Write On!

• Citation: Vol. 48 No. 2 Pg. 38
• Year: 2025
• Pages: 38

Write on No. Vol. 48 No. 2 Pg. 38 Wyoming Bar Journal April, 2025

Michael R. Smith

Michael R. Smith is a Professor of Law at the University of Wyoming College of Law and the Director of the Center for the Study of Written Advocacy.

Common Sources of Comma Splices: However and Therefore

One of the most common punctuation errors in writing is the comma splice. A comma splice occurs when a writer joins two independent clauses (statements that can stand alone as independent sentences) with a comma and no conjunction (such as "and", "or", or "but"). Consider this example:

Improper Comma Splice:

The defendant filed a motion to exclude the evidence, the trial court judge denied the motion.

In this example, two independent clauses are joined by a mere comma, which is inaccurate from a punctuation standpoint.

There are three traditional fixes for comma splices. First, a comma splice can be fixed by using a period rather than a comma after the first independent clause, thereby creating two separate sentences that are punctuated as such. Consider this revision of our prior example:

Corrected Example:

The defendant filed a motion to exclude the evidence. The trial court judge denied the motion.

A second way to fix a comma splice is to keep the comma and add a coordinating conjunction. There are seven coordinating conjunctions, and a writer can remember the list of coordinating conjunctions using the mnemonic acronym FANBOYS, which stands for "for", "and", "nor", "but", "or", "yet", "so". Using this second strategy, the previous example could be fixed as follows:

Corrected Example:

The defendant filed a...