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...

Why tomato? I linked to it earlier. What are you trying to point out to me?

I don't know anymore.....

Onlylovers - I've only ever seen it spelt as Muphry's Law, I don't know about it being spelt Muprhy, never seen it anywhere else except on this thread - but ok :)

Happy to let it go now, I was just getting confused and wondering if I was going mad or something!

987flowers comma splices are generally accepted in fiction, poetry, letters and informal writing.

Huh? Not in traditionally published fiction (no idea about the others). A self-published "author" can put whatever they want out, but a publishing company's editor would remove comma splices.

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

Another huh? They are a grammatical error.

Muphry's Law, I don't know about it being spelt Muprhy Did you spell it the same or did you mean Murphy? If not I'm well and I know I'm certainly going to go mad now.

Tomato - I know how you feel - re-read Onlylover's posts again very carefully- she is talking about Muphry's Law (the one linked to) that talks about making errors while correcting someone else's (just so we're clear) and you'll see that, apart from the last one, she spelt it Muprhy - PRH, not Muphry - PHR. And definitely not Murphy!

Many famous authors refuse to use semi-colons. I don't think George Orwell is a self published author! Books written prior to the 20th Century have a lot of comma splices. There are quite a few written after that do as well.

quote one?

Kakifruit Descriptive v's Prescriptive view of grammar surely? Most things people argue about are issues of style rather than actual 'rules'. Bearing in mind a lot of the rules are arbitrary and were just made up to conform to someones ideal of how English should be written. (mostly a group of white anglo-saxon men)

This makes an interesting read.

motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/comma-splices-historical-and-informal-not-wrong/

Chapter 14 Robinson Crusoe 1719

"As the old one, I knew not what to do with him, he was so fierce I darst not go into the pit to him"

And from the Wikipedia article on comma splices there are

I have the bed still, it is in every way suitable for the old house where I live now (E. Jolley); Marcus … was of course already quite a famous man, Ludens had even heard of him from friends at Cambridge (I. Murdoch).

Interesting!

Seekeveryknown, this is taken from chapter 13 of Treasure Island and is the whole of the third paragraph. It does have a semi colon but, it also uses way to many commas.

Perhaps it was thisperhaps it was the look of the island, with its grey, melancholy woods, and wild stone spires, and the surf that we could both see and hear foaming and thundering on the steep beachat least, although the sun shone bright and hot, and the shore birds were fishing and crying all around us, and you would have thought anyone would have been glad to get to land after being so long at sea, my heart sank, as the saying is, into my boots; and from the first look onward, I hated the very thought of Treasure Island.

I don't actually think there are too many commas there - if it was an essay, I'd suggest breaking down into smaller sentences for clarity, but there I think the syntax is quite effective in constructing the tone!

Cue Frozen chorus.

I think the comma splices come about more often nowadays, with FB and online forums a major hub of communication, because of the desire to sound as if we're conversing with each other in person. The comma splices make our typed statements seem more casual, thus more intimate and less "written."

Correcting others' grammar is the venue of teachers and parents.

It's annoying sometimes to see grammar errors. In your post, OP, you didn't proofread properly and left a "but" which deprives your righteousness of its purity. We all do this kind of thing. I'm sure there are several mistakes in my own post.

How do you think the headmaster will react to your friendly corrective email?

The answer to that will tell you what to do, or rather, what not to do.

I just read the last few posts. Thanks for the information, very interesting!

Fair enough. However if one of my pupils wrote like that, whilst preparing for their GCSE exams, they would get pulled up for. Though I do feel that the new GCSE English exams don't really allow for creativity which is a whole other thread.

I've just read the rest of OP's comments. Oh my, how obnoxious, OP. Look how you reacted to others correcting your post. "Wow, thanks to all the pedantic posters who have attacked my grammar." Pot, meet kettle.

To you, your mistake wasn't a real mistake; it was a "sneaky" extra word. It's the extra word's fault! Haha!

You want this head teacher, and everyone else, to know you're smarter (in your view) than she is. How dare she masquerade as head teacher when even your ds is already in possession of "all sorts of literary devices."

I bet you think you'd make a much better head teacher and you can't wrap your ego around the reality that somehow this person has a higher position in academia than you.

That is it in a nutshell. Go ahead and write the email. That way your pettiness is known and documented.

Tomato: 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.

They're not. Informal writing - do you mean posting on here and suchlike? If so, fair enough. I'd never use one, however. But if you're talking about traditionally published fiction (poetry is a little different) then comma splices would be removed (if the editor knew what they were doing).

LittleBeauty - you're projecting. Nowhere have I said I'm better than anyone else, and I certainly haven't said anything about wanting to be HT/thinking I'd make a better HT than the present one! So, obnoxious? Right back at you.

A couple of posters replied to me snarkily and said I had made mistakes in my post - well, the 'but' was the only one, I believe, and it's been pointed out a gazillion times, so thanks. and if you're pointing out errors in someone else's post, better make sure yours is error-free first

Like I said earlier, there is a difference between informal and formal communication, and if I were writing a school newsletter (or something formal that was going to be read by hundreds of people), and I made an error (not a typo, but an error resulting from lack of knowledge), then I'd like to be told, so I didn't do it again.

They're not. Informal writing - do you mean posting on here and suchlike? If so, fair enough. I'd never use one, however. But if you're talking about traditionally published fiction (poetry is a little different) then comma splices would be removed (if the editor knew what they were doing).

It is just not as black and white right and wrong simple as that.

*MrsFrisbyMouse Wed 13-Jan-16 13:15:17
Kakifruit Descriptive v's Prescriptive view of grammar surely? Most things people argue about are issues of style rather than actual 'rules'. Bearing in mind a lot of the rules are arbitrary and were just made up to conform to someones ideal of how English should be written. (mostly a group of white anglo-saxon men)

This makes an interesting read.

motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/comma-splices-historical-and-informal-not-wrong/*

and this stancarey.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/oh-the-splices-youll-see/

On the other hand when you've penned your letter to the head you could then also write to all the editors who don't edit out comma splices, I'm sure they'd be thrilled amused.

I think that some grammar rules are, not so much arbitrary, as up for debate because they don't necessarily damage the meaning or impact of what's said - not splitting an infinitive, not ending a sentence with a preposition, not beginning it with 'and' or 'but', not using oxford commas.

The comma splice, however, is a little different in my opinion. The relationship between one thing which is said and another thing which is said is important - is the second a follow-on, a consequence, or what? Comma splices make for breathless and careless prose, which suggests a kind of random outpouring of unconnected ideas which are the reader's responsibility to make sense of.

Tomato - the link you posted was American (and I disagree with quite a lot in it)!

I use New Hart's Rules (UK handbook for writers and editors) which says quite clearly: 'A comma alone should not be used to join two main clauses... this error can be corrected by adding a coordinating conjunction or by replacing the comma with a semi-colon or colon.'

Having lived and worked in education in both the UK and the US I can say that some of the worst grammar I've seen is from English people and some of the best from Americans. I wince at English language superiority BS.

Actually it's not American, he's an Irish editor! You disagree and some people don't. Like I said before It is just not as black and white right and wrong simple as that.