Jay Wagers dot Com

When reading essays, I have noticed a trend in people using conjunctive adverbs as if they were conjunctions. I do not understand the reason for this, but the problem seems to be growing.

Conjunctions are words used for linking words, phrases, and clauses. There is a very simple method for memorizing the most common. Just remember the term “FANBOYS.” Each letter stands for a coordinating conjunction.

Here they are: F(for), A(and), N(nor), B(but), O(or), Y(yet), S(so).

The key rule to remember is that if you are using one of these to join two complete sentences, then you must place a comma before it.

The lady in the red car just ran the stop sign, so the police officer is now giving her a citation.

The problem I am seeing is that some writers would mistakenly insert a conjunctive adverb here.

The lady in the red car just ran the stop sign, therefore, the police officer is now giving her a citation.

Here the conjunctive adverb is “therefore” and all the writer has managed to do is create a comma splice. (Comma splices are when two complete sentences are joined by a comma.)

Common conjunctive adverbs (not all) include the following: furthermore, likewise, however, nevertheless, accordingly, instead, indeed, in fact, and meanwhile.

If any of these are used to join two complete sentences, then the writer must either insert a period and capitalize the adverb or insert a semicolon before it.

The lady in the red car just ran the stop sign. Therefore, the police officer is now giving her a citation.

The lady in the red car just ran the stop sign; therefore, the police officer is now giving her a citation.

There is more to come on conjunctive adverbs and their use. Also, I’ll address comma splices and the four methods to correct them.

I want to thank DailyWritingTips and their posting concerning adverbs for reminding me of this. Visit Daniel’s site for more great advice on writing skills.

Word games are cool ways to learn and have fun. Obviously, most of those found on the Internet are for the young school children. But, that doesn’t mean EVERYONE can’t benefit from them.

Here is a cool game from millsberry.com. My son introduced it to me and we had a blast last night playing it. The game is called “Solver” Basically you have to find all the available words in a string of letters. Also, you have to beat the clock.

This is a great way for anyone to build up his or her vocabulary, whether a native English speaker or ESL student. It’s fun to play alone or with others, especially your school-age children.

This website is obviously a children’s site, but some of the educational games on it are so cool. You can play the games for free, or you can sign-up (free) for and account and accrue points.

Visit this game and let me know what you think about it! Also, while you are at it, click the big orange button and subscribe to my RSS feed for news and updates.