Please could you help me that I don't have run on sentences or if I need commas.After reading "Man's Nature is Good" Mencius argues that man is born good but, that life itself makes a man evil. He states "Human nature is inherently good, just like water flows inherently downhill" There's no such thing as a person who isn't good, just as there's no water that doesn't flow downhill. (Mencius, 95) Mencius makes his argument clearly when he states "In good years, young men are mostly fine. In bad years, they're mostly cruel and violent. (Mencius,96) His argument is effective if a person sees his point of view. He wanted to make his argument clear that a person is born good but, that life changes a person. If a person has a good life he would be good, however if a person has a rough life he would become evil. Mencius said: "The forests were once lovely on OX Mountain. But as they were near a great city, axes cleared them little by little. Now there's nothing left of their beauty. (Mencius,97)
Read this and edit yourself:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/573/02/
This may also help:
http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/commas.asp
After reading "Man's Nature is Good," Mencius argues that man is born good but life itself makes a man evil. In this sentence, there is no need for a comma after "good" because it is not separating two independent clauses. However, a comma is needed before "but" to separate the contrasting ideas.
For the next sentence, when you include a quote within a sentence, you should use commas to set off the quote. So it would be: "He states, 'Human nature is inherently good, just like water flows inherently downhill'" (Mencius, 95). Here, the comma before the quote and after the quote is necessary.
In the following sentence, you correctly used a comma before "just as" to separate two clauses. However, you can also add a comma after "there's no such thing as a person who isn't good" to create a clearer pause and separation between the two parts of the sentence. Like this: "There's no such thing as a person who isn't good, just as there's no water that doesn't flow downhill" (Mencius, 95).
Moving on to the next sentence, you correctly used quotation marks around the quote. However, there should be a comma before the quote to indicate that Mencius is the one speaking. It should be: "Mencius makes his argument clearly when he states, 'In good years, young men are mostly fine. In bad years, they're mostly cruel and violent'" (Mencius, 96).
In the following sentence, you use a comma correctly before "however" to separate two independent clauses. However, you can also add a comma after "good life" to create a clearer separation. So it would be: "His argument is effective if a person sees his point of view. He wanted to make his argument clear that a person is born good, but that life changes a person" (Mencius, 96).
Lastly, when you include another quote, you should use commas to set it off. So it would be: "Mencius said, 'The forests were once lovely on OX Mountain. But as they were near a great city, axes cleared them little by little. Now there's nothing left of their beauty'" (Mencius, 97). Again, a comma is needed before and after the quote.
By following these guidelines and adding the necessary commas, you can ensure that your sentences are clear, concise, and free of run-on sentences.