Constant Content

HI,

I am new and have had an article rejected based on this sentence:

"Although it can never replace a good diet and an exercise program, it will help you alter your behavior through the powerful means of suggestion under hypnosis." Comma splice. This should use a semicolon. ///

I have not encountered any online grammar guides, or books, where 'although' should be followed by a semicolon. Can anyone help? Is there a difference here between British English and American?

Zelda

How strange - your sentence looks perfectly correct to me. A semicolon would certainly be incorrect. Perhaps the editor's comment was meant to go after a different sentence?

Please don't take offense. I'm a former editor so I am blunt. If you can't take that don't read any further. If you want to improve your writing and get this article approved, I have a suggestion.

The sentence is unclear and unwieldy. It requires at least two readings to figure out what you are saying. I suspect the editors were trying to tell you that this needs to be two sentences or one sentence joined by a semicolon. In any case, when you have a punctuation/grammatical error and you can't figure out what you did wrong a quick and effective fix is to just rewrite the passage. Some suggestions follow.

"Hypnosys can never replace a good diet and exercise program. However, it can harness the power of suggestion to help you alter your behavior."

"Although it can never replace a good diet and exercise plan, hypnosis can help you change your behavior through the power of suggestion."

Neither one is good because, like the original, they contain an error in logic and express a basic misunderstanding of the nature of hypnosis for weight loss. But they both sidestep the comma splice versus semi-colon debate. If you are a bit "iffy" when it comes to any particular aspect of grammar or punctuation your best bet is to avoid using it at all.

What if the article passes through MS Word's grammar and spelling check?

No spelling or grammar check is ever completely accurate...especially grammar. There is no substitute for human editing!