Run-On Sentences
Back to Mrs. Jones’ Homepage	Back to Writing Page
Run-ons A run-on sentence is when you put two complete sentences (a subject and its predicate and another subject and its predicate) together in one sentence without separating them in any way. Here's an example of a run-on: My best friend Robyn lives in Indiana I went to see her there. When you make this kind of mistake (putting two complete sentences together as one), it is usually because you are in a hurry to get your ideas down on paper. Luckily, there are many ways to correct this run-on sentence. You could use a semicolon: My best friend Robyn lives in Indiana; I went to see her there. You could use a comma and a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so): My best friend Robyn lives in Indiana, so I went to see her there. You could use a subordinating conjunction (see fragment page for a list of these): Since my best friend Robyn lives in Indiana, I went to see her there. You could make it into two separate sentences with a period in between: My best friend Robyn lives in Indiana. I went to see her there. You CANNOT simply add a comma between the two sentences, or you'll end up with what's called a "comma splice." Here's an example of a comma splice: My best friend Robyn lives in Indiana, I went to see her there. This is wrong!! Adapted from http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/fragments.html