Location: Q Train; New York, NY
Picture taken: July 2007
Textual representation of image: “Close your curtains and blinds on sunny days and you’ll save money for a rainy day.”
This subway advertisement is another panel of the previous ad display. While the ads proclaim great conservation tips, they sure make a mess of punctuation!
The problem here is that there are two independent clauses merged with only a conjunction (and) between them. The first part, “Close your curtains and blinds on sunny days,” could stand alone as a complete sentence, and the second part, “you’ll save money for a rainy day,” could do the same. Each of the two has a subject and its verb (and could stand alone); that’s the definition of an independent clause. However, a conjunction alone is not enough to separate two independent clauses.
Rule: Two independent clauses can be separated with a period and a capital letter; a semicolon; a comma and a conjunction (and, or, but, for, nor, so, or yet); or a semicolon, a transitional expression (like however), and a comma.
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