THE SENTENCE Objective: Identify and revise fragments and run-ons

To be a good writer, express your thoughts with clear and complete sentences. Sometimes writers break a thought into too many parts. This causes incomplete sentences, or fragments. Other times, writers will string too many clauses together within a sentence. This can make writing difficult for the reader to understand.

A SENTENCE is a group of words that expresses a complete thought. A SENTENCE must have a subject and a verb. Sentences begin with a capital letter and must have end punctuation.

Common writing errors--- FRAGMENTS RUN-ONS

FRAGMENT NOTE: Looks can be deceiving! You must read the group of words to know whether or not it is a complete sentence. 1. In the middle of the corn field. 2. When I was at the mall looking for my Halloween costume. 3. Everyone in the parade!

RUN-ON The necessary components for a sentence may be there, but the construction is faulty. 1) FUSED sentences 2) COMMA SPLICE

FUSED sentences On Saturday Bill went to the baseball game unfortunately rain delayed the game for three hours.

COMMA SPLICE Mario and his friend walked to school, they arrived early. The homework was written on the board, students copied it into their planners.

REVISING the comma splice 1) rewrite as two sentences 2) rewrite as a compound sentence -keep the comma/add a conjunction -change the comma to a semi colon 3) rewrite and structure as a complex sentence

Mario and his friend walked to school. They arrived early. Mario and his friend walked to school, and they arrived early. Mario and his friend walked to school; they arrived early. Even though Mario and his friend walked to school, they arrived early.

BE CAREFUL when you use transition words: INCORRECT: He injured his knee, however, it does not require surgery. There are two independent sentences in the example above. Transition words (such as however, therefore, nevertheless, consequently, and then) cannot be used to connect the two sentences. CORRECT: He injured his knee; however, it does not require surgery. He injured his knee. However, it does not require surgery. *In the first correct example, notice the use of the semi colon before the transition word and the comma after it.