English
Guidelines for Correcting Run-on Sentences

• One way to fix a comma splice or a fused sentence is to join the independent clauses with a semicolon; eg., I studied all night; I am tired.
• Another way to fix a comma splice or a fused sentence is to add a coordinate conjunction between the two clauses; eg., I studied all night, and I am exhausted.  (Coordinating conjunctions and, but, or, nor, yet, for, and so must be preceded by a comma.)
• A third way to fix a comma splice or a fused sentence is to add a subordinate conjunction to join the two clauses; eg., Because I studied all night, I am exhausted.  I am exhausted because I studied all night.  (Subordinating conjunctions such as because, since, which, that, although, as, and if create dependent clauses.  If the dependent clause precedes the independent clause, it must be followed by a comma.)
• A fourth way to fix a comma splice or a fused sentence is to make the independent clauses into two separate sentences; eg., I studied all night. I am tired.
• Run-ons can be fixed by following two steps:
  1. Cut out all unnecessary words;
  2. Apply the four solutions for comma splices and fused sentences:  semicolons, linking words, and sentence breaks; eg., I studied all night, and I am tired.  Therefore, I think I will miss classes this morning.  They are boring anyway. 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.