Template talk:User comma-splice/Archive 1

David: I've removed the <noinclude> tags, so that the users with this userbox can be properly categorized into Category:Wikipedians who fix comma splices. --M1ss1ontomars2k4 | T | C | @ 21:57, 20 May 2006 (UTC)

With all due respect, are you very sure it should not look like this:

,	This user fixes comma splices, as they are annoying.

I am not certain, but this appears more correct to me.Nimur 04:29, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

Picky grammar point

Ref: Explanation stolen from: http://www.economics.utoronto.ca/munro5/syntax.doc; example (italicised text) adapted for irony, since the Userbox impliedly boasts about the user's grammar skills. :-)

---

"4. IMPROPER USE OF THE OVERWORKED CONJUNCTION ‘AS’:

"Do not use ‘as’ to introduce a subordinate clause that follows the principal clause, when ‘as’ in that subordinate clause explains why, in the sense of ‘because, since, for’.

"Example: This user fixes comma splices, as they are annoying.

"This can be confusing: Does the sentence mean: The user has a habit of fixing comma splices, and commonly notices that--at the very moment (s)he begins editing--the offending sentence is annoying, or somehow suddenly becomes annoying? That would be the only permissible form of ‘as’ in this particular construction. More likely, it means to offer a rationale for the user's behaviour. If so, the sentence is both confusing and inelegant."

---

I propose this change. :-)

,	This user fixes comma splices, because they are annoying.

Snakesteuben (talk) 07:05, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

P.S. Nimur is correct. There should be a comma before the subordinating conjunction. So we would leave the comma in the spliced sentence and add the conjunction after it. Arguably, with clauses longer than a couple words, removing the comma and replacing it with a conjunction (even if it were the correct one) makes misreading more probable, not less. Snakesteuben (talk) 08:05, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Archive 1