Grammar Lesson: Run-ons and Comma Splices

RUN-ONS AND COMMA SPLICES

An independent clause is a group of words that can stand alone as a complete sentence, so in this class, we will use the term complete sentence because it sounds less confusing than independent clause.

• Is this a complete sentence?
  • She coughed.
  • Is this a complete sentence?
    • Or she coughed.
      • • Even though it is longer than the first sentence it is actually less complete because it implies that there is information missing.
        • The length of a sentence has nothing to do with whether it is complete or not.
      • Is this a complete sentence:
        • She sneezed.
        • Is this sentence okay?
          • She coughed she sneezed.
            • • It is not okay to shove two complete sentences together with nothing in the middle to divide them.
                • Doing so creates an error called a run-on sentence.
                  • NOTE: A “run-on” is NOT what most people think it is. It is NOT just a very long sentence. It can be quite short. It is any two complete sentences stuck together with nothing in between. The length of a sentence has nothing to do with whether it is correct or not.

What can go in the middle of two complete sentences to divide them?

Of course, a period and capital letter will work, but what if the writer thinks that “She coughed. She sneezed.” sounds too choppy and wants to combine them?

• Does this work?
  • She coughed, she sneezed.
    • • A comma is not enough to separate two complete sentences.
        • Using a comma that way creates an error called a comma splice.

A comma needs help to separate two complete sentences.

A comma can get help from a word like

and, but or, so, for (with the meaning of because) or yet (with the meaning of but).

Those six words are used to conjoin two sentences. Therefore, they belong in the middle of sentences and never at the beginning.

A comma can also get help from a period. There is a punctuation mark that is a combination of a period plus a comma. It is called a semicolon and looks like this ; and it can separate two complete sentences.