Slice of Splice

Menus are notorious sufferers of poor grammar and punctuation, mostly owing to the profusion of non-native speakers who draft many of the most flawed. This menu, however, has no such excuse.

The menu asks diners to "please notify server if you have an allergy, some products are made with nuts." Good to know, but next time, perhaps the menu-maker can ask us without a comma splice.

A comma splice is a sentence in which two independent clauses are joined by a comma with no conjunction -- in other words, a run-on sentence. But not to worry. There are several easy fixes:

1. Replace the comma with a period and capitalize the next letter. (Not so easy when you write in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.)
Please notify server if you have an allergy. Some products are made with nuts.

2. Replace the comma with a semicolon.
Please notify server if you have an allergy; some products are made with nuts.

3. Add a coordinating conjunction after the comma (and, but, so, or, nor, for, yet).
Please notify server if you have an allergy, for some products are made with nuts.

4. Make one of the sentences a dependent clause and delete the comma.
Please notify server if you have an allergy because some products are made with nuts.