Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
RUN-ON SENTENCES
are syntactically flawed sentences consisting of two or more independent clauses incorrectly or infelicitously merged into one. The most frequently encountered run-on is the one often called a comma fault, wherein a comma is used to splice together two independent clauses: We got there late, we found they had already gone to bed. Stylistically the term run-on is also sometimes attached to paratactic sentences, which are very long sentences with many independent clauses linked together by coordinating conjunctions; these are sentences whose ideas are strung together like beads on a string, without any effort at the subordination of one idea to another: We went shopping, and we bought a few things, and my parents met us at the car, and we drove home, and my brother’s car was in the drive.
