Did you take an English class?

Saw an interesting ad for Red Rocks Community College today. The ad was on a bus stop near my gym. Next to a photo of a smiling, seemingly intelligent young man was the following sentence:

I started at Red Rocks, now I'm at a four-year college.

The man supposedly saying this needs to take an English class. That is, if any English professors still teach grammar and punctuation, which I highly doubt.

What's wrong with this sentence? Some folks call it a comma splice. I call it a run-on sentence. What you've got is two sentences that both can stand alone, separated by a comma. But you can't use a comma that way. It's incorrect comma usage, for goodness sake! You need to put a period between the sentences. You could use a semicolon, if you're so inclined. Or, you could add the word "and" after the comma.

Don't get me wrong. Red Rocks is a great school. It's just that the people in the marketing department need to get in touch with those in the English department the next time they write an advertisement. This is yet another reason why it's imperative for advertising students to take writing and editing classes seriously.