English
Run-on Sentences

---

A sentence with too much in it or with inadequate punctuation between clauses is a run-on.

 

There are three kinds of run-on sentences:

• The comma splice;
• the fused sentence; and
• the true run-on

The comma splice occurs when two complete sentences (independent clauses) are joined together with only a comma between them:  I studied all night, I am tired.

 

A fused sentence occurs when two complete sentences are joined together with no punctuation at all: I studied all night I am tired.

 

In the true run-on sentence, too many ideas are crowded into one sentence:  I studied all night, and I am tired, so I think I will miss classes this morning, for they are boring anyway because the teachers tend to be ill-prepared and uninterested in their subjects perhaps because when they were students, they developed poor work habits and studied all night too.

 

(A general rule is that a sentence should convey no more than two ideas.)