In much of the editing that comes my way, run-on sentences are a problem. Sometimes people are surprised when they find me commenting on their run-on sentences, because the sentences aren’t that long. But here’s the thing: “run-on” doesn’t necessarily imply LONG; it has to do with STRUCTURE. And one of the most common run-un sentence problems I find myself correcting is the comma splice: a run-on sentence that is the result of putting together two independent clauses joined only by a comma. While there are some circumstances in which a comma splice may be considered acceptable, in most cases it is a grammatical error.

 SOME EXAMPLES:

I didn’t have to get up in the morning, I still set my alarm for seven.

He wanted to vacation at the beach, she preferred the idea of a cruise.

She didn’t complete her dissertation on time, her defense had to be postponed until spring.

 Faced with this error, there are really only three options:

• 1. Join the two clauses together;
• 2. Separate them; or
• 3. Change one of the independent clauses into a dependent clause.

 Joining the independent clauses together is done with a coordinating conjunction. These are:

• and
• but
• or
• nor
• for
• yet
• so

THOSE EXAMPLES AGAIN, THIS TIME WITH CONJUNCTIONS ADDED:

I didn’t have to get up in the morning, yet I still set my alarm for seven.

 He wanted to vacation at the beach, but she preferred the idea of a cruise.

She didn’t complete her dissertation on time, so her defense had to be  postponed until spring.

Separating the clauses is done by the use of one of four types of punctuation:

• the period [.]
• the question mark [?]
• the exclamation point [!]
• the semicolon [;]

NOTE that the comma [,] will not accomplish this purpose.

THOSE EXAMPLES AGAIN, THIS TIME SEPARATED BY PUNCTUATION MARKS:

I didn’t have to get up in the morning; I still set my alarm for seven.

He wanted to vacation at the beach. She preferred the idea of a cruise.

She didn’t complete her dissertation on time? Her defense had to be  postponed until spring.

Changing one of the clauses into a dependent clause creates one complex sentence that is not a run-on sentence. Remember that sentences are considered “run-on” not because of the number of words, but because of their structure. In these cases, run-on sentences are corrected by adding words:

 THOSE EXAMPLES AGAIN, THIS TIME WITH ONE CLAUSE MADE DEPENDENT:

Though I didn’t have to get up in the morning, I still set my alarm for seven.

He wanted to vacation at the beach, although she preferred the idea of a cruise.

 Since she didn’t complete her dissertation on time, her defense had to be postponed until spring.

With any of these three solutions, the problem of the comma splice is solved and the sentence is no longer a “run-on.”

Have thoughts or questions about this topic? Leave us a COMMENT to share.

ALBERT—Read more about this editor