ShmoopTube

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Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by detectives. Along with young boys who have

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a penchant for frying ants, they are some of the foremost buyers of magnifying glasses.

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How should you change the highlighted portion below, if at all?

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They weren't dangerous criminals they were detectives in disguise.

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This sentence has a bad case of the runs.

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Er, run-ons.

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Because we have two independent clauses here that aren't connected by any punctuation,

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the sentence is what's known as a run-on or fused sentence.

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Notice how the clauses, "they weren't dangerous criminals," and "they were detectives in disguise,"

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both have their own subjects and predicates, making them both complete sentences that could

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exist independently from each other.

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If we want to put them in the same sentence, we have to use some kind of punctuation. So

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we know for sure that choice (A) is leading us to Run-on Central.

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Choice (D) tries to solve the problem by sticking in a dash toward the end of the sentence.

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The dash does a great job of highlighting the fact that the detectives are in disguise,

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but it does a terrible job of fixing our run-on problem.

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We're looking for the answer that places the punctuation directly between our two independent

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clauses.

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Choice (B) tries a semicolon on for size.

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This isn't a totally bad idea; semicolons are indeed used to connect independent clauses.

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However, (B) makes the same mistake as choice (D) by placing the semicolon in the wrong

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place.

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Choice (C) puts the semicolon right where it needs to be, connecting our independent

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clauses and solving our case of the run-ons.

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So remember friends, when you're in a pinch, try semicolons for fast acting run-on relief!

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