To contact the school over comma splices?

[CocktailQueen]

Or am I being too pedantic?

The school newsletter usually has a few typos, but this week the head teacher's letter but had about 8 comma splices. I winced every time.

Wibu to email her - we are acquaintances out of school - and let her know in a friendly way? I don't know if the office staff type it or she does...

Examples are

We love learning in our school, this week I was delighted to see x and y...

I hope you enjoyed the Xmas service, many thanks to the vicar...

Thank you for all your cards and Christmas gifts, we do appreciate them...

Language changes - when did you last see even the most pedantic write "an hotel".

Or to-morrow?
Some people still write 'phone but does anyone still write 'bus?

Ooh, I still write 'plane, but not 'phone or 'bus. I understand that this use of the apostrophe has moved from being old to just wrong.

The one that does me is: Will all Year 7's go the the hall. It's Year 7s. Also, the 90's when it's the 90s.

I think that 'phone and 'plane still make sense as the full words are still in use. Not many people use omnibus to refer to a bus though anymore, except for the phrase 'the man on the Clapham Omnibus' perhaps.

I thought commas were meant to reflect natural pauses in speech. So, the rules are fairly flexible.

DadWasHere

*Teacher's = Teacher is. Also, your extra but, Also, 8 is poor form, you are suposed to right numbers under ten as words- eight, not numerals.

In summary, Irony, your defining it, also,*

If you're going to pull someone up on their punctuation and grammar then you should really make sure that your own is beyond reproach.

Teacher's has a possessive apostrophe indicating the letter belongs to the teacher.
Also, your extra but, Also, 8 is poor form,. Apart from this making no sense you have put a capital A in the second "also".
you are suposed to right numbers. The correct spellings are "supposed" and write".
In summary, Irony, your defining it, also,. "Your" should be "you're". The comma at the end of the sentence should be a full stop.

Wow, thanks to all the pedantic posters who have attacked my grammar. So I had a sneaky extra 'but' in there. Hey ho. A typo is very different to a repeated error that's going to be seen by hundreds of pupils and parents.

My point was, should there be comma splices in a school newsletter?

And there were no other mistakes in my post.

cutteduppear and dadwashere, if you're going to criticise my grammar, make sure you don't make any howlers in your own post! no idea if they were intentional or not. But it should be 'teacher's', not 'teacher is'.

Comma splices are never right. You can't connect two sentences on two different topics like that. You should use a full stop, an en rule (dash), a colon or semi-colon, depending on the situation.

Understanding comma splicing really does separate people who think they are grammar pedants from those who actually are.

Your children will need to understand how to punctuate correctly, though: they will be marked down in GCSE English for comma splicing.

(I occasionally still use "an hotel" and also do use the apostrophe before "phone" and "bus" etc, but only when handwriting, never when typing...)

Framey - nope, no comma splice in my post. A comma splice joins two complete sentences. The comma before 'but' in my sentence is fine. Honest, guv.

I just think it's ironic that DS has been learning about all sort of literary devices - alliteration, onomatopoeia - and grammar and parts of speech - adverbs, homophones, synonyms - and the darn newsletter is wrong.

I may be overreacting. It has been known. But I still think the newsletter is the school's public face and mistakes in it do reflect badly on the school. IMO!

Eh?

This thread is full of examples of what I'm tempted to call "Hans' Law". Every time someone posts on the internet with the sole purpose of correcting someone else's grammar, then they too will make a grammar (or spelling) mistake. It's inevitable E.g. the poster who said you have to "right" out numbers under ten (you really don't. ...it's a pretty archaic rule).

Now, someone will point out all the mistakes in my post and so the cycle continues....

^^ Love this post Egosumquisum!

This comma splicing info has blown my mind!!

I'd like to be Baby Splice please (just learning)

I thought commas were meant to reflect natural pauses in speech. So, the rules are fairly flexible.

I was taught that at school, too. Unfortunately, it's simplistic to the point of being incorrect. Comma placement can alter the sense of a sentence or clause (hence the fuss over the Oxford comma), and complaining about comma splicing makes sense once you understand the rule. In fact the first example the OP gave made me wince a little, though the second and third seemed fairly okay.

I think a big problem with contemporary grammar is that teachers were, like me, brought up in a generation that weren't taught formal grammar much, if at all. All my own was gleaned from reading, osmotically, or by googling in adulthood when something "looked wrong" but I couldn't begin to fathom why.

I hate that my grammar is so flawed, but as I notice mistakes made in every school report DS has ever had, I'm pretty sure the next generation are going to be equally poorly served. It's a shame.

Egosumquisum

There's a lot of irony on this thread, especially DadWasHere's In summary, Irony, your defining it, also,

I disagree :-D

"An hotel" surely can't be right. "An" is for words that start with vowel sounds, hence "an hour" but "a house". /h/ has vowel-like qualities but it's not a vowel.

You could try getting yourself a life?

landrover if we had lives, none of us would be on Mumsnet on a Friday night, now would we.