Grammar girl here.

A reader on Twitter who goes by CB asked me to do a show about comma splices.

She says they're everywhere, they're rampant, and she's tired of seeing them.

So here we go.

First, we have to figure out what a comma splice is.

Maybe you've never even heard of the problem.

It sometimes also goes by the name comma fault or comma error, but I think comma splice

makes the most sense because the problem is using a comma to splice together things

that the comma wasn't meant to splice or join.

For example, an independent clause is something that could stand on its own.

Essentially, it's a sentence.

Here's an example.

ArtVark enjoys fishing.

If you want to splice together two independent clauses, you aren't supposed to use a comma.

It's not strong enough.

Doing so is the error called a comma splice.

ArtVark enjoys fishing, comma, squiggly chooses a different lake for their vacation every

year.

That's a comma splice error because the comma is joining two independent clauses.

If you want to join two independent clauses, you can use a semicolon.

ArtVark enjoys fishing, semicolon, squiggly chooses a different lake for their vacation

every year.

...