Page 671 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

What Is a Run-on Sentence?

1 Identify run-ons and comma splices.

A run-on sentence is not one sentence, but two or more, run together
without proper punctuation. The following sentence is a type of run-on

that is often called a fused sentence because two thoughts are fused

together with no punctuation to separate them. In this text, the fused

sentence type of run-on is simply referred to as a run-on.

Brittany knew her research paper was due the next day she
could not push herself to work on it.

By examining the sentence, you can probably decide where the first

thought ends and the second begins—between day and she.

Grammatically, too, you can figure out why the thoughts should be

separate. Each has a subject and a verb and is an independent
clause, a clause that can stand alone as a sentence or that can be

combined with other clauses in specific patterns.