[EDLING:603] Spanish question follow-up

[sicola at DOLPHIN.UPENN.EDU]

Hi again,

Thanks to all for your thoughtful responses. Not to belabor the point, but in
retrospect, I wonder if my example ("I am a lawyer, it is a good job"/"Soy
abogado, es un buen trabajo") wasn't overly simplified.

Here is an example from a student's paper. Translated, would this be "formally
acceptable" in written Spanish, or has it crossed the line into "run-on" as it
appears in English?

"When I was in the middle of my career, I started to work in a Public Notary,
in that job, I was the assistant of the Notary, it was very interesting and
hard job, because I have to go to many important meetings and advise a lot of
people, and sometimes when I have to go to the University to take my classes I
was very tired or I was late or I couldn’t get there because of the work, but
with the time I got just to it."

(Later in the same essay:)

"The company had many small companies and has all types of marketing stock,
like for an example Restaurants, Bars, Real Estate Companies etc it was a big
challenge, so I last there around seven months, in the mean time, I was
looking for a course of English out of (my country), and I found a ELP program
in UPENN, that’s why I’m here studying, but before I came here, I have to quit
my job."

Is this degree of association still "officially standard"? (NB: I don't know
that I consider newspaper journalism to be a good yardstick by which to
measure "formal/standard writing," though it is "professional writing" so to
speak, at least in English.) Does Spanish have no such principle as a "run-on
sentence"? If it does, but these aren't examples thereof, can someone
demonstrate what one would look like?  If run-ons as such are officially
standard, I'll concede the point, wave my white flag and accept this as
today's "you learn something new every day" token.

Thanks for humoring me on this,
Laura
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