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Lesson 5: Run-on Sentences

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What is a run-on sentence?

When you speak, yous intermission betwixt sentences to let people know where each sentence ends. In writing, periods are like this pause. The interruption can as well be a question mark or an exclamation point. When 2 sentences are next to each other without whatever punctuation marks betwixt them, you have a run-on sentence.

Run-on sentences are a problem because they make it difficult to tell where one sentence ends and the next 1 begins. As y'all tin see in the flick below, writing without periods is like speaking very fast without stopping. Both are hard to sympathise! That'southward why it'due south and then important to gear up run-ons in your writing.

How can yous recognize a run-on sentence?

If you don't signal when your sentence ends

In the instance above, the horse's voice communication really has four complete sentences in it. Just they don't have periods between them, which makes this example a run-on. To set up this, you lot need to detect the finish of each judgement and mark it with a menstruum, question mark, or exclamation point.

Y'all can do this by reading the run-on sentence out loud to yourself. Put periods in places where you stumble or intermission while you're reading. Then wait at each period and ask yourself: Is this sentence really over? Did information technology start in the right place? Cheque to brand sure all of your sentences make sense and that in that location aren't any words left out. So you'll know you've fixed the run-on judgement.

If y'all correct the horse's run-on sentence, you'll end up with something like this:

If two consummate sentences are joined by a comma

C ommas in writing are similar taking a quick breath in the middle of a thought or a sentence. They don't signal the finish of a sentence. If 2 complete sentences are separated by a comma instead of a period, it's a run-on sentence. Let's look at an case:

In this case, My wearing apparel dryer isn't working is one complete sentence, and my dress smell like mildew is another. This makes this example a run-on judgement. You lot tin fix run-ons like this by replacing the comma with a period. Make certain to capitalize the letter later the period, as we've done here:

Here'south another example of this kind of run-on judgement:

You tin can correct this instance by adding a catamenia: Fruit in that store is normally rotten. You really shouldn't store in that location. Don't misfile this kind of run-on sentence with correct sentences like this:

In this example, y'all should check information technology for mold is a complete sentence. But before you buy fruit from that store is a fragment. Information technology's not consummate. (Want to know why? Review our lesson on Fragments.) It's OK to connect a fragment to a consummate sentence with a comma, and then this example is not a run-on sentence.

When sentences are just as well long

Sometimes sentences have the right punctuation, only they're just too long to be easy to read. These sentences are also run-on sentences. Here'due south an example:

You lot can fix run-ons like this past splitting them up into complete sentences, just like we did with the other run-ons in this lesson. You can also take out details that don't help people empathise the writer's primary point. In our example, data about the other cashier singing is of import. Without these details, nosotros won't understand why the writer is grouchy. But nosotros don't really need to know about the characters in the drawing.

You can as well take out words and facts that repeat something the writer has already said. For case, we probably don't need to know that this person is crazy, angry, and grouchy. We'd understand if the writer just used the give-and-take grouchy.

To correct sentences that are likewise long, you lot'll usually want to do all three of these things. Here'southward how we stock-still the long judgement in our example. Click the dots to see how we decided what to take out.

Hither's what our example looks like after we've edited it:

There are actually many different ways we could have corrected this sentence. Equally long as you end upwardly with sentences that follow grammar rules, are easier to read, and stick to the master idea of the original sentence, your version is correct.

Is it OK to use run-on sentences?

It is virtually never a good idea to employ run-on sentences in writing. Writers and poets sometimes use them to repeat something of import or to imitate the way people talk. But run-on sentences are unremarkably incorrect. They make information technology too difficult to empathise your writing.

Here'southward a run-on sentence that contains three consummate sentences. Click the dots where you think the periods should go.

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Source: https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/grammar/runon-sentences/1/