Interpreting Instructor Margin Comments

— Sentence Structure

Every sentence needs a main subject and a main verb. In the following example, a comma links together two clauses that could each stand alone as a sentence, and the instructor has simply circled the comma or commas to draw attention to the problem, which in more formal terms we'd call a comma splice.

In both sentences in this example, commas that link together two independent clauses are circled.

To correct the first sentence in the example above, the writer could replace the comma with a colon, which is an appropriate way to link together two closely related independent clauses.

Here is an example that may be easier to understand: we usually do not ask the author how he or she felt about his book, but we do ask the reader how he or she felt about the book.

The writer could also choose to make the second clause subordinate.

An example that may be easier to understand is how we usually do not ask the author how he or she felt about his book, but we do ask the reader how he or she felt about the book.

In the next example, the instructor suggests yet another way of fixing a comma splice sentence: make each of the independent clauses into its own distinct sentence.

The instructor indicates that the problem is a "comma splice" and suggests one option for fixing it.

The comma splice here could also be fixed by rewriting the sentence to use a colon or by subordinating one clause to the other in a way similar to the previous example. The important thing to keep in mind when editing for comma splices is that there are several perfectly correct ways to revise, and your choice will depend to some extent on the meaning you are trying to convey.

Click here for more information on sentence structure (independent and dependent/subordinate clauses, comma splices, etc.).

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