Comma splice Jr. advises using a semicolon, not a comma, to join two grammatically complete clauses, except when the clauses are "very short" and "similar in form", for example: Comma splices are similar to run-on sentences, which join two independent clauses without any punctuation and without a conjunction such as "and", "but" "for", etc. Sometimes the two types of sentences are treated differently based on the presence or absence of a comma, but most writers consider the comma splice as a special type of run-on sentence. According to "Garner's Modern English Usage": Comma splices often arise when writers use conjunctive adverbs (such
That is often omitted when used to introduce a subordinate clause—""He told me that it is a good read."" could just as easily be ""He told me it is a good read."" Historically, "that" usually followed a comma: "He told me, that it is a good read." Middle Modern English grammarian Joseph Robertson recommended in "On Punctuation" that a comma be used with a conjunction. However, if the subordinate, conjunctional ellipse, null complement, or syntactic pleonasm of "that" is punctuated with a comma, then, in the English grammar, stylistically speaking, it is a comma splice, especially in formal writing. Instead, a