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...

Thanks, Moln. I just looked it up, and that's what I was thinking of - but Mike Godwin says it much better!

I'm reading a book at the moment which seems to have loads of comma splices, I'm finding it really tricky to read!

I would be horrified – copy published by a school shouldn't be riddled with rubbish grammar – but I hope I'd be pessimistic enough to ignore it and not fuss. I think it's a lost cause; I'm pretty sure I'll have to teach my kids grammar at home. The level of English displayed by teachers at my own primary school is largely horrifying ("How many Fs are there in 'filfy'?" was an actual quote heard in the staff room).

987flowers comma splices are generally accepted in fiction, poetry, letters and informal writing. That has been the case for hundreds of years. Sadly, that will probably change.

I HATE THIS.

But I fear that it's becoming more and more the norm and, language being the amazing living thing it is, in however many years' time it will be absolutely accepted as 'correct' and the poor semi-colon will have become extinct.

Having said that, I'd totally write and point it out. For now this remains substandard grammar, and a head teacher should know better.

Prince, that's also known as Muprhy's Law.

Murphy's Law indeed, OnlyLovers!

No, MUPRHY'S!

Gotcha!

So glad you get it. I posted in a pedantry group on FB recently, quoting someone else's spelling mistake and explicitly invoking the Law.

Two fuckers people replied, one 'correcting' 'my' mistake and the other 'correcting' my spelling of Muprhy's.

I've left the group. They're just not the calibre of pedants I'm used to.

Onlylover - it is my painful duty to tell you that you have yourself fallen foul of Muphry's law!

Go on, Thumb, hit me with it.

Every time you've mentioned Muphry's law, you've spelt it Muprhy's law. Sorry!

That's the point of it Thumbs.....oh Thumbs!

Um. Yes. I know. That's what Muphry's Law is. As opposed to the better-known Murphy's Law. here's a definition

I genuinely thought I'd made a spelling booboo. Can't tell you how many times I read and reread all my posts.

Oh were you being ironic in your mis-spelling of it? Sorry. I totally know what Muphry's Law is, I linked to it much earlier in this thread. I even spelt it correctly in both my posts. But you didn't - you switched the h and the r, every time until your most recent post.

Sorry if it was ironic.

I just had to Google comma splice too. I've never heard of one and I'm a teacher. Email the head, I'm sure she hasn't got much on today. Maybe just before she goes home at 3pm

Comma Splices are not a grammatical error - they are an issue of style.

Does the school not have a style guide. Shame on them.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law

I've never heard about comma splices before, but now I'll be sure to always use a conjunction when I use a comma!

Here you are:
ThumbWitchesAbroad Sat 09-Jan-16 11:20:31
Wow, in common with many of you, I've never heard of a comma splice before and am almost certainly guilty of using them!

But I wouldn't email the Head to tell her. Apart from anything else, you're almost certain to fall foul of Muphry's Law if you do.

which is in fact a link to the same wikipedia page you are both linking to.

Can you not see that it's been mis-spelt? How would you even pronounce it? The correct "mis-spelling" (Muphry) is clearly pronounced "muff-ree" - how do you even pronounce "muprhy"?

Thumb, well, not so much ironic as that I had understood that that was part of the Law – that you can/should spell it different ways...?

If not, then guilty as charged.

Look at my wiki link ....a little bit more closely!!

Just looked at the other link, not Murphey's law. Sure it was a minute ago....my head hurts

Murphy even....I'm done