Punctuation question

Lines one and two are fine. The second sentences are independent clauses.

Line two, I think, is technically incorrect, but it reads perfectly fine. I'm not sure what grammatical role "more like a party" plays (it's not an appositive), so I can't be sure. But I believe it's a simple sentence fragment. You could add "it's" to make it "it's more like a party," and then make it its own sentence.

But it sounds natural as it is.

Line two does not read well at all, and really makes no sense.

The conference is not what he expected, it is more like a party. (now it is an independent clause, I think, as "it is more like a party" can stand on its own as a sentence.

"More like a party" is not sentence so it is not an independent clause. It's a dependent clause or subordinate clause, I believe, as it supplies additional information.

MaxWriter said:

[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Is my use of comma/period appropriate here? I can't get my head around if the extra info tagged at the end of these sentences are appositives, independent clauses, or fragments.[/FONT]


[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]He doesn’t feel like a genius. He feels normal.[/FONT]


[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]The conference is not what he expects, more like a party.[/FONT]


[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]They said he drowned, but that can’t be possible. He was at work.[/FONT]

Click to expand...

The first and third samples are grammatically correct; although I would question the logic in both, but that's another matter.

I believe that the second would be better, if "it is" was added, and the comma would have to be changed to a semicolon.
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]The conference is not what he expects; it is more like a party.[/FONT]