The Difference Between a Comma Splice And Fused Sentence

Sentence Boundary Errors

It's easy to understand the difference between a comma splice and a fused sentence. First, let's look at the similarities. Both of these writing errors are sentence boundary errors that occur when independent clauses are joined incorrectly. The good news is that both of these sentence boundary errors can be corrected in exactly the same way.

What is an Independent Clause?

An independent clause (sometimes called a main clause) is simply a complete sentence. A complete sentence has a subject and a verb, and it expresses a complete thought.

What is a Comma Splice?

A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses are joined with a comma. Here's an example of a comma splice:

My uncle works at the bakery on Lincoln Street, he enjoys making sweet treats like cakes, donuts, cookies, and pies.

This sentence contains two independent clauses: (1) My uncle works at the bakery on Lincoln Street. And (2) He enjoys making sweet treats like cakes, donuts, cookies, and pies.

The comma that separates these two independent clauses creates a comma splice.

What is a Fused Sentence?

A fused sentence occurs when two independent clauses are joined without any punctuation. Here's an example of a fused sentence:

My uncle works at the bakery on Lincoln Street he enjoys making sweet treats like cakes, donuts, cookies, and pies.

When two independent clauses are jammed together (fused) in this way without any punctuation to separate them, a fused sentence occurs.

Correcting Comma Splices and Fused Sentences

There are five different ways to correct comma splices and fused sentences.

First, we could separate the independent clauses into two distinct sentences.

My uncle works at the bakery on Lincoln Street. He enjoys making sweet treats like cakes, donuts, cookies, and pies.

In this case, we simply add a period after the first independent clause and capitalize the first word of the second independent clause.

Another way to correct the sentence boundary error is to insert a semicolon between the two closely related independent clauses. With semicolons, we do not capitalize the first word of the second independent clause unless it's a proper noun, such as I, Erik, Minnesota, etc.

My uncle works at the bakery on Lincoln Street; he enjoys making sweet treats like cakes, donuts, cookies, and pies.

The third way to correct these types of errors is to place a comma after the first independent clause and add a coordinating conjunction. The coordinating conjunctions are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.

My uncle works at the bakery on Lincoln Street, and he enjoys making sweet treats like cakes, donuts, cookies, and pies.

We could also change one of the clauses to a dependent clause as in the following example by adding a dependent word, like since, although, while, etc., to the beginning or end of the first sentence

• Since my uncle enjoys making sweet treats like cakes, donuts, cookies, and pies, he works at the bakery on Lincoln Street.
• My uncle enjoys making sweet treats like cakes, donuts, cookies, and pies since he works at the bakery on Lincoln Street.

Finally, we could add a conjunctive adverb, such as therefore, however, moreover, etc. If we correct the sentence in this way, we need to place a period or semicolon before the conjunctive adverb and a comma following it. For example:

My uncle enjoys making sweet treats like cakes, donuts, cookies, and pies; therefore, he works at the bakery on Lincoln Street.