Grammar Girl- Run-on sentences

In summary, the grammar girl lesson this week gave a quick overview on identifying and fixing run on sentences. A run on sentence can be a really, really long sentence, or simply a short sentence without the proper grammar. I must admit that I commit the run -on sentence crime here and there, but usually end up editing my writing to split up the sentence. Most of the time I’m just trying to get way too much information in between two periods. I really like using fancy descriptive words and though this may not always make my sentence a run-on, it sometimes makes them sound congested and inundated with nonsense. Actually, earlier today I was working on an abstract for a research proposal and was having a hard time with a sentence that I knew in my heart of hearts was a run-on, but I didn’t want to face it. This is what the sentence ended up as: “Using an in situ hybridization procedure, we are investigating the effects of WSTF knockdown on the expression of two genes - Bone morphogenic protein 4 (Bmp4) and Sonic hedgehog (Shh) - both involved in early neural patterning and later differentiation and development in Xenopus and other vertebrates.” I don’t think this is a run-on sentence, but it definitely sounds like it needs to be split up. What I thought was cool about this grammar girl lesson was that she explained how different punctuation can be used to obtain different effects in the writing. I plan on utilizing this new tool in the future.