fragsrunons

The (Successful) Sentence Fragments and Sentence Run-Ons With an Extra Discussion about Comma Splices Page:

Since sentence fragments and run on sentences both deal with whether or not you should punctuate a bunch of words as a sentence, they are both dealt with on this page.

There is a Sentence Fragments discussion, a Comma Splice discussion, and a discussion about Run-on sentences. Read it all by scrolling down (recommended), or jump to the one type that interests you today.

Sentence Fragments| Sentence Comma Splices | Run On Sentences

Sentence Fragments:

I like to use Sentence Fragments occasionally.

They can add a nice emphasis when used sparingly, and most importantly, knowingly.

Like this.

Or this.

Here's what fragments are about: Incomplete Thoughts!

The dreaded Incomplete Thought may insinuate itself into your otherwise pristine opus.

Usually the trouble comes from using a dependent clause where you should have written an independent clause.

(If you're unclear about "clauses" you might want to check out the clause discussion.)

Examples of incomplete thoughts:

When Harold picked up the giant toad.

After dinner Suellen.

Which opened the way to mass destruction and general unpleasantness of a gigantic and sickening proportion.

Now watch as we cleverly cause them to become independent clauses (complete sentences):

Harold picked up the giant toad.

After dinner Suellen did an amazing thing.

Frank opened his locker which opened the way to mass destruction and general unpleasantness of a gigantic and sickening proportion.

Make up a few fragments and then correct them.

Another way of thinking about Sentence Fragments is to notice that complete sentences have both a subject and a predicate; sentence fragments tend to be missing either a subject or predicate.

Look over our examples and corrections above.

Did we add a subject or a predicate to the corrections?

Is this great or what!!??

Sentence Comma Splices:

Comma Spices are one of the yuckiest punctuation errors known to personkind. Observe:

Here is a nice, cute sentence:

Arthur often went fishing when he was a little boy.

Here's another sweet sentence:

As dictator of an island nation Arthur no longer has time to fish.

But check this out:

Arthur often went fishing when he was a little boy, as dictator of an island nation Arthur no longer has time to fish.

Do you see it?!

Do you see the nasty way that dinky, little comma tries to hold together those two sentences?

What arrogance!

That is a "COMMA SPLICE."

Don't ever do that.

Or if you do, correct before turning in.

Take out something you've written recently.

Find two adjacent sentences that seem perfectly happy on their own.

Now scratch out the period at the end of the first sentence and replace it with a comma.

Gross!

If you can handle the grossness of it all, do it again with another pair of sentences.

Whew!

Now, real quick, before your paper dissolves into a disgusting puddle of grease, correct the two comma splices!

One way to correct is to replace the comma with a semicolon:

Arthur often went fishing when he was a little boy; as dictator of an island nation Arthur no longer has time to fish.

You can do this when the two sentences are strongly related.

The safest, most common correction, however, is to put in an appropriate end mark such as a period, question mark or exclamation point.

Don't forget to capitalize the first word in the next sentence.

Arthur often went fishing when he was a little boy. As dictator of an island nation Arthur no longer has time to fish.

(Notice how you can affect the meaning of those two sentences by using a question mark instead of a period to replace the comma. Cool or what?)

Run-on Sentences:

Sometimes sentences can ramble on and on with no seeming sense that it is time to stop and begin a new thought that will carry the reader on to the next idea that the author had in mind while composing the entire piece of writing in which the sentence of which we speak appears in all of its shining glory.

That sentence above is not what we mean by "run-on" sentences.

The sentence above may be a tangled mess, but it is still a single sentence.

A "run on sentence" means one or more complete sentences that have no punctuation to tell us one sentence stopped and another began.

The Comma Splice described above is a kind of run on sentence that uses the weakling comma to connect the sentences.

Another way to commit this error is to just leave out any punctuation, no period, no semicolon, no question mark, no exclamation point.

Observe:

Melanie smiled and smiled at the handsome and charming date she had she never noticed that there was piece of green and runny sushi stuck in her front teeth.

See how you get hung up around the words ". . .she had she never. . ." ?

That's because the sentence about her smiling runs on to the sentence about her never noticing.

Some authors purposely use run-ons.

The last sixty or so pages of James Joyce's Ulysses has no punctuation at all.

In that chapter Joyce is presenting to the reader the flowing thoughts of one of the characters.

It's one long run on sentence that helps the reader get the feel of thinking rather than speaking or writing.

It's a powerful technique.

Read that chapter sometime, and you'll see what I mean.

In fact, why don't you try it here.

Just freewrite whatever is on your mind and purposely leave out any punctuation.

Let your thoughts flow onto the paper in the random, spontaneous way they come to you.

Fill up as much space as you can.

Great fun! This style of writing is often called "Stream of Conscious."

It's a relatively modern technique that has been effectively used by many fine writers, including, now, YOU!

But it is not "Standard English."

In Standard English about the only way you can get away with run-ons would be when you are quoting some author who is the subject of your term paper and who uses run-ons.

If you really like what you wrote in the text area, and don't want to mess with it, ask a classmate or lover or classmate who is your lover to let you mess with his/her freewrite.

Translate the stream of consciousness written in his/her text area into Standard English.

Just put in the punctuation marks necessary to indicate where one sentence ends and another begins.

If you don't mind you may also do this with yours.

To return to Step Two, please click : HERE