Abusing Commas

Newsroom101

Abusing Commas Through the Comma Splice
One of the top 20 errors in English involves using a comma inappropriately. It is the dreaded comma splice.

In a comma splice, you "splice" together two sentences by joining them with only a comma, as in these examples:

Wrong: It was raining, we stayed home.

Here are two correct versions that avoid the comma splice:

It was raining. We stayed home.
It was raining, so we stayed home.

Wrong: We looked through the church, we did not see anyone.

Here are two correct versions that avoid the comma splice:

We looked through the church. We did not see anyone.
We looked through the church, but we did not see anyone.

When you have a comma splice, you can usually fix it either way --

By dividing it into two sentences, or
By adding a conjunction after the comma.

Practice identifying fragments, comma splices, run-ons and fused sentences.

Too Many Commas!

Some people, misuse commas, by using far, too many of them (as in, this sentence).

Here are some situations in which people might use unnecessary commas:

Using an unnecessary comma in a compound subject or verb.

Wrong: The president of the company, and the head of the stockholder association, arrived on the same flight.
Right: The president of the company and the head of the stockholder association arrived on the same flight.

Think of the sentence like this: The president and the head arrived.

Wrong: We arrived early, and helped arrange the chairs.
Right: We arrived early and helped arrange the chairs.

Think of the sentence like this: We arrived and helped.

Using a comma to set off an essential clause beginning with "that."

See the section on essential and nonessential.

Using an unnecessary comma before an indirect quote.

Wrong: He said, he would address that problem next.
Right: He said he would address that problem next.

Keep those commas under control. In fact, they should be on a very short leash (one about the length of a comma.)

Practice

Practice identifying excess commas. [Under development.]