentence definitions include comma splices,[4] but others limit the term to independent clauses that are joined without punctuation, thereby excluding comma splices.[5][6]
Strunk & White note that splices are sometimes acceptable when the clauses are short and alike in form, such as:
The gate swung apart, the bridge fell, the portcullis was drawn up.
The famous sentence I came, I saw, I conquered falls into the same category.
Fowler (third edition, 1996)[7] notes a number of examples by reputable authors:
We are all accustomed to the … conjoined sentences that turn up from children or from our less literate friends… Curiously, this habit of writing comma-joined sentences is not uncommon in both older and present-day fiction. Modern examples: I have the bed still, it is in every way suitable for the old house where I live now (E. Jolley); Marcus … was of course already quite a famous man, Ludens had even heard of him from friends at Cambridge (I. Murdoch).
The comma splice is often considered acceptable in poetic writing. The editors of the Jerusalem Bible translate Isaiah 11:4 as:
His word is a rock that strikes the ruthless, his sentences bring death to the wicked.[8]
The British author Lynne Truss[9] 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."
Comma splices are also acceptable in passages of spoken (or interior) dialogue, and are sometimes used deliberately to emulate spoken language more closely.
Simply removing the comma does not correct the error, but results in a run-on sentence. There are several ways to correct a comma splice:
In the colon (:) example above, the two clauses must be transposed. A colon often introduces a reason or explanation: the colon becomes a substitute for "because." The clause giving the reason ("it is nearly half past five") must follow the clause that needs explaining ("We cannot reach town before dark").