Avoiding Run-On Sentences

AVOIDING RUN-ON SENTENCES

Kevin Crittenden Version 11/17/12

A run-on sentence is made up of two or more complete thoughts written or said incorrectly as one sentence.  There are several kinds of run-on sentences.

A run-on sentence may have several thoughts strung together with ands, and-sos, or buts.

Until I was in the eighth grade, I attended a country school and sometimes the other boys and I used to liven things up on the way home by playing tricks on the girls and so one day we really gave them a scare by throwing a dead snake at them and they thought it was alive and were nearly paralyzed with fear and when my sister told my father, he spanked me.

This paragraph would be easier to read and to understand if it were broken up into separate sentences.

Until I was in the eighth grade, I attended a country school.  Sometimes the other boys and I used to liven things up on the way home by playing tricks on the girls. One day we really gave them a scare by throwing a dead snake at them.  They thought it was alive and were nearly paralyzed with fear.  When my sister told my father, he spanked me.

A run-on sentence may use a comma where there should be a period.

WRONG: We have a new car, I really like it.

RIGHT: We have a new car.  I really like it.

A run-on sentence may have neither joining words nor any punctuation at all between sentences.

WRONG: I waited there for a long time finally I went home.

RIGHT: I waited there for a long time.  Finally I went home.

PRACTICE:  - Correct each run-on sentence by breaking it into two or more good sentences, properly capitalized and punctuated.

1.            I had a sprained wrist last summer it kept me off the baseball team during most of the season in fact, I played in only one game.

2.            I lived on a farm my first six years then we moved to town.

3.            My grandfather was born in England, and his parents were poor there were twelve children younger than he was and so quite naturally, life was not very easy for him, I’ve heard many stories about those days.

4.            Grandma Hansen came to this country from Germany, she was seventeen at the time, the trip was a long and frightening experience.

5.            It was a cold December day the wind was blowing hard.

6.            My great-great-grandfather rode the Pony Express one of his friends was Buffalo Bill I have heard many stories about both of them.

7.            My father is forty-one years old, he is the best father any boy ever had or could have my brothers and sisters think so too.