A-Unit Lesson #2

Goal: Students will avoid run-ons and comma splices.

Lesson: Students mistakenly think that a run-on sentence is simply a sentence that is too long. The length is not the issue; the punctuation is. A run-on sentence is 2 or more complete sentences joined together without correct punctuation, causing confusion because one thought runs into the next thought. Here are the different types of run-ons to avoid:

FUSED SENTENCES:
SPSP. He ran he fell.
-This is called a fused sentence because there's zero punctuation to separate the two sentences.

FUSED SENTENCES w/CC's:
SP cc SP. Schools today have books for every student and many schools also have televisions and computers.
-This is still a run-on because the correct punctuation would include a comma before the word AND.

COMMA SPLICE:
SP, SP. I hate science class, it's boring.
--This is called a comma splice because the writer only inserted a comma between the 2 sentences in an attempt to separate the 2 independent clauses. One way to fix it is to add a coordinating conjunction (cc) after the comma.

How to fix run-on sentences:
1. If you want 2 shorter sentences, use a period. SP. SP.
2. If the 2 sentences contain related material, you could use a semicolon. SP; SP.
3. If you want to use a cc, just put a comma before it. SP, cc SP.
4. For tomorrow's lesson, you'll learn about another way to join sentences using adverbial conjunctions (ac's). SP; ac, SP.

TODAY'S DIRECTIONS:
Choose the BEST way to write the sentence.

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