From a passage quoted in that Dr. V post:
Some people think cannibalism is wrong, others think that it is right. If the former are to prevail politically they must be willing to use force against the latter.
Two punctuation errors stand out, one in each sentence. What are the errors, why are they errors, and how do you correct them?
READ THIS BEFORE COMMENTING!
All comments are subject to approval before they are published, so they will not appear immediately. Comments should be civil, relevant, and substantive. Anonymous comments are not allowed and will be unceremoniously deleted. For more on my comments policy, please see this entry on my other blog.
AND A NEW RULE (per this post): comments critical of Trump's lying must include criticism of Biden's lying on a one-for-one basis! Failure to be balanced means your comment will not be published.
Comma splice in the first sentence. Change the comma after wrong to a semi-colon to make it right.
ReplyDeleteThe second sentence is missing a comma after the introductory clause. Fix it by adding a comma after politically.
The fact that you used the term "comma splice" makes me wonder if you resorted to Grammarly, but if you didn't, I apologize and congratulate you. Yes—comma splice for the first sentence, so you need a semicolon to separate two independent clauses. In the second sentence, the dependent clause comes first, so you need that comma you mentioned. "If you do that again, I'll kill you" versus "I'll kill you if you do that again."
ReplyDeleteSo assuming you didn't use Grammarly, congrats on making the proper corrections, but I can't give you full marks since you didn't supply the reasons for the changes.
In your own words, and without recourse to a grammar guide, can you explain what a comma splice is and give an example of one (again, in your own words)?
ReplyDelete