run-on sentence

In prescriptive grammar, two independent clauses that have been run together without an appropriate conjunction and/or mark of punctuation between them.

Usage guides commonly identify two kinds of run-on sentences: fused sentences and comma splices.

See also:

• Correcting a Run-on Sentence With a Period or Semicolon
• Correcting Run-ons Through Coordination and Subordination

Four Ways of Correcting Run-on Sentences:

1. Run-on Sentences:
   

   • Adam is a sweet boy he really loves animals.
   • Adam is a sweet boy, he really loves animals.

   To correct a run-on sentence, make it into two simple sentences. Put a period at the end of the first subject and verb group. Start the second sentence with a capital letter.

   Correct Sentences:
   Adam is a sweet boy. He really loves animals.

   (Jill Singleton, Writers at Work: The Paragraph. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2005)



2. Sometimes two sentences are very closely related in meaning and full end-stop punctuation may seem too strong. A semicolon can then be used to divide the two sentences. . . .

   Run-on: It was a beautiful day there was not a cloud in the sky.
   Correct: It was a beautiful day; there was not a cloud in the sky.

   (Phil Pine, Master the SAT 2008. Peterson's, 2007)



3. A run-on sentence can sometimes be prevented by using a comma and joining word (coordinate conjunction) to join sentences together.
   

   Wrong: John went to the movies x Sue stayed home.
   Correct: John went to the movies, and Sue stayed home.

   (Christopher Smith et al., How to Prepare for the GED. Barron's, 2004)



4. "[Another way to correct a run-on sentence is to] change the run-on to a complex sentence by placing a subordinating conjunction before one of the clauses:

   Run-on: I don't play tennis well I have a poor backhand.
   Correct: I don't play tennis well because I have a poor backhand.

   (P. Choy and D.G. Clarke, Basic Grammar and Usage. Cengage, 2005)