1. Run-ons and fragments are terrible, they make sentences confusing
LA10

2. Let’s Review
Phrase – a group of words that is MISSING a subject, a verb, or both a subject and a verb
EX: swiftly walked down the hall
Clause – a group of words containing a subject AND verb. There are TWO types of clauses

3. Let’s Review Clauses
Independent Clause – A COMPLETE thought; contains a subject AND a verb
EX: the waves crashed
Dependent Clause – An INCOMPLETE thought; contains a subject AND a verb
EX: when the waves crashed

4. What’s wrong with these sentences?
1 – School was officially over, hundreds of kids burst through the door. 2 – As the ball skimmed over the net. 3 – It was too late tears were running down my cheeks.

5. Why should I care?
Fragments and Run-on sentences make your writing confusing for the reader.
Fragments and Run-ons are seen as careless mistakes that can be easily fixed.

6. Fragments
A sentence is a fragment if it does not have ALL three of the following (Independent Clause):
A subject (noun) – who or what?
Verb – action or being
A complete thought – you DO NOT expect more words
EX: As the ball skimmed over the net

7. Run-ons
A run-on is two or more complete thoughts/sentences improperly joined.
There are TWO types of run-ons

8. Fused Sentences
Two or more complete thoughts/sentences are joined with NO PUNCTUATION
EX: It was too late tears were running down my cheeks.

9. Comma Splices
Two or more complete sentences joined by only by a comma.
Commas are not strong enough to hold 2 sentences together
EX: School was officially over, hundreds of kids burst through the door.

10. How can I fix run-ons? End Punctuation: Create 2 separate sentences
EX: School was officially over, hundreds of kids burst through the door.
FIX: School was officially over. Hundreds of kids burst through the door.

11. Comma before FANBOYS – use a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS – for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) to connect two complete ideas at a time
EX: School was officially over, hundreds of kids burst through the door.
FIX: School was officially over, and hundreds of kids burst through the door

12. Semicolon – join two sentences at a time that have related ideas
EX: School was officially over, hundreds of kids burst through the door
FIX: School was officially over; hundreds of kids burst through the door

13. Semicolon with Conjunctive Adverb – join two sentences with a conjunctive adverb. Put a semicolon BEFORE the adverb and a comma AFTER the adverb
EX: School was officially over, hundreds of kids burst through the door
FIX: School was officially over; consequently, hundreds of kids burst through the door.

14. Dependent Clause – change one of the independent clauses to a dependent clause; use an independent clause BEFORE a dependent clause
EX: School was officially over, hundreds of kids burst through the door
FIX #1: School was officially over when hundreds of kids burst through the door

15. OR use an independent clause AFTER a dependent clause (this needs a comma)
EX: School was officially over, hundreds of kids burst through the door
FIX #2: Because school was officially over, hundreds of kids burst through the door.

16. Let’s Practice
As she walked out of the doctor’s office. The floor seemed to leap up at her.
One of my earrings fell off, it rolled under the desk.
With the hot sun beating down on me
It rained heavily for three days a great deal of mud washed into the river.