Commas

Commas continued

First, lets review the difference between an independent clause and a dependent clause:

Independent clauses can stand on their own; in other words, they are complete. Example: After the dance last night I went straight to bed.

Dependent Clauses cannot stand on their own; in other words, they are only a fragment of a sentence, and therefore express an incomplete thought: Example: After the dance last night. This sentence leaves you wondering, after the dance, what happened?

So what? You can NEVER put a comma between two independent clauses. If you do this, you create what we English nerds refer to as a comma splice.

In the paragraph below, BLUE signifies a comma splice, and YELLOW signals the need for a missing comma. To fix a comma splice, you can either replace the comma with a semicolon, add a conjuntion (such as "and") or replace the comma with a period.

The Oglala used to thrive in that country because it gave them the richness of the prairie, they lived where the buffalo lived. And the buffalo gave them food robes a fierce and exciting occumpation and a spiritual connection to the land. Others killed off almost all the buffalo and with their guns squeezed the people into a small corner of the buffalo range, the land was amputated and the heart torn out. Now the people live on the body of a corpse, how can we restore the spirit of the buffalo? Perhpas we should restore the buffalo.

Here is how the paragraph should be written:

The Oglala used to thrive in that country because it gave them the richness of the prairie. They lived where the buffalo lived, and the buffalo gave them food, robes, a fierce and exciting occumpation, and a spiritual connection to the land. Others killed off almost all the buffalo and with their guns squeezed the people into a small corner of the buffalo range. The land was amputated and the heart torn out. Now the people live on the body of a corpse. How can we restore the spirit of the buffalo? Perhpas we should restore the buffalo.