Despite what many believe, a run-on sentence is not just a long sentence.   William Faulkner, for example, wrote plenty of lengthy sentences that were not run-ons. (He also wrote plenty that were!)  Here’s an example from the opening scene of  Faulkner’s short story, “That Evening Sun”:

“Monday is no different from any other weekday in Jefferson now. The streets are paved now, and the telephone and electric companies are cutting down more and more of the shade trees–the water oaks, the maples and locusts and elms–to make room for iron poles bearing clusters of bloated and ghostly and bloodless grapes, and we have a city laundry which makes the rounds on Monday morning, gathering the bundles of clothes into bright-colored, specially-made motor cars: the soiled wearing of a whole week now flees apparitionlike behind alert and irritable electric horns, with a long diminishing noise of rubber and asphalt like tearing silk, and even the Negro women, who still take in white people’s washing after the old custom, fetch and deliver it in automobiles.”

That’s a mouthful–but it’s not a run-on sentence.  All of the commas are placed correctly to split up the different clauses, and the colon works to differentiate the two independent clauses in the sentence.  If you wrote a sentence like this in an essay, your teacher might tell you to break it up because it’s too wordy, but your teacher should NOT call it a run-on.

Technically, a run-on is a sentence in which two independent clauses are improperly joined–either with a comma (called a comma splice) or no punctuation at all (called a fused sentence).   Briefly, an independent clause is one that contains a subject and a verb and can stand on its own; in other words, a dependent clause is its own complete sentence. A run-on does not have to be long at all.  Here’s an example, also from Faulkner:

“What else can I think about what else have I thought about”

While much shorter than the previous example, this is the run-on sentence.  Here’s the first independent clause: What else can I think about.  The second is: What else have i thought about. Both could stand on their own as full sentences, but they lack punctuation between them.  To correct the error, Faulkner should write, “What else can I think about? What else have I thought about?”

Here’s another example:

I don’t have to I cant ask now afterward it will be all right it wont matter

How would you punctuate this sentence?

It’s worth noting that both of the run-on examples come from the inner thoughts of a character in The Sound and the Fury .  Why might Faulkner use run-ons to convey someone’s inner monologue?

A recent Time article by Jeffrey Kluger discusses a Georgia Tech study that may prove that stress and fatigue actually improve standardized test scores.  Researchers recruited 239 college freshmen who agreed to take three different versions of the SAT exam in gradually increasing lengths of 3.5 hours, 4.5 hours, and 5.5 hours.  A cash prize was offered to anyone who was able to beat their high school score to increase the test-takers anxiety.

“When the researchers scored the results, it came as no surprise that volunteers’ fatigue and stress rose steadily as the test got longer. What was unexpected was their corresponding performance: as the length of the test increased, so did the students’ scores. The average score on the three-and-a-half hour test was 1,209 out of 1,600. On the four-and-a-half-hour version it was 1,222; on the five-and-a-half-hour test it was 1,237. Virtually all of the students followed that pattern.”

The analysis?  Rising exhaustion and stress were directly responsible for the increase in scores.

Of course, the study has some flaws, not least of which is the organization sponsoring it: College Board, the same company that sponsors the SAT.  They recently added a Writing section to the SAT, increasing the total time of the exam by 45 minutes.  Could the College Board—and by extension, the researchers—have a vested interest in producing a study that shows fatigue does not negatively impact test scores?

What do you think?  Does a little stress help you rise to the occasion in your schoolwork?  Do you find it easier to work when you are quickly approaching a deadline, or does that kind of anxiety only distract you?

If you took the June SAT,  log into your College Board account to view your scores.  A small number of score won’t be available until Monday, July 6, but most have already been posted.  Let us know you how much you improved!

We teach the following subjects:

• SAT Prep
• Craft of the Essay
• College Admissions
• SAT Subject Tests
• Grammar Basics

For information about rates and availability, please email info@stylustutors.com.

Stylus Tutors was founded by three graduates of the Master’s writing program at Sarah Lawrence College. As writers who value the intense discipline and discretion involved in achieving proficient writing skills, we were consistently disenchanted by the limits of teaching within the rigorously structured environment of the classroom – be it a course offered by a university, test-prep company, or non-profit organization. Drawing on our experience from all these sites, we have tailored a new kind of instruction. Instead of catering to a mass, we nurture the individual. Instead of homogenized test strategies, we teach the material itself for long-term utilization. Instead of dated, textbook exercises, we craft our own progressive drills that advance material memory and concentration. We do this with the understanding that students are not robots; that supplying a student with a well-balanced regimen of information, technique and supplementary reading by preeminent writers will lead to the best results.

We chose to name our company Stylus to affirm the importance of writing in any endeavor, whether it be acing the SAT, gaining acceptance to your dream college, or communicating effectively with friends, instructors, or colleagues. Our goal is to provide each student with a stylus—the tool with which to carve an indelible impression upon the world.