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A run-on sentence is a long, confusing sentence whose parts are
not connected closely enough.
Examples of This Trouble
Wrong: In Canada, a few large companies control
the newspaper business, and this presents a major problem for small towns
and quite often the same stories get circulated in
small town newspapers and what
happens is that these newspapers do less reporting on regional issues, becoming the
mouthpiece of large corporate interests, but I personally would like to see more newspapers run by communities so the communities could see their
own interests represented and would read news important to themselves.
(This run-on sentence depends far too much on coordinating conjunctions ("and,"
"but," "so") and has failed to make logical connections between the parts.)
Corrected: In Canada, a few large companies
control the newspaper business, which presents a major problem for small towns. Because
quite often the same stories get circulated in small town newspapers, these newspapers do
less reporting on regional issues, becoming the mouthpiece of large corporate interests. I
personally would like to see more newspapers run by communities, so the communities could
see their own interests represented and would read news important to themselves.
(To make matters less confusing the run-on sentence can be reduced to
three manageable sentences. As well, subordinating conjunctions
("which," "because") replaced
the vague word "and" in order to communicate the logic of the argument.)
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How to Fix the Problem
Change run-on sentences by breaking them into clear parts, by avoiding
overuse of coordinating conjunctions ("and," "but," "for,"
"or," "nor," "so," "yet"), and by
cutting out wordiness.
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How to Avoid this Problem
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Don’t avoid run-on sentences by relying on short sentences. No matter how long,
your sentence should have recognizable parts that relate logically to one
another.
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Take care in finding appropriate connecting words between clauses.
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Avoid overusing the word "and." Only use it to show that one thing is
"in
addition" to another.
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