- Wrong: The town has two railroads, it was founded when oil was discovered.
- Right: The town has two railroads. It was founded when oil was discovered.
- Wrong: The speed of the car seemed slower than it really was, this was due, no doubt, to the absence of all noise. [Here are three commas. The reader cannot quickly discover which one marks the great division of thought.]
- Right: The speed of the car seemed slower than it really was. This was due, no doubt, to the absence of all noise.
- Wrong: The winters were long and cold, nothing could live without shelter.
- Right: The winters were long and cold. Nothing could live without shelter.
- Right: The winters were long and cold, and nothing could live without shelter [For the use of the comma, see [91a]].
- Right: The winters were long and cold; nothing could live without shelter [For the use of the semicolon see [92]].
- Right: The winters were so long and cold that nothing could live without shelter.
Exception.—Short coördinate clauses which are parallel in structure and leave a unified impression, may be joined by commas, even though the conjunctions be omitted.
- Right: All was excitement. The ducks quacked, the pigs squealed, the dogs barked. [The general idea excitement gives the three clauses a certain unity.]
Exercise:
- The key is turned to the right, this unlocks the door.
- The author keeps one guessing, there is no hint how the story will end.
- The farmer is independent, he has no task-master.
- There has been a change of government, in fact there has been a revolution.
- Lamb had failed in poetry, in the drama, and in the novel, in the essay, at last, he succeeded.
[19. EXERCISE IN UNITY OF THOUGHT]
[A. The Comma Splice]
Rewrite the following material in sentences each of which is a unit of thought. Most of the statements should be summarily cut apart. If you decide that others taken together have unity of thought, combine them (1) by a comma plus a conjunction, (2) by a semicolon, or (3) by reducing one of the statements to a phrase or a subordinate clause.
- The canoe is long and narrow, it is made of birch bark.
- I decided to serve tea, of course cream and sugar would be needed.
- Some men hunt rabbits for market purposes only, they are the sportsman's enemies.
- This city furnished many boats for the siege of Calais, when these boats returned they brought the plague with them.
- The bottom of the box is then put in, it is nailed to the sides.
- It is not easy to become a good musician, one must practice continually.
- The Northern and Southern states could not be separate nations, there was no natural boundary between them.
- The telephone is a great invention, it is very useful to the farmer.
- Why would no one come to help me, my feet ached and I was thirsty.
- I know a girl who has a cynical disposition, she is always criticizing.
- I went into the office hopeless, a dime stood between me and starvation.
- The construction of the bridge has much to do with the tone of a violin, it should be lower on the side nearest the E string.
- A private expense account does not require much labor or time, just one hour a week will suffice to keep tract of all expenditures.
- We offer you sixty dollars a month to start, this is all we can afford to pay at present.
- He wanted personal success but would not shirk a duty or harm any one in any way to gain that success, at all times he forgot his own personal importance and was ready to do any task set before him.