writerslessons

Lesson time! 

The boy tore his pants. I thought he looked ridiculous.

Here are two basic sentences about two different people and two different actions, but the sentences are closely related. They are grammatically correct as written. The shortness of these sentences brings a clipped, almost terse feel to the writing, which might not fit with your writing style. So try combining them. 

The boy tore his pants, and I thought he looked ridiculous.

When you connect two complete sentences with an ‘and’, you must also use a comma. Don’t ask me why. English is weird. I emphasized the word ‘complete’ because if both sections on either side of the ‘and’ do not make a complete sentence, then you wouldn’t use a comma.

The boy tore his pants; I thought he looked ridiculous.

The semicolon is only used to connect two related sentences. You do not use a conjunction (and, but, or, etc) between them, only the semicolon.

Read over the three examples again and pay attention to how they feel. Each one will feel slightly different to you, as if a different tone of voice is being used for each one. Make sure, in your own writing, to watch how you connect sentences. If your writing feels too choppy, maybe you need to connect some sentences. If there are too many connected sentences, on the other hand, your statements may start to seem weak. Play with it and see how it reads with more or less connected sentences until you find the balance that fits you.

Happy writing!

Trackback URI | Comments RSS