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.
direct address
words used to address directly those spoken to and set off by commas in a sentence (e.g., I have to leave now, darling, but I'll be back.)
interrupter
material that interrupts the flow of thought in a sentence and that should be set off by commas (e.g., My hat, which has a big rip in it, was given to me by my father.)
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.
joining word
a word (e.g., and, but, for, or, not, so, yet) used to join two complete thoughts; also called a conjunction
semicolon
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.
