Run on sentences & too many “ands” drives me crazy

Taking a break from all things election, I decided to write about run-on sentences and the use of “and” more than once in a sentence because it drives me crazy and it is very hard to see both every day when reading other people’s writings.  

So, (ha the use of so at the start of multiple sentences in one story drives me crazy too, keep reading) the first sentence in this piece is an example of a run-on sentence. When your sentences end up being a paragraph long, you’ve written a run-on sentence. 

That first sentence/paragraph could have been written like this, “Taking a break from all things election, I decided to write about run-on sentences. I also want to address the use of the word ‘and’ multiple times in one sentence. Both drive me crazy when reading other people’s writings.”  

A run-on sentence happens when two or more complete thoughts (independent clauses) are joined together without the correct punctuation or connecting words. The two main types are fused sentences (missing all punctuation) and comma splices (joined with only a comma). 

When searching for information about using “and” more than once in a sentence, this came up: “There is no strict grammatical rule prohibiting the use of “and” multiple times in a single sentence. However, excessive repetition can make a sentence feel like a run-on or become tedious to read.” 

Writing up information for the Big Horn County Fair parade entries, there were quite a few multiple “and” sentences. Without revealing the name I’ll share what was written for one of them. “____will continue to build upon his record of passing conservative policy by fighting for coal, oil and gas and other core Wyoming industries and putting Wyoming families first by working to bring down prices to make life more affordable.” Whew an example of a run on sentence and way too many ‘ands”. He wasn’t alone. 

There are exceptions when multiple ands work. For example, when writing up a birth announcement. “The grandparents are Bill & Evie Greene and Willa & Floyd Ellison” Not sure how to not use multiple ands with that one.  

The use of “So” at the start of paragraphs multiple times in the same written piece came up when proofreading some of Steva Dooley’s articles.  She came in the office, and I started the conversation by saying “So.”  After talking about her using “so” three or four times to start different paragraphs she started laughing. She pointed out how I had started the conversation about “So” by saying “So.” 

Something we both did during the rest of the conversation. Each time one of us said “So” to make a point, we broke out laughing. We are now working on not starting sentences with the word “And.”

And so, (just kidding) because I just can’t not say something about the election. Please vote August 18.