Run-on sentences

[Carol]

Ali wrote:
> Oh I don't know.  I champion the judicious use of long sentences.  I hate anything that is composed purely of short sentences (maybe that's why I have such a visceral reaction to Hemingway).  Now, I'm not talking Faulkner; none of that.  I am, however, talking about a natural mix.  <snip>

Carol responds:
Me, too! Sentence structure should be varied to avoid monotony. And what a coincidence that the two particular authors you mention (forced on high school and college literature students alike) are two that I can't abide, either, for the same reason. Moderation in all things, including sentence length! (I know. I know. Mine tend to be long. I'll work on it. Count these five sentences into my average. :-) )

Ali wrote:

> Word gets me on it every once in a while when I write my quadruple compound sentences that are 6 lines long.  

Carol responds:
Oh, don't trust Word! True, it's better than nothing and it does tend to catch passive voice and multiple nouns, but it also makes blunders. (Ever notice that it regards any reflexive pronoun [e.g., "myself," "himself," "herself," "yourself") as an error even if it's used correctly?) And the suggestions for spellings are sometimes amusing. Just for fun, I typed in "Fenrir Greyback" to see what Word would suggest and got "Fernier," "Fernery," "Fearer," "Ferrier," "Ferric," "Ferris," "Fennier," "Furner, and "Ferny," along with "Greenback," ""Greywacke," and "Greenbacks." Not hilarious, admittedly, but not useful, either.

I do use it as the last stage of editing, mainly to make sure that I haven't accidentally deleted a word or run two words together in change tracking, but sometimes I just roll my eyes and wonder when we'll get an editing program actually designed by or in collaboration with an editor!

You *can* set your preferences to allow long sentences (as well as first person, etc.), but in Word 2007 (at least) jargon and clichés (neither of which I generally want in my edited documents) are grouped with colloquialisms (to which I have no objections in informal writing), so, unfortunately for me, I have to tell Word that each individual colloquialism is okay rather than telling it to ignore them all.

Ali wrote:
But still, there's nothing wrong (or legalese-like) with an occasiona long sentence.  And did I mention that I took a ton of law courses are part of my undergrad degree?  :)

Carol responds:
Oho! then you're the perfect person to try your hand at the subpoena sentence in my previous post!

Ali: 
> In all seriousness, I think the short sentence was taught because kids need to learn to get to the point (and, in my case, drive me mad).  If you don't know exactly what you're trying to say, it's pretty easy to lose yourself in a long sentence.  A short, active sentence, though, gets straight to the point.

Carol:
That's great for, say, fourth graders. But older kids in middle school and high school should learn subordination. (I'm with you on active voice, though!) 

The question in my mind is which books they should read to pick up a natural, varied, graceful style. Much as I love Jane Austen, she's the queen of dangling modifiers.
> 
> ~Ali, who does not like reading either Hemingway or Faulkner but does admire Faulkner's absurdly long sentences

Carol:
I can't stand Faulkner. I think it's because he spends so much time describing the scenery that you never get to know his characters as people. Hemingway doesn't describe much of anything. (Nick poured coffee for the fat man and the skinny man. The fat man took a sip. "Do you like the coffee?" Nick asked. "No," the fat man said. "Get us some bacon," the skinny man said. "Do you have any bacon?") Okay, I made that up, but that's how I think of Hemingway.

Carol, wondering where to find a passage of really *good* prose to quote