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ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 1. Which choice of punctuation best completes the sentence?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 2. Where should the semi-colon be placed?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 1. How should this sentence be changed so that it is grammatically correct?
Run-on Sentences 6511 Views
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Transcript
- 00:04
Run-on sentences, a la Shmoop. Run-on sentences are bad grammar everyone
- 00:09
knows this except apparently for a few authors who think it's okay to throw proper punctuation
- 00:14
out the door in the name of their craft leaving the reader to suffer as he or she struggles
- 00:18
to figure out where one thought ends and the next begins.
- 00:21
Whew. Now that we've survived an encounter with a run-on sentence, let's talk about
Full Transcript
- 00:26
what this particular piece of bad grammar actually...is.
- 00:29
While some people think that run-on sentences are just long...
- 00:32
...like, really, really, really long...
- 00:34
...a run-on sentence actually occurs when sentences are smashed together without the benefit of
- 00:38
any internal punctuation.
- 00:41
Run-on sentences may induce confusion...
- 00:43
...hysteria...
- 00:44
...and even the urge to throw books...
- 00:46
...so use extreme caution when constructing sentences.
- 00:49
The nice thing about run-on sentences is that they are easily fixed, and we have a whole
- 00:52
slew of tools to choose from...
- 00:54
...including colons, coordinating conjunctions, dashes, periods, and semicolons.
- 01:00
So, let's look at some examples of run-on sentences and how to fix 'em.
- 01:06
Say we have the run-on sentence, "William Faulkner is a well-known American author he
- 01:11
lived in Mississippi for most of his life you can visit his house in Oxford and see
- 01:16
where he scribbled all over the bathroom wall."
- 01:20
How can we fix this crime against grammar? Not to mention against poor Mr. Faulkner?
- 01:24
Well, we could deploy several periods, so we end up with...
- 01:27
..."William Faulkner is a well-known American author...period...He lived in Mississippi for
- 01:32
most of his life...period...You can visit his house in Oxford and see where he scribbled
- 01:37
all over the bathroom wall."
- 01:39
Or, we could deploy some periods and a well-placed "who" to get...
- 01:44
..."William Faulkner is a well-known American author who lived in Mississippi for most of
- 01:49
his life...period...You can visit his house in Oxford and see where he scribbled all over
- 01:54
the bathroom wall." Let's look at a different example. "Jim
- 01:58
is a fan of Cormac McCarthy's novels however he had a big problem when he tried to read
- 02:03
The Crossing half of that book is written in Spanish."
- 02:06
Well, let's fix this grammar disaster.
- 02:09
We could do this: "Jim is a big fan of Cormac McCarthy's novels...period...However...comma...
- 02:15
he had a big problem when he tried to read The Crossing...colon...half of that book is
- 02:20
written in Spanish."
- 02:22
Or, we could do this: "Jim is a fan of Cormac McCarthy's novels...comma...although he had
- 02:27
a big problem when he tried to read The Crossing...dash...half of that book is written in Spanish."
- 02:33
Or, we could try door number 3: "Jim is a fan of Cormac McCarthy's novels...period...
- 02:40
However...comma...he had a problem when he tried to read The Crossing because half of
- 02:45
that book is written in Spanish." Run-on sentences can be difficult for the
- 02:49
reader to comprehend.
- 02:50
So, while most of us will never have a really good reason to deploy a run-on sentence...
- 02:54
...this doesn't mean we won't encounter run-on sentences in literature.
- 02:58
For example, take this lengthy entry from James Joyce's novel, Ulysses...
- 03:03
"I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian
- 03:08
girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I
- 03:15
thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes..."
- 03:21
Let's stop right there. That's fifty-eight words without the benefit of any internal
- 03:27
punctuation, and while that may seem like a lot...
- 03:29
...the truth is that Joyce's sentence actually continues for another fifty-three words. Holy
- 03:35
moly. That gives us a total of one hundred and eleven words, no pauses, no stop until
- 03:41
the very end. While we could never get away with writing
- 03:44
like this...
- 03:44
...because our English teachers would lynch us...
- 03:47
...great authors with lots of critical acclaim and assorted Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes might
- 03:52
decide that a particular story calls for run-on sentences.
- 03:54
So, unless the literary critics start calling us "the next Ernest Hemingway", we need
- 03:59
to stick to proper internal punctuation...
- 04:01
...and avoid run-on sentences.
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