Why is run on sentences are bad

Why are run-on sentences a problem? As noted above, run-on sentences either have poor grammar or try to present too many ideas. The reader becomes lost and cannot remember the ideas being presented.

When many ideas are patched together into one long sentence, this can confuse the reader. The reader has to sort out many different ideas lumped together as a single sentence. Writers are often taught that long sentences make better writing than short sentences. I will provide some examples. I will make those examples as I write. These sentences are an example.

My writing style is short and choppy. The example uses italics. They are also indented like this sentence so they stand out from the other text. In that in the example above, I have used a series of short and choppy sentences to propose several ideas.

Now, how can those ideas be constructed into a good, easily readable sentence. Here I provide a second example, again using italics and inset text that combines the same ideas into one longer sentence; this sample sentence is no longer choppy. In the last example, above, I had tried to show you a method that can be used to make good, long sentences.

I have used a semicolon to make a longer sentence. Semicolons are used to combine to complete ideas two complete sentences into one long, but grammatically correct, sentence. However, the methods used to collect specimens here had four disadvantages: first, the specimens were collected from local parks, so they were not representative of other disturbed habitats; second, the sample sizes were not large enough to provide representative plants of the species occurring in those parks, for example, the numbers of sample sedge specimens was very limited including only 14 specimens for all 30 sites represented; third, the amount of collection effort varied widely between sites, ranging from 11 to specimens per site; fourth, the types of species were strongly biased toward woody species, with an obvious neglect of many hard-to-identify groups such as sedges mentioned above and an almost complete lack of bryophytes.

This type of sentence structure is often seen in scientific papers. It contains an initial statement followed by a series of ideas that are separated by commas. This can often be used effectively, but many authors try to stuff too many ideas into such long sentences. In addition, authors sometimes add extra words and ideas that add little to the meaning of the sentence.

In this case, this form of writing can still be used with fewer words, or the sentence can be broken into several sentences. The following example breaks the above sentence into parts but still contains the main ideas within the original sentence. However, the methods used to collect specimens here had four disadvantages. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams?

Learn more. Asked 1 year, 9 months ago. Active 1 year, 9 months ago. Viewed times. Improve this question. WendyG WendyG 2, 7 7 silver badges 19 19 bronze badges. The rule about not using "his" in a sentence alone seems something you've made up or misunderstood, or someone else has made up and told you.

Do you have any source for this rule? It's certainly not a generally accepted rule. Does this answer your question? Is it ok to combine two independent clauses into just one sentence? Contains 'Comma splices are considered acceptable by some in passages of spoken or interior dialogue and are sometimes used deliberately to emulate spoken language more closely.

StuartF my only reference is my secondary school teacher. We were taught so little grammar the little we were taught stuck. Fortunately, the run on sentence is easy to spot and just as easy to correct. They are very noticeable when read back through your work, because they make the narrative flow of sentences look odd, for example:. She eyed him with suspicion she knew he was lying. He heard the rush of the explosion behind him he ran to the car. The sunset spread across the sky it flooded the landscape with a hazy hue.

Each example shows how the sentence falters at the point that there should be an independent clause. They are considered grammatically incorrect because of the clumsy sentence structures they create.

She eyed him with suspicion. She knew he was lying. He heard the rush of the explosion behind him and he ran to the car. The sunset spread across the sky. It flooded the landscape with a hazy hue.

Now the sentences read more smoothly, they make sense and are no longer clunky. The independent clauses help the sentences make sense and they are much tighter and concise by comparison to the run-on sentence structures. There is another variation of the run-on sentence that, while considered grammatically erroneous, they are considered as acceptable within fiction writing, and they are known as Comma Splices. The Comma Splice. A comma splice is when two independent clauses are connected by a comma, rather than the correct conjunction and, or, but, for etc or punctuation.

The examples below are comma splices:. The rain was hammering down, he shut the window. Dave picked up the shovel, opened the shed door. John obviously knew what she meant, he was an intuitive person.