We've
already spoken of fragments. The next offender is the run-on
sentence. These are the sentences that don't quit. The author,
apparently, had no idea how to contain these suckers and kept adding
onto them, rather than curtailing the culprits and putting a leash on
them, she kept adding commas and conjunctions until the sentence was,
surprisingly, a paragraph long. That, my friends, is a run-on
Run-on
sentences come in a variety of guises. Above, my sentence is pretty
obviously a run-on. What makes a run-on sentence? It is characterized by having more than one subject and
verb pair. Though compound sentences are acceptable, run-ons should
be corrected.
Let's
look at my sample sentence again:
The author, apparently, had no
idea how to contain these suckers and kept adding onto them,
rather than curtailing the culprits and
putting a leash on them, she kept adding commas and
conjunctions until the sentence was, surprisingly, a
paragraph long.
You
probably can't see the commas I've highlighted, but they are
problematic just as the conjunctions are. Run-ons are often easier to
fix than fragments. As you're dealing with a bunch of sentences, you
whack them apart, add periods and you're done.
The author, apparently, had no
idea how to contain these suckers. She kept adding onto
them. She didn't curtail the culprits and put a leash
on them. She kept adding commas and conjunctions until
the sentence was, surprisingly, a paragraph long.
The
final sentence is a bit long, but it's not a run-on like the rest.
To
test for run-ons in your writing. Read it aloud. Do you have time to
stop and take a breath? If not, it's probably a run-on.
There
are different types of run-on sentences. Wikipedia and other internet
sites can give you a full-on grammatical explanation for them. The
explanations are so confusing, even I, an English teacher, have
trouble with them. There's a time for technical and a time for
simple. I like simple.
If
a sentence has two subject and verb pairs, it might be a run-on. Look
carefully. If it has a proper conjunction (see link below for common
conjunctions) it is probably a compound sentence. However, if you see
three or more subject & verb pairs, you've got a run-on.
Let's
examine our sample sentence again. See if you can find the subject
and verb pairs. Keep in mind, the subject and verb won't always be
right next to each other. Also, given the way it's written, the
subject may be implied.
The author, apparently, had no
idea how to contain these suckers and kept adding onto them, rather
than curtailing the culprits and putting a leash on them, she kept
adding commas and conjunctions until the sentence was, surprisingly,
a paragraph long.
Find
them?
The author,
apparently, had no idea how to contain
these suckers and (She) kept adding onto
them, rather than curtailing the
culprits and putting a leash on them,
she kept adding
commas and conjunctions until the sentence was,
surprisingly, a paragraph long.
Did you find them all? Did I miss
any? I could have, it's been a long time since I did this. Even if
you don't see all of your pairs right away, recognizing that the
sentence goes on too long, is a useful skill. Read your work aloud as
part of your editing process. It's amazing what you catch when you do
that. Your mind processes the information differently and errors
you'd miss just reading through, hop out at you when you hear them.
Also keep in mind—just because
a sentence is long, that doesn't mean it's a run-on. A prime example
is in the prior paragraph. Can you spot it? It's a long one and seems
like it might be a run-on.
Give up?
Even
if you don't see all of your pairs right away, recognizing that the
sentence goes on too long, is a useful skill.
No one is saying you must write
in short, choppy sentences. That can provide its own set of unique
problems that I won't go into here. Instead, I'm suggesting that you
keep an eye on your writing. Watch for run-ons and fragments so you
can make your work the best it can be.
©
Dellani Oakes
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