Darned if I know. I've gotten on rolls where the result ended up being one sentence per paragraph, and it was all grammatically correct.

It wasn't such a problem until one day I got the idea to learn the Blackfoot language. It's every interesting, because they don't have "words" per say... rather, they phonemes and morpheme, which by themselves don't express a pure concept, such that you have to string at least two of them together to get what we'd all a rod.

The closest example I can think of in English would be "ing". By itself "ing" doesn't mean anything. You have to say "running" for it to have meaning.

Well, they have a language where it's *all* pieces of phoneme, and they literally construct words on the fly from the phonemes, such that two different Blackfoot speakers can come up with two different words for the same concept... sort of like how in English Ox and Bull both mean a male cow, but in English those are both valid words.

In Blackfoot, they do to the phonemes of words like we can do to words in a sentence, where "She ran", and "Ran she did" mean the same thing even though the words are in different order... it's like to them, running and ingrun are both valid for the same concept.

Consequently, the really good Blackfoot speakers can string together phonemes like beads on a chain to have it where one word says what a whole sentence would in English... and I think that in German they sort of agglutinate phonemes that way, although I doubt to the same extent... but it's why native Blackfoot speakers used to have such a hugh regard for what they called their "Great Speakers". With Blackfoot, if they had a great speaker, they'd love to sit around the campfire and hear the speaker tell a story with a whole new freshly minted agglutinated phonetic set of words that nobody had ever heard said that way before.

I knew a guy... Dr. Don Frantz, who's goal was to make a Blackfoot-English Dictionary, and he nearly lost his mind. It ended up being a funny sort of lookup-grid to show combination's of phonemes that would make different words that would mean the same things, and even then there were old-time native speakers who were telling him he wasn't quite covering it all.

The point is... ever since I studied Blackfoot, it mangled my ordinary sense for where sentences should begin and end, and it turned me into a guy who would hyphenate twelve words into one supercalifragilisticexbialodocious word if the spell-check software would let him get away with it.

Which means, I have to remember a rule of thumb, and for English, the rule of thumb for when to drop a period is this: One sentence equals one complete thought.

Which means, technically speaking, if a paragraphs length sentence is expressing one single complete thought with all its nuances, then by the rules of grammar it's a valid sentance, which means, it boils down to a question of style.

For that, I use a second rule of thumb taught to me by the great Gudrend Hess, niece of the German writer Herman Hess.

She told me that in German, sentences could become very run-on, and that one had to choose to draw an arbitrary line, and that when she was writing for a north American audience, she would punctuate her sentences with periods when she though it would break it into pieces that would be a complete thought to a twelve year old.

I asked her why a twelve year old, and she said because that was the average level of literacy in America, and as a writer, she wanted to reach the maximum audience to within one standard deviation of the literacy level of the average.

So... according to my Linguistics prof Gudrend Hess... break your sentences into bite-size pieces where each one represents a complete thought comprehensible to a mentally sound graduate of the sixth grade.

Hey krazy! Good luck with your writing!!

Maybe I can help you a little. Let's look at your opening sentence:

"Upon deciding recently to become a writer, I have been practicing my style, and it has come to my attention that one of my major flaws is that I use a lot of run-on sentences."

Now lets see if we can pare it down a bit.

"Soon after I decided to become a writer, I discovered a major flaw while practicing my style. I use a lot of run-on sentences."

Notice that I kept the last eight words of your sentence exactly as they are, only changed to a simple declarative statement. You correctly identified and placed that thought as the pivot to your next topic; "what will I do to improve"?

Write your first draft however you like, then edit. Try to limit yourself to one comma per sentence at the beginning, just as an exercise. It will become easier with practice. Try to identify the important thoughts, and separate them from those that could be eliminated or combined. Look for words you can do without, like "and", "that", and "which". You may try making a numbered list of your thoughts. Looking at them in that format may help you to prioritize them, group them or eliminate those that may duplicate or seem unnecessary.

I commend you for attempting to begin reaching one of the primary accomplishments of writing, "economy of expression". Edgar Allan Poe became so skilled that many of his short stories can almost be read as poems. Ezra Pound was another famous proponent. "The young Pound shared Edgar Allan Poe's conviction that any word unessential to a work should vacate the premises."

http://www.hanknuwer.com/ezra.html

See if this sentence and it's edit make sense to you:

"I am like you in that I like to write, and there is almost nothing I would like to do better, because it makes me feel good to get my thoughts on paper."

OR

"I, like you, am fond of writing. Nothing makes me feel better than capturing my thoughts on paper."

It is probably worth your time to brush up on different types of sentences, so that by varying them, you will be able to create the effect you are seeking. You will come to know why you are choosing a conpound-complex sentence and or why you are choosing a simple declarative statement.

You are not at the mercy of your sentences, you are their God. You can create them and annihilate them as you wish! Rule them wisely!

Disclaimer: I may be totally wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgkzMKlXFdI&feature=fvw

Sometimes getting the long winded, run on sentence on paper is important. Particularly if you may lose the train of thought. When doing an initial cut of getting something on the paper I would not worry about the run on sentence. However, in order to improve and have your writing better understood, even by the editor, it is best to make your own first edit.

To get rid of the run on sentence, read it in parts. Look at the overall sentence and determine how many individual pieces you have in the sentence. Are you combining multiple ideas into one? For each sentence determine if you can break it into more than one without making it choppy.

As you practice doing this in edit mode, you will become more in tune with how the sentences you end with are flowing and should be able to work that style into the original written text in the future.

I tend to write in run-on sentences, too. I try to break them up after writing the piece, during the editing process. I think it's most important to get the ideas onto paper first, then re-read the piece and edit where necessary. Notice that wherever you stick an "and" in a sentence is usually a good place to try to break the long sentence into two or more shorter sentences, or even move one of the shorter sentences to another paragraph that fits the change in subject.

I've only been publishing online for going on three years, and when I look back on some of my old stuff, I can see how I've improved. So hang in there, it's a learning process!

These are all great answers!!

I tend to have both run ons and sentence fragments when I first write things out, especially in a forum like MA where it is more like a conversation. For that, it is not so important to catch them, but since I also design websites, and do Mahalo pages, it IS important to be clear and catch these things.

What *I* do to catch them is read my work over before submitting... if it seems odd but I just don't see what the problem is, I read it out loud.

You would be surprised what you will find reading your work out loud. This is especially true if you've read and re-read your work many times, as I do on websites, or for research projects I've done.

Since I know what I am saying, I tend to fill in the correct info when reading it silently. But reading out loud makes me change all kinds of things. I choose better words, tenses, change punctuation, and catch any sentence fragments or run ons that would have been there.

I find that my finished work is much more polished than it otherwise would have been...

and a final tip... if it is something important... especially if you will not be able to edit it, (if time allows) walk away from it and come back at another time.

a fresh set of eyes catches things that otherwise might have been missed.

=)

I do not think there is a specific formula.

It would probably stunt your stream of conscience to be constantly thinking about things as you write. You need to concentrate on the story, get the ideas down and then worry about the details later.

So, like you suggested, wait until you are editing and re-reading what you write to worry about it. If something reads weird it probably is weird.

Of course you could always set up a macro that will mark repetitive use of joining words as a spelling error. :)

Being concise is always the challenge in good writing. If there is one rule to follow that will help you the most, I got it...

Write in active voice.

By writing in active voice, you allow verbs to describe the object of the sentence and this forces you to think before you write.

Google active voice and see what you can learn!

I found some guidelines which might help you avoid run-on sentence at authorsden.com.

---quote---
The easiest way to avoid run on sentences is to scan the sentences you have written when you do your proofreading. Look for subjects and verbs. Determine if you have written two sentences. If you have, be sure you have joined them in one of the following ways.
----end of quote--

Tips on avoiding run on sentences.
1. Join sentences with junction to coordinate them.
2. Use a semicolon to join sentences.
3. Use therefore, however, nevertheless, consequently, etc.

Painful though it may be, I recommend sentence diagramming. A sentence is intended to express a single, complete thought, and diagramming will help you enforce that.

Also, I don't recommend relying on software for grammar checking. My experience has been that MS Word, for example, simply does not like long sentences, even when they are grammatically correct and express a complete, albeit complex, thought.

Sentence length and complexity is often a matter of personal choice. Long-winded sentences and run-on sentences are not the same entity. I tend to favor long, unwieldy sentences, and I've noticed that some of my proofreaders prefer them shorter while others are perfectly fine with them as they stand. Sometimes it's worth breaking up longer sentences for clarity, but other times I prefer to keep them on the rationale that the thought they express is suffers from being divided.

Run-sentences halt a reader because he or she has to stop and decide what the writer means. Run-on sentences are compound sentences joined incorrectly. A run-on sentence interrupts the flow and meaning of what is written.

All right, I see those confused looks. First of all, a compound sentence is two or more independent clauses joined by a comma and a coordinating conjunction, by a semicolon or a semicolon and a comma, or by a colon.

An independent clause or main clause is a group of words with a subject and verb which contains a complete thought.

Independent clause: The boy ran around the house, screaming at the top of his voice.
Dependent clause (not a complete thought}: Screaming at the top of his voice.

A coordinating conjunction is a word such as and, but, or, nor, yet, or for that joins items of equal value. The conjunction may join subjects, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and/or clauses.

Now let’s examine run-on sentence problems and how to correct them. The first run-on sentence which we’ll work with is as follows:

Run-on: Secretary of State William Seward bought Alaska from Russia the deal was mocked as “Seward’s Folly.”

One way uses an end mark and a capital letter to separate the independent (or main} clauses into separate sentences.

Separate sentences: Secretary of State William Seward bought Alaska from Russia. The deal was mocked as “Seward’s Folly.”

Another way is to use a semicolon between clauses.

Semicolon: Secretary of State William Seward bought Alaska from Russia; the deal was mocked as “Seward’s Folly.” Note: both clauses must be closely related for this method to work.

Using a comma and a coordinating conjunction between clauses also works.

Comma and coordinating conjunction: Secretary of State William Seward brought Alaska from Russia, but the deal was mocked as “Seward’s Folly.”

A final way to correct a run-on sentence is to introduce one clause with a subordinating conjunction (creating a dependent or subordinate clause - a clause not making a complete thought) and use a comma before the new independent or main clause. This combination creates a complex sentence: the use of one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.

Complex sentence: When Secretary of State William Seward brought Alaska from Russia, the deal was mocked as “Seward’s Folly.”

A comma splice, another type of run-on sentence, can be corrected in the same ways. In a comma splice, the two independent clauses are joined only by a comma. The sample sentence will be the following:

Comma splice: The president of the company found himself in a quandary, the company was going bankrupt.

Separate sentences: The president of the company found himself in a quandary. The company was going bankrupt.

Semicolon: The president of the company found himself in a quandary; the company was going bankrupt.

Comma and coordinating conjunction: The president of the company found himself in a quandary, for the company was going bankrupt.

Complex sentence: Because the company was going bankrupt, the president of the company found himself in a quandary.

Three things:

First: See if anything after a conjunction (such as "and") can be formulated into a new sentence.

Second, a tip from my high school English teacher: When you write a rough draft for a piece wait 24 hours before you revise it. That allows you to clear your head a bit and come back to revise the contents.

Third: If you have a friend or family member who doesn't mind looking over the writing for you, by all means ask, even pay them a small commission when it sells.

Good luck with your writing adventures.

The best way to avoid a run on sentence is to use the free tools available to you.

1. Microsoft provides a grammar checker on your computer that will highlight the errors which can be accessed by opening up Microsoft word and clicking on the button in the top right hand corner, there you will see a box in the lower right hand corner "word options", click on it and then click on proofing.
You will need to check the following boxes:

a. ignore words in uppercase
b. ignore words that contain numbers
c. ignore internet and file addresses
d. flag repeated words
e. check spelling as you type
f. use contextual spelling
g. mark grammar error as you type
h. check grammar with spelling

2. There is another spell checker right when you open microsoft work, located in the upper right hand corner " spelling and grammar checker"

3. Free grammar checkers on the web.
•Spellchecker.net
•Grammar Slammer
www.whitesmoke.com

A sentence can become a run-on sentence just because you forget to put in a comma. For example: The current was swift and he could not swim to shore.
(This sentence is a run on because there is not a comma in front of the short conjunction that joins the two sentences.)

2. It is possible you might accidentally use "only" a comma to join two sentences which creates a comma splice, and a run-on sentence. For example: The current was swift, he could not swim to shore.
(This sentence is a run on because you cannot join two complete sentences with just a comma.)

3. Sometimes you might join two complete sentences without any punctuation at all. For example:
The current was swift he could not swim to shore.
(This sentence is a run on because there is no punctuation or conjunction between the two complete sentences.

The easiest way to avoid run on sentences is to scan the sentences you have written when you do your proofreading. Look for subjects and verbs. Determine if you have written two sentences. If you have, be sure you have joined them in one of the following ways.

(1)You can join two sentences with a coordinating conjunction:
,and ,for
,but ,nor
,or ,yet

(Be absolutely sure you place a comma in front of these short conjunctions.) For example:
The current was swift, and he could not swim to shore.

(2) You can join two sentences with a semicolon (;)
(Be sure the sentences are fairly short and closely related.
The current was swift; he could not swim to shore.

(3)You can join two sentences with a longer conjunction such as therefore, moreover, nevertheless, consequently, etc. If you use a longer conjunction, you must place a semicolon in front of it and a comma after it.
For example: The current was swift; consequently, he could not swim to shore.

If you are careful to determine that you have written two sentences, and then join them together with the proper punctuation, the problem of using run-on sentences in your writing will disappear