OWL at Purdue University

owl home || writing lab and owl || handouts || workshops and presentations || internet resources

Purdue OWL News
July 27, 2001

Welcome to the Purdue OWL News!

This is a weekly newsletter written by the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) staff that offers writing help and advice, and updates on what's new at Purdue's OWL and in the Purdue Writing Lab. We've relocated from Listbot to Topica, and we'd like to welcome all of our new and returning members.

Writing Question of the Week

Help! I keep getting told that I have a problem with comma splices, but I don"t know what one is. Can you shed some light on this for me?

Here"s the answer.

A comma splice happens when you join two independent clauses together with a comma. Since independent clauses can stand on their own as sentences, they cannot be joined with a comma. To fix a comma splice, you will need to modify your sentence.

Here"s an example of a comma splice: Jennifer read the OWL Newsletter, she thought it was very helpful.

As you can see, "Jennifer read the OWL Newsletter" and "she thought it was very helpful" are both independent clauses because they both contain a subject and a verb, express a complete thought and could stand on their own as complete sentences. Because they are independent clauses, they can"t be joined with a comma; they need to be connected with a coordinating conjunction (e.g., and, or, not, but), a semicolon, or written as two separate sentences.

How do you fix comma splices? You can usually fix them by changing the comma to a period and therefore making the two clauses into two separate sentences, inserting an appropriate coordinating conjunction, or by changing the comma to a semicolon. You could also change one of the independent clauses into a dependent clause and then use a comma to connect the parts of your sentence.

Here"s our example, modified to show all of these ways of fixing comma splices.

Changing the comma to a period and making separate sentences: Jennifer read the OWL Newsletter. She thought it was very helpful.

Inserting an appropriate coordinating conjunction: Jennifer read the OWL Newsletter, and she thought it was very helpful.

Changing the comma to a semicolon: Jennifer read the OWL Newsletter; she thought it was very helpful.

Changing one of the clauses to a dependent clause: Jennifer read the OWL Newsletter, which she thought was very helpful.

As you can see, there are many ways to modify a sentence with a comma splice. It"s important to read over your work after you have finished and to check to see if any have crept into your writing. Once you"ve found them, you can then modify your writing, using any of the fixes discussed above.

If you"d like to learn more, we have several handouts on OWL about this topic:

Help with punctuating independent and dependent clauses: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_clause.html

Run-ons, comma splices, and fused sentences: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_sentpr.html

Commas vs. semi-colons in compound sentences: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_commacomp.html

The OWL Help Nest

Many of our readers write to us with questions or requests for help with their writing. Readers also write to us with suggestions about how to help people learn more about writing. In this section of the newsletter, we"ll try to bring together both the people looking for help and the people who can help them.

Each week we"ll publish a request for advice or information. If you have information or advice about this topic, please write to us at owlnews@owl.english.purdue.edu. Please let us know if you want us to include your name and/or your email address when we publish your information or advice. The following week, we"ll publish the best information and advice that we receive in the newsletter.

Last week"s request was from a new teacher who was teaching composition in a computer classroom for the first time and who asked for tips and suggestions.

Our readers suggested visiting http://www.about.com and looking for links, and also using our resources for teachers page at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/internet/resources/teachers.html.

Thanks to everyone who wrote in with your suggestions! Here"s our next request from some of our readers.

I"m new to using the Internet for research. What are some of the ways that you"ve found to locate the information you need and determine if it"s reliable? Do you have any favorite search engines or search tips?

Got some help for our readers? Send it to owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu. Your advice and information about this will appear in next week"s newsletter. If you have a general request for help and information, you can send it to us at owln-@owl.english.purdue.edu and we"ll try to include it in the newsletter as soon as possible.

What's Happening On OWL

OWL Eye On... Our Tours

Are you a new user of Purdue's OWL? We have a virtual tour that will help you get acquainted with all we have to offer at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/lab/owl/tour/index.html.

Would you like to take a "virtual tour" of the Purdue Writing Lab? Visit http://owl.english.purdue.edu/lab/tour/index.html and you can follow a Purdue student as he discovers all that the Writing Lab has to offer.

New and Under Construction on OWL

We have a new handout on business letter basics now available at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/pw/p_basicbusletter.html

Progress continues on our printer-friendly handouts; we have finished our general writing concerns and our professional writing section. We hope to have all five major handout sections finished by the end of August.

You can see what new content has been added in past weeks by visiting our What"s New page at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/whatsnew.html.

What's Happening In the Writing Lab

OWL Eye on ... Scheduling Tours

If you are teaching a class at Purdue University, you can bring your students in for a tour of the Writing Lab any time during the first two weeks of classes. Call the front desk at (765) 494-3723 to discuss arranging a tour for your classes!

Ongoing in the Writing Lab

This summer, as always, we have tutorials, workshops for classes, reference materials and handouts, computers and printers for student use, ESL self-study materials, bookmarks, quiet places to study, and a helpful and friendly staff. Stop by and see us!

Final Thoughts

Thanks for reading our newsletter, and please email us any suggestions you might have! We really enjoy hearing from our readers. You can mail us at any time at owlnews@owl.english.purdue.edu. You can also email the OWL coordinator, Geoff Stacks, at coordinator@owl.english.purdue.edu and the webmaster, Erin Karper, at webmaster@owl.english.purdue.edu. (Erin and Geoff take turns writing the newsletter.)

Tell your friends about the Purdue OWL News! They can sign up to receive this newsletter by visiting http://purdueowlnews.listbot.com and entering their email address.

If you want to unsubscribe from the newsletter, just visit http://purdueowlnews.listbot.com and follow the instructions to unsubscribe.