Run-On Sentences - BrainPop UK - video Dailymotion

Watch Run-On Sentences - BrainPop UK - BrainPOP on Dailymotion

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00:00Get ready, go! Of course it's sweaty. I just ran a mile and now it's your turn.

00:16Dear Tim and Moby, my teacher says I use run-on sentences. What are they and how

00:22can I correct them? From Scott. Run-on sentences are sometimes hard to catch.

00:28They might seem like they're grammatically correct. Yes, that was a

00:33run-on sentence. Well, I did it on purpose. A run-on sentence happens when two or

00:39more sentences are written as though they were a single sentence. A sentence

00:44doesn't have to be long to be a run-on. It just needs to smush together two

00:48independent clauses. Those are complete ideas, each with their own subject and

00:53verb. For example, Sophie's running fast, she's not slowing down. Now, that might

00:59not sound so wrong when you say it out loud, but take a look at how it's

01:03written. Sophie is running fast is an independent clause. She's not slowing

01:08down is another one. There are a few ways to fix the run-on. We can split it into

01:14two sentences by adding a period. Sophie is running fast, period. She's not slowing

01:20down. Or, we can separate the independent clauses with a semicolon. You can think

01:25of a semicolon as a soft period. Using it to link two independent clauses indicates

01:31that there's a close connection between them. Like, Sophie is running fast,

01:35semicolon. She's not slowing down. No, that's not a good fix. You can't connect

01:43two independent clauses with just a comma. That's a common type of run-on

01:47sentence called a comma splice. To fix it, you can replace the comma with a

01:51period or semicolon, like I've already shown you. Or, you can keep the comma and

01:56insert a conjunction after it. A conjunction is a word that connects

02:00parts of a sentence. Some examples of conjunctions are and, or, and but. Sophie

02:07is running fast, comma, and she's not slowing down. So, whenever you write two

02:14complete sentences without punctuation between them or separated only by a

02:18comma, you've got a run-on sentence. Fixing run-ons will make your writing clearer

02:22and easier to understand. The right punctuation will serve as little sign

02:26posts to readers, directing them sentence by sentence to comprehension. Hey, she got

02:34your baton.

02:38Well, that was a run-on sentence, if I ever heard one.