Sally likes blueberry muffins she eats them every day for breakfast.Sally likes blueberry muffins, she eats them every day for breakfast.If you don’t use a coordinating conjunction to correct a run-on sentence, then you should use a semicolon, NOT a comma: Fixing Run-ons Without Coordinating Conjunctions Correctīy adding a comma and the word ‘and,’ we break up the sentence so that it is clearer. Sally can’t bake muffins, and Sam can’t either.Sally can’t bake muffins Sam can’t either.That’s better! Now the sentence is much easier to read and understand. Sally likes blueberry muffins, so she eats them every day for breakfast.So, let’s use a comma and a coordinating conjunction: You can see that this sentence runs on for too long without being broken up at all.

Fixing Run-ons with Coordinating ConjunctionsĪ common and easy way to fix a run-on sentence is by adding a coordinating conjunction. When you fix those problems, then you have a compound sentence. Then we can focus on the two main problems that cause run-ons: missing commas and conjunctions, or misusing commas when there should be a semicolon. We can think of a run-on as a sentence that really wants to be a compound sentence, but it is just missing some important things! A compound sentence has two independent clauses, so the first thing to do is identify those two clauses (each will have a subject and a predicate). Sally went to soccer practice Sam went to math club.If you don’t want to use a coordinating conjunction, you can replace a comma and conjunction with a semicolon, like this: It indicates that your sentence will continue with more information related to its first part. Semicolons ( ) connect sentences that are related to each other. Sally went to soccer practice, and Sam went to math club.When you use a comma to fix a run-on, it comes before a coordinating conjunction, like this: They also help to separate ideas, which is a big problem with run-on sentences: they may not have a comma(s), so they keep “running on” without pausing. CommasĬommas (,) are important punctuation marks that tell us when to pause in a sentence. Run-on sentences are often missing important punctuation marks: semicolons or commas. Sally ate breakfast, and then she went to school.So, when combining independent clauses, you still need a coordinating conjunction (like and) before then: Sally woke up late, so she missed the bus to school.Īlso, you should note that then is not a coordinating conjunction-it’s an adverb.The seven most common coordinating conjunctions are and, but, for, nor, or, so, and yet. A coordinating conjunction, like “and,” works like a link between clauses. To combine two sentences (independent clauses), you should usually use a coordinating conjunction. Run-on sentences are missing punctuation, coordinating conjunctions, or both. Without the proper punctuation and connecting words, the sentence is just confusing! I woke up late I ate a muffin for breakfast, and then I went to school.

I woke up late, so I ate a muffin for breakfast, and then I went to school.

I woke up late I ate a muffin for breakfast then I went to school.

Correctīy adding punctuation and coordinating conjunctions, we can fix the run-on.

Sally likes soccer, but she doesn’t like running.

Sally likes soccer she doesn’t like running.

You can see that this sentence has too many ideas without any punctuation! We can fix it in a couple of different ways: Some run-ons are missing or misusing punctuation, or missing a word to connect the ideas: Sometimes they are long, but sometimes they are short. Grammatically, a run-on joins two or more complete sentences without using any punctuation. Sometimes, people call a very long sentence a run-on sentence, but that’s not really accurate. Run-on sentences are also sometimes called fused sentences because they “fuse” together complete sentences, but don’t do it the right way. We call it a run-on sentence because it “runs on” for too long without pausing-it is missing commas, semicolons, or conjunctions to clearly separate the ideas. A run-on sentence is a sentence that combines too many independent clauses (full sentences) without proper punctuation or connecting-words.

Define comma splice