Transcript Run-ons, Splices & Fragments

Run-on Sentences, Comma Splices
and Sentence Fragments
What kind of sentence is this?
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Knowing that millions of people around the world would be watching in person and on
television and expecting great things from him – at least one more gold medal for America,
if not another world record – during this, his fourth and surely his last appearance in the
World Olympics, and realizing, that his legs could no longer carry him down the runway
with the same blazing speed and confidence in making a huge, eye-popping leap that they
were capable of a few years ago when he set world records in the 100-metre dash and in
the 400-metre relay and won a silver medal in the long jump, the renowned sprinter and
track-and-field personality, Carl Lewis, who had known pressure from fans and media
before but never, even as a professional runner, this kind of pressure, made only a few
appearances in races during the few months before the Summer Olympics in Atlanta,
Georgia, partly because he was afraid of raising expectations even higher and he did not
want to be distracted by interviews and adoring fans who would follow him into stores and
restaurants demanding autographs and photo-opportunities, but mostly because he wanted
to conserve his energies and concentrate, like a martial arts expert, on the job at hand:
winning his favourite competition, the long jump, and bringing home another Gold Medal for
the United States, the most fitting conclusion to his brilliant career in track and field.
Definition of a run-on sentence
A sentence in which two or more
independent clauses are joined with no
punctuation or conjunction at all.
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The sample on the last slide was NOT a runon sentence! It contained only ONE
independent clause.
A run-on sentence is not simply a very long
sentence.
How can I fix a run-on sentence?
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We have established that a run-on sentence
is a sentence that contains (at least) two
independent clauses.
We can fix a run-on sentence by:
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Writing the independent clauses as separate
sentences by separating them with a period
Inserting a semi-colon between the independent
clauses
Inserting a conjunction (such as ‘and’ or ‘but’)
between the independent clauses
Writing the independent clauses as
separate sentences
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Example of a run-on sentence:
The bus is late we won’t make it to the
concert on time.
Correction:
The bus is late. We won’t make it to the
concert on time.
Inserting a semi-colon between the
independent clauses
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Example of a run-on sentence:
The bus is late we won’t make it to the
concert on time.
Correction:
The bus is late; we won’t make it to the
concert on time.
Inserting a conjunction between the
independent clauses
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Example of a run-on sentence:
The bus is late we won’t make it to the
concert on time.
Correction:
The bus is late, so we won’t make it to the
concert on time.
Inserting a conjunction between the
independent clauses
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Generally you would place a comma followed by a
conjunction separating the independent clauses.
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It is NOT correct to simply insert a comma
between independent clauses. To do so
would create a….
Comma Splice
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A comma splice occurs when independent
clauses are connected by only a comma.
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If you use a comma to connect independent
clauses, the comma must be accompanied
by a conjunction such as ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘for’,
‘nor’, ‘yet’, ‘or’, ‘so’.
Comma Splice
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You would correct a comma splice as you
would a run-on sentence:
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Writing the independent clauses as separate
sentences
Inserting a semi-colon between the independent
clauses
Inserting a conjunction (such as ‘and’ or ‘but’)
between the independent clauses
Comma Splice
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Example of a comma splice:
It’s getting late, I’m tired.
Corrections:
It’s getting late. I’m tired.
It’s getting late; I’m tired.
It’s getting late, and I’m tired.
Sentence Fragment
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A fragment is an incomplete sentence.
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A sentence fragment does not contain an
independent clause.
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There needs to be proper subject-verb agreement
for a sentence to stand on its own.
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A ‘fragment’ of a sentence does not give us the
‘complete thought’.
Sentence Fragment
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Example:
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Sailing into the new world in an effort to
make a better life for his family.
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This is a verbal phrase that wants to modify
something. The real subject of the sentence
has yet to be inserted at the end of this
fragment.
Sentence Fragment
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Example:
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All the workers picketing at the plant last
month.
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An ‘–ing’ verb form without an auxiliary form
to accompany it can never be a verb.
Sentence Fragment
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Example:
Even though she had the best marks in the
class.
This is an example of a ‘dependent clause’.
This fragment needs to be followed by an
independent clause.
We know that this sentence cannot stand by itself
because of the subordinating conjunction ‘even
though’.
Sentence Fragment
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Just as a very long sentence is not necessarily a
‘run-on’ sentence, a very short sentence need not be
a ‘fragment’.
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For example:
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Go!
I ate.
It’s gone.
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Reference
A Good 200-Word Sentence. Retrieved
February 3, 2008, from
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/ru
n-on.htm