Editing for Sound Sentences! Write a descriptive sentence about one of the animals in these memes. After students write a sentence and share it out, ask them how they knew what they wrote was a sentence.

Now, color-code your sentence. Nouns Adjectives Verbs Adverbs The dog viciously ambushed the package.

Chances are you wrote in a complete sentence. A complete sentence contains: At least one subject and one verb It must form a complete thought

A subject tells…. Who or what the sentence is all about The subject always contains a noun The dog resisted bath time in the most creative ways. Subject of the sentence

The main verb or verb phrase of the sentence… Tells what the subject is doing The dog resisted bath time in the most creative ways. Subject of the sentence verb

But, we don’t always write in complete sentences. Sometime we write in fragments A sentence fragment: Is MISSING a subject, verb, or does not convey a complete thought

Other times, we write in run-ons. Our sentences go on and on and on! A run-on sentence: Multiple sentences are put together WITHOUT the proper punctuation or connectors.

To fix fragments you can… A lot of us write with sentence fragments and run-ons during drafting – our brains are going faster than our pencils  To fix fragments you can… Combing fragments or a fragment with a complete sentence Adding commas between fragment if they form a complete idea Adding joining words: and, but, or, because Adding transition words: but then, and then, so next Add the information necessary to make it a complete thought

To fix run-on you can… Make separate sentences by separating each complete sentence within your run-on. We arrived early. No one was at the Halloween party yet. WARNING – using this strategy too much gives you many small and choppy sentences in your writing. Combine sentences with purposeful joining words (and, but, while, after, since, because, though, as) We arrived early, and no one was at the party yet. Combine the complete sentences within the run-on with a semi-colon. We arrived early; no one was at the Halloween party yet.