BOE #85

when poor writing sucks out the dignity of what you're saying

The above is an example of what happens when what you’re trying to say is fairly witty or profound, but your linguistic ineptitude makes you trip over your own dick.

See the problems? Scroll down.

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You’ve got two independent clauses. They can’t be separated by just a comma because that’s an error we call a comma splice, as I’ve said a million times before. Several corrections are possible. But before we do them, let’s look at the other problem: writing its (that thing’s) instead of it’s (it is). Okay, with both of those out of the way, let’s move on to the possible corrections:

1. This is not inclusion; it’s exclusion and fanaticism. (semicolon, not comma)

2. This is not inclusion. It’s exclusion and fanaticism. (2 sentences = serious tone)

3. This is not inclusion—it’s exclusion and fanaticism. (em dash = dramatic pause)

4. This is not inclusion: it’s exclusion and fanaticism. (colon = reason to follow)

So there are several ways to improve the above poor punctuation.

Try to care about how you look when you write. Don’t just bumble along, blindly oblivious to the messes you make wherever you go.