How do you know if your sentence is a run on example...

1 I went home and ate and ate.
2. Before lunch I played volleyball; after lunch, I played again.
3. I thought about what he'd said soon I realized he was right.
4. You and I and the whole team will go.

I picked #2

Run-ons occur when two (or more) sentences run together without any punctuation or with only a comma (comma splice). Which one is really two sentences with no punctuation to separate them?

I thinkl it's number three

Yes! #3 is correct.

=)

Meg went to the movies in the afternoon, then she had dinnerand rode her bike to bill's

To determine if a sentence is a run-on, you need to check if it contains two independent clauses that are not appropriately separated. An independent clause is a complete thought that can stand alone as a sentence. Let's analyze the examples you provided:

1. "I went home and ate and ate." This sentence is a run-on because it contains several independent clauses without proper punctuation or conjunctions to separate them. To fix it, you could add a conjunction like "and" between the clauses or use a punctuation mark like a period or semicolon to separate them: "I went home, and I ate and ate." or "I went home. I ate and ate."

2. "Before lunch I played volleyball; after lunch, I played again." This sentence is not a run-on. It contains two independent clauses - "Before lunch I played volleyball" and "after lunch, I played again" - which are appropriately separated by a semicolon and a comma. Therefore, it is correctly punctuated.

3. "I thought about what he'd said soon I realized he was right." This sentence is a run-on because it lacks proper punctuation or conjunctions to separate the independent clauses. To fix it, you could add a comma and a coordinating conjunction like "and" between the clauses: "I thought about what he'd said, and soon I realized he was right."

4. "You and I and the whole team will go." This sentence is not a run-on. Although it contains multiple subjects (you, I, and the whole team), it is still a single independent clause, and there is no need to separate them with punctuation or conjunctions.

Based on the explanations provided, you correctly identified #2 as the sentence that is not a run-on.