What commas don’t fix

There’s a mistaken clue in Evan Birnholz’s Washington Post Sunday crossword: 102-D, six letters, “What commas may fix.” The answer: RUNONS.

But no number of commas can fix a run-on sentence.

Here’s a lucid explanation of run-ons from Garner’s Modern English Usage :

Run-on sentences do not stop where they should. The problem usually occurs when the writer is uncertain how to handle punctuation or how to handle such adverbs as however and otherwise, which are often mistakenly treated as conjunctions.

Some grammarians distinguish between a “run-on sentence” (or “fused sentence”) and a “comma splice” (or “run-together sentence”). In a run-on sentence, two independent clauses — not joined by a conjunction such as and, but, for, or, or nor — are incorrectly written with no punctuation between them. Hence a run-on sentence might read: “I need to go to the store the baby needs some diapers.” Correctly, it might read: “I need to go to the store; the baby needs some diapers.”

With a comma splice, two independent clauses have merely a comma between them, again without a conjunction — e.g.: “I need to go to the store, the baby needs some diapers.” The presence or absence of a comma — and therefore the distinction between a run-on sentence and a comma splice — isn’t usually noteworthy. So most writers class the two problems together as run-on sentences.

But the distinction can be helpful in differentiating between the wholly unacceptable (true run-on sentences) and the usually-but-not-always unacceptable (comma splices).

Whichever way you define run-on sentence, a comma won’t fix such a sentence. If there’s no punctuation between independent clauses, a comma will only create a comma splice. If there’s already a comma between clauses, another comma tossed in somewhere won’t help.

Some years ago I wrote a two-part guide to punctuation that avoids almost all grammatical terms — even the term run-on sentence. The rules therein (just five) are meant to be especially useful to students, and they account for run-ons, commma splices, and, as they say, much more: How to punctuate a sentence, How to punctuate more sentences.

For a replacement clue, how about “Sentences that don’t mind the gap”?

[And, but, for, or, nor : add so and yet and you have all seven coordinating conjuctions, or as they’re known to teachers of writing, the FANBOYS. The words of course have other uses as well: Are we there yet? I’m so done.]