Comma Splices

Welcome to Comma Splice Hell!

You've rented your favorite movie, Bumble Bees on the Bayou. It's Friday night, 9:00 in the evening. You and your date sit down on the couch. You pop in the DVD. Your date sits close to you. Suddenly, the screen goes black. Words appear. "Look at that," your date says. "That's pathetic! They can't even punctuate the English language correctly." You stare at the screen, but you can't see any mistakes. Your date grows frustrated, and finally leaves. You're left with nothing but a stupid movie about insects in Louisiana -- and an urge to figure out comma splices.

Which of the following screens could your date have objected to?

Screen One:

Screen Two:

Screen Three:

Screen Number Two is your nemesis. If you're Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia, Screen Number Two is Darth Vader. It contains the dreaded "comma splice," which is Englishteacherese for "two sentences strung together with nothing but a comma between them."

"This film has been modified from its original version." That's a sentence. But so is: "It has been formatted to fit this screen." To put them together in one sentence, you'd need a semicolon, like in Screen Number Three, or some extra words: "This film has been modified from its original version, since it has been formatted to fit this screen." Or, to be really safe, you can just leave the two sentences separate, like in Screen Number One.