Joining Independent Clauses

A Lesson by CK_85

This lesson will be a discussion on utilizing commas to join two independent clauses.

Another main usage of the comma is to join two independent clauses. An independent clause is a clause that has a subject and a predicate (fancy way of saying a verb with something after it). An independent clause will be able to stand in a sentence by itself, and still make sense. For example:

I love baseball.

The subject is "I", while the predicate is everything, and including, after "love". To join two independent clauses, all you need is to separate them via a comma, and a conjunction right after the comma. For example:

I love baseball, and I love basketball.

While we will get into this discussion later, it is important that you do not string several independent clauses together via commas. This runs the risk of creating a comma splice (which will be another lesson in itself). In conclusion, if the clause can stand by itself and still make perfect sense, it's an independent clause. String two independent clauses together with a comma and conjunction. Finally, remember not to get too carried away with putting two independent clauses together. I'll see you all for next lesson, and I hope you learned something!