Ed,

Yes, I would consider it a comma splice. With my high school students (juniors and seniors), however, we treate fused sentences and comma splices as "run-on sentences." It's a question of fewer terms to learn and less time spent in class (the curriculum is too full!). 

As far as correction of the error, it depends on the context of the situation. If it turned up on a student's draft, I would simply draw the student's attention to it and expect him or her to make the correction (i.e., by the time I get these students, they SHOULD know how to correct this type of error). If I'm using this as an example in a review lesson (and it would have to be review for this type of problem to come up), I'd throw the question out to the class and put a few choices on the board (hopefully they would have come up with good ones). Then I might ask the class if there's any consensus of which one they like best and why. 

Paul
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ed Vavra 
  To: [log in to unmask] 
  Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2001 5:43 AM
  Subject: A comma-splice?


  I'd appreciate your comments about the last sentence in the following. In particular, I would like to know if you consider it a comma-splice, and, if so, what you would do about it (if anything) in a student's writing? 
  With all these people I have at least one thing in common, either hair or eye color, or even disliking or liking the same people. It doesn't matter what we have in common, we will always have something to talk about. 

  Thanks, 
  Ed V.