Correcting Run-on Sentences
What is a run-on sentence?
Correcting a run-on sentence
Separate sentences
Compound sentence
Complex sentence
Review A
Review B
What is a run-on sentence?
Sometimes, when little kids tell
a story, all their sentences run
together—into one long
“sentence.”
And Daddy I saw an
elephant Daddy it was real big it spit
some water and we got some
popcorn too I got to ride on the
merry-go-round and . . .
Sometimes, in writing, students
do something similar.
What is a run-on sentence?
If your essay comes back from
your teacher with this
comment:
What should you do to
revise the essay?
Where should you start?
What is a run-on sentence?
A run-on sentence is two or more complete
sentences run together into one.
Run-on sentences can be confusing because they
do not show where one idea ends and another
one begins.
Examples
Lightning flashes in our eyes thunder sounds in our ears.
We cannot hear and see both at the same time, we
sense these events separately.
What is a run-on sentence?
Where are the complete sentences in the
examples below?
Lightning flashes in our eyes thunder sounds in our ears.
We cannot hear and see both at the same time, we
sense these events separately.
What is a run-on sentence?
Lightning flashes in our eyes thunder sounds in
our ears.
This run-on sentence is an example of a fused
sentence. There is no punctuation between the
two sentences.
Sentence 1 Sentence 2
What is a run-on sentence?
We cannot hear and see both at the same time, we
sense these events separately.
This run-on sentence is an example of a comma
splice. There is only a comma between the two
sentences.
Sentence 1
,
Sentence 2
What is a run-on sentence?
On Your Own
Identify the following items as correct sentences (C) or runons (R). Be prepared to explain your answers.
___ 1. Exercise can increase the efficiency of your muscles,
as well as your muscles’ strength and size.
___ 2. Aerobic exercise helps your heart pump more
efficiently, then the number of blood vessels in your
muscles increases.
___ 3. ATP is a complex molecule scientists consider it the
cell’s fuel.
[End of Section]
Correcting a run-on sentence
To fix a run-on sentence, you need to do one of
two things:
Cut it apart.
OR
Join it properly.
Correcting a run-on sentence
How you revise a run-on sentence depends upon
the relationship you want to show between the
ideas.
If
ideas are NOT
closely related
ideas ARE closely
related
and
ideas ARE
equally important
then
make two
sentences
make a compound
sentence
Correcting a run-on sentence
How you revise a run-on sentence depends upon
the relationship you want to show between the
ideas.
If
ideas ARE closely
related
but
the ideas are NOT
equally important
then
make a complex
sentence
[End of Section]
Correcting a run-on sentence
Separate sentences
Strategy 1: Make two sentences
Break a run-on into two separate sentences when
• the ideas are not closely related or
• at least one sentence is long or complex or
• separate sentences flow better in the paragraph
in which they appear
Ernest Hemingway based many of his stories on his
experiences during World War I,
I. before
Beforethe
theUnited
United
States
States entered
entered the
the war,
war, Hemingway
Hemingway worked
worked as
as an
an
ambulance
driver for
army.
ambulance driver
for the
the Italian
Italian army.
Correcting a run-on sentence
Separate sentences
Strategy 1: Make two sentences
To make two separate sentences
• Put an end mark after the first
complete sentence.
• Then, capitalize the first word
of the next complete sentence.
Next door to the school, a new building was
under construction.
construction, Trucks
trucks and
and construction
construction
materials covered much of the parking lot.
Correcting a run-on sentence
Separate sentences
On Your Own
Revise the following sentences by making each into two
separate sentences. Be prepared to explain your answers.
1. The weather was terrible yesterday we had to cancel
band practice.
2. Next summer I will travel to Argentina on a study
program the program requires students to stay with a
local family.
3. Domestic canaries are usually yellow, if red peppers are
part of their diet, canaries may be bright orange.
[End of Section]
Correcting a run-on sentence
Compound sentence
Strategy 2: Make a compound sentence
When the complete
thoughts in a run-on
sentence are closely related
and are of equal
importance, you may want
to make a compound
sentence.
There are three common ways to make a
compound sentence.
Correcting a run-on sentence
Compound sentence
Strategy 2: Make a compound sentence
You can make a run-on sentence into compound
sentence by using a comma and a coordinating
conjunction.
Jaya ran to catch the train,she
it by two
butmissed
she missed
it by
minutes.
two minutes.
Correcting a run-on sentence
Compound sentence
Strategy 2: Make a compound sentence
You can make a run-on sentence into a compound
sentence by using a semicolon.
Jaya
ran to
the train
Jaya ran
to catch
catch the
train;she
shemissed
missedititby
bytwo
two
minutes.
minutes.
Correcting a run-on sentence
Compound sentence
Strategy 2: Make a compound sentence
You can make a run-on sentence into a compound
sentence by using a semicolon and a conjunctive
adverb followed by a comma.
Jaya ran to catch the train;she
missed itshe
by two
however,
minutes.
missed it by two minutes.
Correcting a run-on sentence
Compound sentence
On Your Own
Revise the following run-on sentences by making each into
one into a compound sentence. Be prepared to explain your
answers.
1. This book is taking a long time to read the characters are
really interesting.
2. Send me an e-mail about the club meeting I might not
remember to come.
3. Karla is making a fruit salad for the party I’ll bring some
raw vegetables and dip.
4. Maya trained hard all summer she won her event in the
cross-country meet.
Correcting a run-on sentence
Complex sentence
Strategy 3: Make a complex sentence
When the complete
thoughts in a run-on
sentence are closely related
but are not equally
important, you may want
to make a complex
sentence.
Correcting a run-on sentence
Complex sentence
Strategy 3: Make a complex sentence
Bats are usually harmless
creatures, some people think
they are dangerous.
Step 1: Break the run-on into
two independent clauses.
Bats are usually harmless creatures.
Some people think they are dangerous.
Correcting a run-on sentence
Complex sentence
Strategy 3: Make a complex sentence
Step 2: Decide which idea is more important
(or which idea you want to emphasize).
The more important idea will be the
independent clause in the sentence.
If you want to
focus on…
Use this as your
independent clause.
the harmlessness
of bats
Bats are usually
harmless creatures.
some people’s fear
of bats
Some people think
they are dangerous.
Correcting a run-on sentence
Complex sentence
Strategy 3: Make a complex sentence
Step 3: Make the less important clause a
subordinate clause.
Subordinate Clause = LESS important idea
Although bats are usually harmless creatures,
some people think they are dangerous.
Independent Clause = MORE important idea
A subordinating conjunction begins this
subordinate clause and connects it to the
independent clause.
Correcting a run-on sentence
Complex sentence
On Your Own
Revise
theOwn
following run-on sentences by making one of the
On Your
clauses into a subordinate clause. Be prepared to explain
your answers.
1. The baseball game was stopped in the seventh inning
heavy lightning began.
2. I got up early this morning, I was still late for school.
3. The Spanish explorer Cortes landed in Mexico, he and his
men marched to the Aztec capital.
4. The baby stopped crying his mother fed him a bottle.
[End of Section]
Review A
Identify the following items as correct sentences (C) or runons (R). Be prepared to explain your answers.
___ 1.
Elizabeth Blackwell was born in 1821, she died in
1910.
___ 2.
Her family was poor, she and her mother started a
boarding school.
___ 3.
A friend encouraged her to become a doctor, at first,
she rejected this suggestion.
___ 4.
Graduating at the head of her class in 1849, she
became the first woman in the U.S. to earn an M.D.
___ 5.
She did graduate work in Europe she established a
hospital in New York that was staffed by women.
[End of Section]
Review B
Revise each run-on sentence by making two separate
sentences, a compound sentence, or a complex sentence.
Be prepared to explain your answers.
1. The transcontinental railroad was being built during the
1850s, cheap labor was in great demand.
2. Chinese immigrants came seeking prosperity, they found
only hard work and discrimination.
3. Ten thousand laborers built the Union Pacific Railroad,
nine thousand of them were Chinese.
4. The railroad builders favored Chinese immigration when
they needed laborers that changed when the railroads
were finished.
[End of Section]
The End