Blah Blah Blah: A Guide to Writing

----Disaster #1: Run On Sentences

Disaster #1: Run On Sentences

The first disaster in the grammar section of this book that we’re going to discuss today is run ons and collisions that collide and run on and they are sentences that never end though they get kind of tough to read but as a matter of fact people do get carried away with them and it’s sometimes hard to break the habit because you don’t realize you’re doing it.

Oh, I’m sorry, was that kind of hard to read? It should have been. A run on sentence is sentence with two parts, but the two parts aren’t properly connected. In this first disaster, I’m going to show you how to spot them, and how to fix them.

Why Are They A Problem?

Run on sentences are generally hard to read. A lot of times, the author writes them with this logic in mind: I want the sentences to be connected, but with a pause in the middle. The disaster here is that they’re using the wrong ingredients for this. If you want a pause in the middle of two sentences, use a period. Many writers just use a comma.

Commas are weak, frail things. They always need support when joining two sentences. They are not supposed to be joining two sentences alone, because then they will weaken and die. They’re like the kids that get killed right when the Hunger Games start. They have no chance unless they have allies.

How Do I Spot A Run On?

A run on will generally look like this:

There once was a girl named Jennifer, she was from the city.

If you have no idea regarding what’s wrong with that sentence up there, then this section is for you.

Notice that those are two sentences that can very well stand alone. Sentences that can stand alone are called Independent Clauses, or ICs, as they are going to be referred to in this book. When wanting to join two ICs, you need to have the proper tools. What is seen often on this site is that people use commas as that tool, and like mentioned above, commas are just not strong enough. They’re not right. It’s like asking the short, geeky kid to break up a fight between two large burly men with biceps the size of melons. It’s not working, and it’s not right!

How Do I Fix It?

There are several ways to fix run on sentences. Let’s look at the sentence again:

There once was a girl named Jennifer, she was from the city.

Let’s say you want to keep the comma in there. Maybe you just really love commas. The comma needs help; it is so weak, so frail! You need to give it support. And what do you use? A conjunction. Take a look:

There once was a girl named Jennifer, and she was from the city.

There once was a girl named Jennifer, but she was from the city.

There once was a girl named Jennifer, yet she was from the city.

There once was a girl named Jennifer, when she was from the city.

Some of those sentence may not make sense, but when we used conjunctions, they all became grammatically correct. So now, the two ICs are held together by the comma and by a conjunction, and this works, because the comma and the conjunction are much stronger together. Abbreviated, the sentence looks like this: IC,con.IC. That stands for Independent Clause, conjunction Independent Clause.

And are there any other ways? Of course there are!

Another way to fix a run on is to make one of the clauses dependent. We actually did that above! A dependent clause is a sentence that needs the support of an independent clause, and it will usually sound unfinished, kind of like this: When she was from the city. What we also did above was join an IC with Dependent Clause, or a DC. Abbreviated, the sentence looks like this: IC, DC.

You can also switch the order of the clauses, making them DC, IC instead of IC, DC. For example:

When she was from the city, there once was a girl named Jennifer.

Because there once was a girl named Jennifer, she was from the city.

Another option would be to use a semi-colon. A comma is weak, but a semi-colon is the freaking hulk. You use a semicolon in between two ICs, like this:

There once was a girl named Jennifer; she was from the city.

Notice that the semi-colon gives that same effect as a “comma” when it comes to having a pause, but looks so much stronger, and that’s because it is strong.

Of course, you can also fix a run on simply by plopping a period in there. In the end, it just might look the best.

There once was a girl named Jennifer. She was from the city.

Maybe that’s all it takes.