To Avoid Comma Splices, Know the Difference Between Coordinating Conjunctions (FANBOYS) and Conjunctive Adverbs
Coordinating Conjunctions (FANBOYS)
For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So
Conjunctive Adverbs (Partial List)
However, Moreover, Furthermore, Finally, Accordingly, Indeed, Otherwise, Subsequently, Nevertheless, Instead, To the contrary, On one hand, On the other hand
Examples of Different Ways We Punctuate Coordinating Conjunctions (FANBOYS) and Conjunctive Adverbs
Learning grammar is part of joining America's upper class elite club, but we shouldn't let our mastery of grammar turn us into snobs.
Learning grammar is part of joining America's upper class elite club; however, we shouldn't let our mastery of grammar turn us into snobs.
Mastering grammar is the equivalent of having a secret infrared tattoo code imprinted on your arm, for the invisible tattoo grants you entrance into America's upper class elite.
Mastering grammar is the equivalent of having a secret infrared tattoo code imprinted on your arm because the invisible tattoo grants you entrance into America's upper class elite.
Advancing through higher education will distance you from your working class friends and associates, and you will feel guilty for "abandoning" them.
Advancing through higher education will distance you from your working class friends and associates; moreover, you will feel guilty for "abandoning" them.
On the one hand, we want to advance our language skills, but on the other hand, we don't want to be snobs.
On the one hand, we want to advance our language skills; on the other hand, we don't want to be snobs.
One of my students, a single mother, refused food stamps and section 8 housing, so she could teach her son that poverty and dependence on the government were not options.
One of my students, a single mother, refused food stamps and section 8 housing; as a result, she taught her son that poverty and dependence on the government are not options.
Jerry ate ten pizzas a week. However, he remained skinny.
Jerry ate ten pizzas a week, but he remained skinny.
Barbara didn't buy the BMW. Instead, she bought the Acura.
Barbara didn't buy the BMW, yet she did buy the Acura.
Steve wasn't interested in college. Moreover, he didn't want to work full-time.
Steve wasn't interested in college, and he didn't want to work full-time.
I don't want you to pay me back the hundred dollars you owe me. However, I do want you to help me do my taxes.
I don't want you to pay me back the hundred dollars you owe me, but I do want you to help me do my taxes.
I don't want you to pay me back the hundred dollars you owe me, but I do, however, want you to help me do my taxes.
I feel that our relationship has become stale, stagnant, and turgid. Consequently, I think we should break up.
I feel that our relationship has become stale, stagnant, and turgid, so I think we should break up.
Students hate reading. Therefore, they must be tested with closed-book reading exams.
Students hate reading, so they must be tested with closed-book reading exams.
Avoiding Comma Splices and Run-Ons
Fused (run-on) sentence
Klee's paintings seem simple, they are very sophisticated.
She doubted the value of medication she decided to try it once.
A fused sentence (also called a run-on) joins clauses that could each stand alone as a sentence with no punctuation or words to link them. Fused sentences must be either divided into separate sentences or joined by adding words or punctuation.
Comma Splice
I was strongly attracted to her, she was beautiful and funny.
We hated the meat loaf, the cafeteria served it every Friday.
A comma splice occurs when only a comma separates clauses that could each stand alone as a sentence. To correct a comma splice, you can insert a semicolon or period, connect the clauses with a word such as and or because, or restructure the sentence.
After each sentence, put a “C” for Correct or a “CS” for Comma Splice. If the sentence is a comma splice, rewrite it so that it is correct.
One. Bailey used to eat ten pizzas a day, now he eats a spinach salad for lunch and dinner.
Two. Marco no longer runs on the treadmill, instead he opts for the less injury-causing elliptical trainer.
Three. Running can cause shin splints, which can cause excruciating pain.
Four. Running in the incorrect form can wreak havoc on the knees, slowing down can often correct the problem.
Five. While we live in a society where 1,500-calorie cheeseburgers are on the rise, the reading of books, sad to say, is on the decline.
Six. Facebook is a haven for narcissists, it encourages showing off with selfies and other mundane activities that are ways of showing how great and amazing our lives our, what a sham.
Seven. We live in a society where more and more Americans are consuming 1,500-calorie cheeseburgers, however, those same Americans are reading less and less books.
Eight. Love is a virus from outer space, it tends to become most contagious during April and May.
Nine. The tarantula causes horror in many people, moreover there is a species of tarantula in Brazil, the wandering banana spider, that is the most venomous spider in the world.
Ten. Even though spiders cause many people to recoil with horror, most species are harmless.
Eleven. The high repair costs of European luxury vehicles repelled Amanda from buying such a car, instead she opted for a Japanese-made Lexus.
Twelve. Amanda got a job at the Lexus dealership, now she’s trying to get me a job in the same office.
Thirteen. While consuming several cinnamon buns, a twelve-egg cheese omelet, ten slices of French toast slathered in maple syrup, and a tray of Swedish loganberry crepes topped with a dollop of blueberry jam, I contemplated the very grave possibility that I might be eating my way to a heart attack.
Fourteen. Even though I rank marijuana far less dangerous than most pharmaceutical drugs, alcohol, and other commonly used intoxicants, I find marijuana unappealing for a host of reasons, not the least of which is its potential for radically degrading brain cells, its enormous effect on stimulating the appetite, resulting in obesity, and its capacity for over-relaxing many people so that they lose significant motivation to achieve their primary goals, opting instead for a life of sloth and intractable indolence.
"Where I'm Calling From" by Raymond Carver
Good analysis from Will McDavid
General Problem for Your Introduction
"Where I'm Calling From": Alcoholism in the story points to a variety of problems: lack of metacognition, lack of empathy, maladaptation, pride, self-deception, and self-cruelty or self-punishment as a result of repressed selfishness and aggression.
Related Theme for Comparison
"The Other Woman": Lack of metacognition accompanies a dangerous abundance of self-deception. Clearly, you may want to define metacognition.
Both "The Other Woman" and "Where I'm Calling From" address a lack of metacognition accompanied by self-deception. Both stories show how hard it is to reach a point in life in which people are honest with themselves.
Themes for Developing a Thesis
Analyze how one must lose one's pride and reach the point of vulnerability required to go into "recovery mode."
In a comparison-contrast essay, analyze the theme of maladaptive wall-building, vulnerability, pride, and personal transformation in "Where I'm Calling From" and Lorrie Moore's "You're Ugly Too."
“Where I’m Calling From” by Raymond Carver
One. We read, “J.P. is first and foremost a drunk.” Why is it important for the alcoholics to define themselves this way?
Apparently, when you go to a “drying-out facility,” you embrace the philosophy that to fight your disease you must identify yourself as a diseased drunk; otherwise, you won’t be as diligent. Otherwise, you might lose focus, drop your guard and succumb to drinking again.
It’s easy for pride or complacency to settle in if you forget who you are “first and foremost.”
But the above notion is debatable. If we define ourselves, centrally, as alcoholics, are we not becoming a slave to that definition?
Should we call addictive behavior a disease? Or should we call it a bad habit? Or both. Do I overeat in my office because of a "disease" or is it a bad habit? Do bad habits apply to serious addictions like alcoholism and drug abuse?
Perhaps in acute cases of addiction, the problem is both a disease and a bad habit.
Two. How is the narrator’s relationship with J.P. important for his own recovery?
He sympathizes with J.P., so he develops empathy, a force that fights egotism, and egotism is an enabler to any addiction since egotism breeds entitlement and the addict is always looking for an excuse to feed his addiction.
Secondly, the narrator sees J.P.’s trembling hands and anxieties and this reflection of the symptoms of his own addiction has a sobering effect on him.
The physical symptoms as they detox terrify the men, and the narrator can only close his eyes and hope they will pass.
The men also see Tiny, a fat man, have a seizure.
We read, “Just about everybody at Frank Martin’s has nicks on his face.” We can infer that the men’s bodies are in a state of instability and temporary upheaval. The detox process is more than psychological. It’s very physical.
He hears J.P.’s falling-in-the well story, which serves as a metaphor of addiction: falling down a hole and being rescued, ascending a rope and going “back in the world he’d always lived in.”
The story’s title “Where I’m Calling From” seems to point to the hell pit where people detox as they slowly rise from the well of their addiction and rejoin the world.
"Where are you at right now?" That's the place the addict begins his journey to recovery.
The narrator finds J.P.’s life story soothing. It helps him forget his own problems. It helps him focus on someone else.
The curse of the addict is self-centeredness and solipsism, disappearing into one’s own head. Drinking is a self-centered venture. Addicts burn bridges with other people because they love their drug more than they love people.
Three. In addiction, you can’t just stop one kind of behavior. You have to replace the negative behavior with a new constructive behavior. Explain this principle in the context of the story.
Self-destructive addictions are generally about medicating ourselves from our self-hatred, self-loathing, self-pity, and learned helplessness.
The drug or drink medicates us from our helplessness and despair; however, our drug of choice becomes worse than the original affliction.
Hope is the product of escaping the hell of our self-centeredness and worthlessness. Drinking is a sign of giving up on hope and replacing hope with learned helplessness.
Being useful is one way to replace addiction.
So is self-improvement through reading or exercise.
Developing self-improvement routines help.
But all the above practices can't be seen as panaceas, or cures for alcoholism.
Four. Why is it important to juxtapose J.P.’s Roxy love story and his alcoholism?
Roxy had a drug-like effect on him in the beginning, but as the settled into alcoholism his domestic life, the love faded and was replaced with strain, curdled love, etc.
Domestic life, which felt so promising in the beginning, became a drudgery that needed to be masked with alcohol.
Both alcoholism and disconnection are insidious in that they happen gradually. You don’t wake up one morning, both an alcoholic and an alienated spouse.
J.P. drank more and more beer. Then he switched to gin and tonic. He’d drink in front of the TV and disconnect from his family.
He’d have drunken tantrums, throwing his lunch pail across the room.
He drank in the day and missed work.
He started getting into vicious fights with Roxy.
Repelled by her husband, Roxy finds a boyfriend.
Enraged, J.P. forces off Roxy’s wedding ring and cuts it into several pieces.
He gets arrested for drunk driving. He loses his license. He can’t work.
J.P.’s father-in-law and brother-in-law force release him to Frank Martin’s facility as if he’s a demon that needs to be removed from their family.
An addict is a demon that destroys everything in its path.
Every step along the addiction path is a descent into the well, like the one J.P. fell in when he was a kid.
It’s important for the narrator to see that alcoholism makes you lose everything. There is no compromise. The destruction is total and complete.
The narrator and J.P. both want to be in the facility. They’re scared for their lives. They need to be in order to be motivated to stay sober.
Five. What is the lesson we can learn from Jack London?
Frank Martin says, “He was a better man than any of us,” but alcohol killed him. Jack London wrote survival stories celebrating self-reliance, but he could not save himself from alcohol.
Recovery from alcoholism requires admitting that one cannot save oneself, that one is helpless. Recovery demands complete absence of pride and ego.
“If” we want recovery, we can get help. However, it’s clear that the narrator is in conflict. Part of him wants recovery, that is to re-connect with life, but another part of him would rather die, even the slow death of alcoholism.
We learn that the alcoholic has two drives, to live again and to escape from life. The latter, to escape from life, is a form of death both spiritually and physically.
We also learn that alcoholics are selfish and make selfish decisions: The narrator’s girlfriend with the “mouthy teen-age son” has some kind of cancer and he enables her to get drunk, a good excuse for him to drink as well.
We also learn that alcoholics are psychotic or delusional in their denial of their alcoholism like the traveling businessman who claims he’s not a drunk and that if he limits his drinking to whiskey and water, no ice, he never gets intoxicated.
As an aside, in the midst of the detox I’m taken aback by all the sugar, cake, soda, and cigarettes mentioned in the story. It seems if the alcohol doesn’t kill them, they’ll die of diabetes and lung cancer, but those deaths will take longer to occur.
Six. How is the recovery home a sort of Purgatory?
They are trying to purify in a sort of temporary hell. I keep seeing the coal bucket and they use for their cigarette ashes.
They are temporarily cut off from the human race.
They are forced to learn wisdom that will help them stay sober one day at a time.
I keep coming back to chimney sweeping as an image of Purgatory.
Seven. What evidence is there that the narrator is a self-centered, judgmental, obnoxious miscreant?
The way he treats the landlord while he’s painting says a lot about the narrator who’s naked and gloating at the landlord, thanking God he’s not the ugly guy painting the house.
He wants J.P.’s wife to kiss him.
He hates his girlfriend’s son who clearly annoys and inconveniences him.
He has a demon inside him. I have a saying when you have this difficult personality inside you. I say, “Being me is a full-time job.” I can imagine the narrator feeling this way.
He’s the type of guy who has to make a special effort to not be an obnoxious jackass, and he fails more than he succeeds.
Eight. What do addictions have in common?
Alcoholism, drug abuse, overeating, anorexia, Facebook obsession, smartphone obsession, materialism, and other addictions have the following in common:
They are generated from the anxiety and despair of disconnection to one's self, others, and Life. The addiction INCREASES the disconnection and thereby creates a vicious cycle.
Addicts are lonely, disconnected people who have maladapted to their loneliness by creating misguided, self-destructive coping mechanisms. They need tools, mentors, and re-direction.
Link for Studying Literary Paragraph Analysis
McMahon Grammar Exercise: Parallelism
Correct the faulty parallelism by rewriting the sentences below.
One. Parenting toddlers is difficult for many reasons, not the least of which is that toddlers contradict everything you ask them to do; they have giant mood swings, and all-night tantrums.
Two. You should avoid all-you-can-eat buffets: They encourage gluttony; they feature fatty, over-salted foods and high sugar content.
Three. I prefer kettlebell training at home than the gym because of the increased privacy, the absence of loud “gym” music, and I’m able to concentrate more.
Four. To write a successful research paper you must adhere to the exact MLA format, employ a variety of paragraph transitions, and writing an intellectually rigorous thesis.
Five. The difficulty of adhering to the MLA format is that the rules are frequently being updated, the sheer abundance of rules you have to follow, and to integrate your research into your essay.
Six. You should avoid watching “reality shows” on TV because they encourage a depraved form of voyeurism; they distract you from your own problems, and their brain-dumbing effects.
Seven. I’m still fat even though I’ve tried the low-carb diet, the Paleo diet, the Rock-in-the-Mouth diet, and fasting every other day.
Eight. To write a successful thesis, you must have a compelling topic, a sophisticated take on that topic, and developing a thesis that elevates the reader’s consciousness to a higher level.
Nine. Getting enough sleep, exercising daily, and the importance of a positive attitude are essential for academic success.
Ten. My children never react to my calm commands or when I beg them to do things.
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