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Comma Splice - Sentence correction

Critical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension
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Comma Splice - Sentence correction

by TanmayShah » Sun Mar 31, 2013 4:58 am
She was less successful after she had emigrated
to New York compared to her native Germany,
photographer Lotte Jacobi nevertheless earned a small
group of discerning admirers, and her photographs
were eventuallyexhibited in prestigious galleries
across the United States.
(A) She was less successful after she had
emigrated to NewYork compared to
(B) Being less successful after she had emigrated
to New York as compared to
(C) Less successful after she emigrated to New
York than she had been in
(D) Although she was less successful after
emigratingto New York when compared to
(E) She had been less successful after emigrating
to New York than in


Can someone please explain this problem?

and also the concept of comma splice and how to use/identify it?
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by hemant_rajput » Wed Apr 03, 2013 10:35 am
TanmayShah wrote:She was less successful after she had emigrated
to New York compared to her native Germany,
photographer Lotte Jacobi nevertheless earned a small
group of discerning admirers, and her photographs
were eventuallyexhibited in prestigious galleries
across the United States.
(A) She was less successful after she had
emigrated to NewYork compared to
(B) Being less successful after she had emigrated
to New York as compared to
(C) Less successful after she emigrated to New
York than she had been in
(D) Although she was less successful after
emigratingto New York when compared to
(E) She had been less successful after emigrating
to New York than in


Can someone please explain this problem?

and also the concept of comma splice and how to use/identify it?
comma splice is the problem of run-on sentences.
when two independent sentences are joined with a comma you have comma-splice.

for ex:- I love chocolate, I play hockey.

the above sentence is flawed with comma splice.
Now take a look at below sentences:-

I love chocolate and I play hockey.

I love to eat chocolates and to play hockey.

Both sentences above solve the problem of comma splice in the original post.

Now, lets take a look at your question.


the first clause "She was...her native Germany" is an independent and complete clause.
Now we can't do any thing about the comma, so we need to make the statement under consideration dependent of the second clause - "photographer ...United States".
only D make the first clause as dependent clause on the coming clause.

IMO D

what is OA?
PS: - this link has a very good explanation on Comma-Splice
https://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/comma-splice.aspx
I'm no expert, just trying to work on my skills. If I've made any mistakes please bear with me.
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by messi10 » Fri Apr 05, 2013 2:17 am
I think hemant_rajput has answered your question about comma splice quite well.

However, The OA is C.

In its current form, the sentence is a run on i.e. two independent clauses joined by a comma. That is the problem with both choices A and E. Choice E also has a verb error in that it implies that her "less success" happened before she actually emigrated to New York which is nonsensical.

There is an idiomatic error in choice A,B and D which is the usage of "compared to". Compared to/Compared with, in comparison to etc should not be used with other comparison words such as greater than, more than, less than etc. It should be used on its own.

Choice B, C, D fix the problem of the comma splice or run on by changing the structure of the sentence to:

initial modifier, main clause

However choice C is the only one where verb tense, idiom and run on errors are fixed.

Hope this helps
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by iongmat » Thu Jul 13, 2017 11:05 pm
Can an expert tell me how E is a comma splice? E seems to be using 3 Independent clauses connected by "and". So, that should be ok grammatically.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Sun Jul 16, 2017 2:29 pm
iongmat wrote:Can an expert tell me how E is a comma splice? E seems to be using 3 Independent clauses connected by "and". So, that should be ok grammatically.
Here is the full text of E, with each independent clause highlighted in a different color:
She had been less successful after emigrating to New York than in her native Germany, photographer Lotte Jacobi nevertheless earned a small group of discerning admirers, and her photographs were eventually exhibited in prestigious galleries across the United States.

It is fine to have a list of independent clauses connected with "and," for example: I dance, she plays guitar, and he sings.

This only really works if you have 3 different subjects (as in my example), or perhaps the same subject, but discrete verbs: I dance, I play guitar, and I sing. (less common, because we could make this a list of verbs rather than clauses).

In E, 2 of the subjects are Lotte, but the 3rd is her photographs. Furthermore, the "nevertheless" is setting up a contrast between the 1st two clauses. It doesn't make sense to include that in a parallel list with the 3rd clause; that 3rd clause should modify or explain the 2nd one. Lists should be made up of elements that are on the same "level" - in other words, if one list element is explaining another, it should be a modifier, not a separate list element.

Does that clarify things?
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by iongmat » Mon Jul 17, 2017 5:30 am
Thanks Ceilidh . I didn't mean to say that E was the right option.

I just wanted to suggest that technically, E is not a comma splice. Am I correct?
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by GMATGuruNY » Wed Jul 19, 2017 2:22 am
iongmat wrote:Thanks Ceilidh . I didn't mean to say that E was the right option.

I just wanted to suggest that technically, E is not a comma splice. Am I correct?
I received a PM requesting that I comment.

When and serves to connect a series of three parallel forms, the semantic implication is that and could logically serve to connect the first two parallel forms.
John likes vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.
Semantic implication:
John likes vanilla and chocolate.

E: She had been less successful after emigrating to New York than in her native Germany, photographer Lotte Jacobi nevertheless earned a small group of discerning admirers, and her photographs were eventually exhibited in prestigious galleries across the United States.
Here, if and is serving to connect the entire series of three independent clauses, then and must logically be able to connect the first two independent clauses, as follows:
She had been less successful after emigrating to New York than in her native Germany, and photographer Lotte Jacobi nevertheless earned a small group of discerning admirers.
The sentence above is illogical: whereas the usage of and implies that the two clauses are SIMILAR, the usage of nevertheless indicates that the two clauses are CONTRASTING.
Implication:
The and in E is NOT serving to connect the entire series of three independent clauses.

Thus, the first two independent clauses in E do in fact yield a comma splice:
She had been less successful after emigrating to New York than in her native Germany, photographer Lotte Jacobi nevertheless earned a small group of discerning admirers.
Here, the comma can be replaced by a period, as follows:
She had been less successful after emigrating to New York than in her native Germany. Photographer Lotte Jacobi nevertheless earned a small group of discerning admirers.
Since the comma can be replaced by a period, the result is a comma splice.
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by iongmat » Wed Jul 19, 2017 3:11 am
Thanks for your response Mitch.

Wherever I look for definition of comma splice, it says that comma splice is when two or more independent clauses are connected by a comma.

So, does it not mean the following:

When two or more independent clauses are NOT connected by a comma (but by a coordinating conjunction), then sentence is "not" a comma splice?

Clearly there are three independent clauses in option E and these independent clauses are not connected by a comma (but by a coordinating conjunction "and"). While the use of "and" might not be justified (since it does not do justice to the intended meaning of the sentence), I thought that this is not a comma splice.

Basically Sir, I have always looked at comma splice as a "grammar" concept, but your explanation above seems to being a completely new perspective ("logic and meaning") into the definition of a comma splice.

This is what I am slightly finding confusing.
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by GMATGuruNY » Wed Jul 19, 2017 3:52 am
iongmat wrote:Thanks for your response Mitch.

Wherever I look for definition of comma splice, it says that comma splice is when two or more independent clauses are connected by a comma.

So, does it not mean the following:

When two or more independent clauses are NOT connected by a comma (but by a coordinating conjunction), then sentence is "not" a comma splice?

Clearly there are three independent clauses in option E and these independent clauses are not connected by a comma (but by a coordinating conjunction "and"). While the use of "and" might not be justified (since it does not do justice to the intended meaning of the sentence), I thought that this is not a comma splice.

Basically Sir, I have always looked at comma splice as a "grammar" concept, but your explanation above seems to being a completely new perspective ("logic and meaning") into the definition of a comma splice.

This is what I am slightly finding confusing.
Grammar and meaning inform each other.
Semantically, no reader would ever interpret that the first two independent clauses are connected by an implied and, since this interpretation makes no sense.
Since there is no implied and between the first two independent clauses, the only alternative is that the first two independent clauses are connected solely by the comma.
The result is a comma splice.
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