A run-on sentence is a grammatical error in which more than one complete thought is joined without an appropriate connecting words or punctuation mark. Here are two tips for avoiding run-on sentences: read the sentences aloud or learn the rules. Let’s take these tips one at a time.
Reading Aloud
Read your sentences aloud to hear how they will sound. Look at this example of a run-on:
I didn’t find the invoice on the photocopier I found it on the shredder.
In speaking the above statement, most of us naturally do one of two things after uttering the word photocopier: pause or change our pitch. The slower speakers actually pause. The faster speakers change pitch, momentarily shifting their intonation. Therefore, some punctuation is necessary.
We have a number of options in correcting this run-on sentence. Here are five:
Learning the Rules
Of course, some of us speak so fast that we do not hear a rate or a pitch change. With all due respect to fast talkers (I sometimes wish I had that skill), those people are generally more difficult to understand. They need to learn the rules, so here we go:
A sentence must express a complete thought. It must have a subject and a predicate.
Subject? ManagersPredicate? train
A sentence may have also have the following parts:
object complements: Managers train staff.
modifiers: The managers often train new staff.
connectives: The managers often train and assign new staff for the factory.
independent elements: The managers, Phil believes, often train and assign new staff for the factory.
Many useful resources are available on this subject. This blog lists a few, so check them out!
Reading Aloud
Read your sentences aloud to hear how they will sound. Look at this example of a run-on:
I didn’t find the invoice on the photocopier I found it on the shredder.
In speaking the above statement, most of us naturally do one of two things after uttering the word photocopier: pause or change our pitch. The slower speakers actually pause. The faster speakers change pitch, momentarily shifting their intonation. Therefore, some punctuation is necessary.
We have a number of options in correcting this run-on sentence. Here are five:
- I didn’t find the invoice on the photocopier. I found it on the shredder.
- I didn’t find the invoice on the photocopier; I found it on the shredder.
- I didn’t find the invoice on the photocopier, but I found it on the shredder.
- You said that I found the invoice on the photocopier, but I found it on the shredder.
- Although I didn’t find the invoice on the photocopier, I did find it on the shredder.
Learning the Rules
Of course, some of us speak so fast that we do not hear a rate or a pitch change. With all due respect to fast talkers (I sometimes wish I had that skill), those people are generally more difficult to understand. They need to learn the rules, so here we go:
A sentence must express a complete thought. It must have a subject and a predicate.
- The subject is the who or what the sentence is about.
- The predicate is what is said about the subject.
Subject? ManagersPredicate? train
A sentence may have also have the following parts:
- object complements to indicate the receiver of the action by the simple predicate
- modifiers to describe the meaning of another word
- connectives, such as prepositions and conjunctions, to join sentence parts
- independent elements, which are expressions that have no grammatical connection with the sentence in which they appear.
object complements: Managers train staff.
modifiers: The managers often train new staff.
connectives: The managers often train and assign new staff for the factory.
independent elements: The managers, Phil believes, often train and assign new staff for the factory.
Many useful resources are available on this subject. This blog lists a few, so check them out!
