Skip to main content

Run-on Sentences and Comma Splices

By VJ
A run-on sentence has two independent clauses, as the following.

Jim prepared well for the examination he passed in it.

Here, the sentence has actually two independent sentences and there is no punctuation or conjunction to separate them. This is an abject use of language. In British and American English, this kind of writing is a grammatical error, and should be avoided.

To avoid the error, you may use a comma in the middle of two sentences, as in:

Jim prepared well for the examination, he passed in it.

But this sort of sentence is known as a comma splice. This is also an indefensible mistake. You should never use two independent sentences in a single sentence with a comma or without any punctuation. To make it correct, the only way is adding a conjunction like ‘and’ or ‘but’ thus making one of the clauses dependent on the other.

Jim prepared well for the examination, and he passed in it.

When separating two independent clauses in a sentence, the correct punctuation to use is always a semicolon.

Jim prepared well for the examination; he passed in it.

So, there are three ways you can correct a run-on sentence or a comma splice.

1. By adding a conjunction like ‘and or ‘but.’

2. By replacing a comma in a comma splice with a semicolon.

3. By writing the independent clauses as independent sentences separated by the period.

Though this is the case, in poetry, comma splices may be used and are generally accepted as correct. Also, in very simple small sentences, people can go well without the semicolon.

Jack ran, Jill followed.

In writing, run-on sentences and comma splices are a very ridiculous construction. You should analyze your commas well to avoid it. Also, overusing commas is not a good practice in writing. You should check out the comma rules of punctuation.

History Today

John Steinbeck secured Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath in 1940.

Henry David Thoreau, American author died in 1862. Tributes to him.

Theodore White, American author was born in 1915.

Copyright © Lenin Nair 2008
Labels:

Comments

  1. spectrumMay 15, 2008 at 3:46 AM

    Some excellent advice here. I spend time with people who really want to write but who often struggle with the basics.

    I'm trying on my blog (just started) to offer advice on writing some of the mundane, but important, projects that they might need on a daily basis.

    http://howtowriteeasy.blogspot.com/

    Enjoyed your blog.

    Regards

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated very strictly

Popular posts from this blog

Expandable Post Summaries on Blogger

By VJ
One of my readers, Chris contacted me with a question: A few days ago, when I checked your blog, it had this cute feature; there were teasers (previews) for each post, with links to expand to the full post. I have a Blogger blog myself, and I would like to implement this feature. Could you post directions for this? Thanks Chris Well, Chris, the standard term for the post teasers is Expandable Post Summaries . In self-hosted blogs, this feature is prevalent and it is also an indication of professional blog design . Or it has been made so by widespread use of this feature in professional blogs. In Blogger blogs, this feature is not available directly from the dashboard. However, a minor Blogger tweak can give you this effect. Though there is official Blogger help for this tweak, it is not rated understandable by most people. What You Should Know Before You Do This There is a catch to expandable post summaries, however, which made me get rid of this a few days ago. Through this, ...
17 comments
Read more

Unethical Business Practices by Associated Content (AC)

By VJ
Useful Resources Freelance job at Constant Content Freelance for a 6 figure income Get paid to write on the Internet 25 Ways to write for income on the Internet Work from home as a virtual assistant Freelance for fortune 500 companies Today’s Internet slogan is ‘Content is King’ . If you have well-written, keyword rich content, without grammatical errors, then you can rank very high on search engine results, thus making a lot of money. With this business idea, several companies have sprung up, and Associated Content (who call themselves, People’s Media Company) is one among them. Here, we will try to find answers to these questions: 1. What exactly is Associated Content (if you don’t already know this)? 2. Is it really worthwhile to work with them? 3. Why should you steer right clear of them? What is Associated Content (AC) Associated Content (AC) is a website, in which you can earn money submitting content (text, video, audio, or images) . Anyone from anywhere in the...
53 comments
Read more

What Is DoFollow? Guide: How to Make Blogspot Blogs Dofollow?

By VJ
Dear friends, this is a blog notification post. I have decided to make my blog, DoFollow. You will find the comment policy updated on the sidebar about this (please look at the left sidebar). [Edit: The blog is no longer DoFollow due to loads of spam comments it attracted ] Backlinks are very important for your websites. They are like votes cast by one respectable website to another, and they will greatly increase the site’s traffic. When one gets many backlinks, one’s site’s ranking in search engine results will skyrocket. Search engines use programs called search bots or web crawlers to access and index web pages. That’s how you see websites in the search results of Google and Yahoo!. If your site ranks high for any search terms related to the products you promote, you can get several potential customers (a very daunting task indeed). Now, in order for you to get business, you must rank high in search engines , and the most important thing that will help you in this is link build...
55 comments
Read more