Identify Coordination Opportunities

Look for short, choppy sentences. If two simple sentences have related ideas of equal importance, they may be good candidates to join with coordination.

Use Coordination Correctly

Join two sentences (or independent clauses) either with a comma and a coordinating conjunction or with a semicolon . Be sure to use the strategy that best expresses your meaning, and watch for proper punctuation to avoid run-ons and comma splices.

The Bottom Line

In coordination, use a comma and a coordinating conjunction to join two independent clauses, or use a semicolon . A semicolon may be used alone; alternatively, a transition word or phrase and a comma may be added after the semicolon.