Re: comma splice?

[Arthur Comings <atc -at- CORTE-MADERA -dot- GEOQUEST -dot- SLB -dot- COM>]

> -->  Jerold Jeansonne wrote:
> -->  >Someone wrote: "I don't use passive voice in my documentation, I use
>  ACTIVE
> -->  > voice."
> -->  >
> -->  >Does this person know what a comma splice is?

> -->  Michael Priestly:
> -->  I'm not sure I do.  I would have said there was an elided "instead",
 which
> -->  would make the second clause dependent.

> Guilty as well!  I had to grab the old "Grammar and Composition" book
> to refresh my memory.  It defined a comma splice as "...the other kind
> of run-on...  It consists of two or more sentences separated only by
> commas instead of by commas and conjunctions."

> ENGLISH NERDS!  ENGLISH NERDS!! <grin>  And I thought *I* was bad
> about correcting my boyfriend's grammar all of the time.  You people
> make me nervous to reply to a message!  I guess nitpicking keeps you
> on your toes though!



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-- What *pro-active* nitpicking (checking your own writing before it goes
out) does is to make your E-mail easier for everyone else to scan quickly
and (given more time) to understand. Given the number of people who
may be reading any given message, the time spent seems worth it to me.
I want to *read* this stuff -- not stumble over things that someone
else was "too busy" to catch. We're all busy.

Now, if Mailtool had a spell-checker, life would be a lot easier. But
that wouldn't catch comma splices.


Arthur