7. Avoiding Run-Ons and Comma Splices

7. Avoid run-ons:

A run-on is a sentence in which two independent clauses are joined without appropriate punctuation or conjunctions. They are also known as fused sentences in which there are too many coordinating conjunctions joining independent clauses.

Do not join two or more sentences together without punctuation. Write like a meandering stream and not like a faucet.

Incorrect:

The evidence that I am not a fool is that I can listen fairly intelligently and be stirred to not altogether fatuous thoughts if you tell me of some real or fictitious man or woman or place or event in a narrative form that will present a meaningful image to me.

Correct:

I am not a fool for I can listen well. If you tell me a narrative, then I can be profoundly moved.

Notice how clarity is achieved by omitting needless words.

Incorrect: Norman Maclean wrote the unconventional A River Runs Through It when he was 73 years old it breaks all the conventions of novel writing yet remains a classic of American Literature.

Correct: Norman Maclean wrote the unconventional A River Runs Through It when he was 73 years old; it breaks all the conventions of novel writing yet remains a classic of American Literature. (the semicolon indicates that the second sentence will amplify why the novella is unconventional).