Question #N1325
The sentence "The cat sat on the mat, it was sleeping." is incorrect because it uses a comma splice. Which of the following revisions fixes the comma splice error?
A. The cat sat on the mat; it was sleeping.
B. The cat sat on the mat. It was sleeping.
C. The cat sat on the mat and it was sleeping.
D. The cat, sat on the mat; it was sleeping.
Correct Answer is: B
A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses are joined by a comma without a coordinating conjunction or a semicolon. The sentence is correctly revised by separating the independent clauses with a period. The other choices are incorrect because they still contain a comma splice, or they use punctuation that doesn’t make sense in the context.