Sex. Now that I have your attention, I’d like to discuss the fact that this sentence you’re reading is not necessarily a run-on sentence because run-on sentences are not simply sentences that run on ...

One of the enemies of effective communication is the run-on sentence. Like ambiguity and dangling modifiers, it hampers understanding and makes speech and writing ugly. You should, therefore, beware ...

SEVERAL months ago I w as surprised to see Arnold Zwicky, a linguist, use a comma splice. A few commenters took me to task for being over-picky. The question came up again in the comments several days ...

You can get Samuel Beckett’s most famous comma splice (absent commas) on a T-shirt or coffee mug Because the conventions for their use are so variable, commas can provide a quick sense of a writer’s ...