Key Terms

comma	punctuation mark used to separate items in a series, set off introductory material or words that interrupt the flow of thought in a sentence, join two complete thoughts (together with a conjunction), set off direct quotations, etc.



joining word	a word (e.g., and, but, for, or, not, so, yet) used to join two complete thoughts; also called a conjunction



run-on	two complete thoughts that run together with no adequate sign given to mark the break between them. In this text, the term "run-on" denotes both comma splices and fused sentences; some instructors prefer to use "run-on" as a synonym of fused sentence alone.



semi-colon	a punctuation mark that can be used to join two complete thoughts; sometimes called a strong comma, a semi-colon signals more of a pause than a comma alone, but not the full stop of a period.

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