by lil

Hi writers on Hubski

I made corrections on my student's essay. He sent me the thank-you note below. In discussing other corrections, I mentioned that he should put periods in the thank-you note where the commas are. This would make four little sentences. Was I wrong?

Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate you spending the time on these finer details I would not normally catch. Changes have been made, please see the attached.

They looked like run-on (comma splice) sentences to me. My student then wrote this:

I'll be honest though, I think I am having some trouble with comma splices. In my email I still feel it sounds better with the commas in. When I change the sentences from two to four, I feel the writing seems choppy, disjointed, and almost primitive or childlike.

I think if those sentences seem choppy or primitive, then he shouldn't write them. The comma is still wrong.

But then SELF-DOUBT struck. Anyone?