The Top 20 Grammar Errors: the run-on sentence

The eighteenth error in the list of the most common grammar errors is the run-on sentence, AKA the fused sentence.

Let’s revisit grammar error number eight, the comma splice.

In error number eight, I stated that the above was a run-on sentence. This is what I was told in high school. However, while researching the fused sentence I discovered I was wrong. A fused sentence looks like this:

The dog chased the cat the cat climbed a tree.

A fused sentence is two independent clauses connected without punctuation. Therefore, a fused sentence can also look like this:

The dog chased the cat and the cat climbed a tree.

Check out error number three: no comma in a compound sentence. The example should read:

·         The dog chased the cat. The cat climbed a tree.

·         The dog chased the cat, and the cat climbed a tree.

·         The dog chased the cat, but the cat climbed a tree.

·         The dog chased the cat; therefore, the cat climbed a tree.

·         Because the dog chased the cat, the cat climbed a tree.

The fused sentence can be fixed by separating the two independent clauses with a period, a comma and a conjunction, a semi-colon with conjunction and comma, or by rewriting the sentence with an introductory clause.