Craig -

A few more random thoughts leaped into my head after my last reponse to your 
run-on/comma splice example:

>My students write run-on sentences quite readily when the independent 
>clauses seem to be >saying the same thing. "My father was a generous guy, 
>he always opened his pockets to the >needy."

You can also extend the lesson on semi-colons to a lesson on paragraph 
development and essay writing.  The "opening his pockets" example is still a 
generality - a topic sentence!  If the student can give some specific 
examples, there's a unified paragraph!  ("I remember one time when . . .  
And then there was the time that . . .  It seemed as if Dad was always . . 
.").

Then, perhaps the student can come up with a few more "general" examples of 
father's generousity (more topic sentences for additional paragraphs).  For 
example, in addition to being financially generous, he was also generous 
with his time - specific examples give us another paragraph.  And he was 
also emotionally generous - specific examles create still another paragraph.

Then, perhaps the student can write a bit about why having a generous father 
is so important -  there's the introduction; and finally, what kind of 
lessons have been learned ("I want to be just like my father.") - there's 
the conclusion

AN IMMORTAL FIVE PARAGRAPH ESSAY ALL CREATED FROM A LESSON ON RUN-ONS AND 
SEMI-COLONS!  LIFE IS INDEED GOOD!

Geoff

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