We talked in the last video about this link between punctuation and professionalism, and we introduced the term comma splice through the following example. "The record also never established what exactly the employers reporting requirements are, therefore it is impossible to say objectively whether or not Ms. Lynn has violated them." I want to use a different example in this video, however, because I think it will do a better job of showing us what a comma splice is and how not to look foolish when using one. The example comes from the medium in which most of us do the bulk of our writing each day: email. Here it is. "I really appreciate your willingness to help, I'm excited to get more feedback from you." The problem with what that person wrote is that we have essentially two sentences crashing into each other. To understand what I mean, it is helpful to think of an observation made by the writer Pico Iyer. "Punctuation marks are the road signs placed along the highway of communication -- to control speeds, provide directions, and prevent head-on collisions." A comma is simply not the appropriate road sign for the example we've been looking at. It's not strong enough. You would need a period, which you can think of as a stop sign, or you might use a semicolon, which you can think of as a yield sign. But if all you have is a comma, you're generally going to get one of those head-on collisions Iyre warns about. I think generally because there are exceptions as the journalist and English professor Ben Yagoda points out in his book, How to Not Write Bad. "Comma splices are okay in rare cases, including sentences where even a semicolon would slow things down too much." Here are a few that might qualify. In Born a Crime, the comedian Trevor Noah opts for a comma splice at the end of this short description of his parents' contrasting characteristics, "My mom was wild and impulsive. My father was reserved and rational. She was fire, he was ice." In one of the most famous opening lines in western literature, Charles Dickens uses several comma splices to craft a sentence we'll look at again when we learn about parallel structure. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity." You'll also see comma splices in advertising slogans. Here's one from the cosmetics company, Avon. "Beauty is the journey, empowerment is the destination." But unless it is clear to readers that you're using a comma splice on purpose, it can be risky to throw one in, particularly when a more formal style is expected, like in papers in school or projects at work. As with many conventions, it can be helpful to first show that you have mastered them before you start breaking them.