Fragments, Comma Splices,

and Run-on sentences

The major mistakes in
English grammar!

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 Fragments
 Fragments are “incomplete” sentences. They
have a subject and a verb but no complete
thought.
 Fragments look like sentences; sometimes they
are even punctuated like sentences. Don’t let
them fool you! Don’t let them give you a bad
grade!

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 Examples of fragments
 When the party started.
 As soon as they get here.
 Whenever the traffic gets heavy.
 To find a job in another city.
 Running laps every day.
 Over the hill and around the corner.
 Because Sandra is feeling ill.

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 How to fix fragments: make a complete
sentence / add a complete thought
 When the party started.
 As soon as they get here.
 Whenever the traffic gets heavy.
 To find a job in another city.
 Running laps every day.
 Over the hill and around the corner.
 Because Sandra is feeling ill.
 When the party started, everybody
was dancing.
 As soon as they get here, we will go
out to eat.
 Whenever the traffic gets heavy, I
get frustrated.
 To find a job in another city is
very difficult.
 Running laps every day is good for
your health.
 Her house is over the hill and
around the corner.
 Because Sandra is feeling ill, she
won’t be able to play in the game
tonight.
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 Comma splices
 A comma splice is a comma that joins two
independent clauses.
 Many students seem to think that a comma
splice is a misplaced comma. Other students
believe that a comma splice is a sentence with
too many commas. This is not always true!
 A comma has many jobs; however, one job
that the comma is NOT responsible for is to
combine two independent clauses.
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 Examples of comma splices
 Pat wanted to go to Mi See how the comma joins
Pueblo, Celeste wanted two independent clauses
to go to Pancho’s.
in these examples? These
 Matt is excited, he and are comma catastrophes.
his wife are having a
baby.
 Robin is the chair of the Don’t do this.
English department, she
is the person to ask if
you have any questions.

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 How to fix those comma splices
Since you have a comma joining two independent
clauses, you can do the following things:
 Add a coordinating conjunction after the comma.

 Add a subordinating conjunction in the beginning of

the first independent clause.

 Take away the comma and replace it with a period.

 Take away the comma and replace it with a

semicolon.
 Take away the comma and replace it with a

subordinating conjunction.
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 Fixing the errors
Bad sentences:
 Pat wanted to go to Mi Pueblo,
Celeste wanted to go to
Pancho’s.
 Matt is excited, he and his wife
are having a baby.
 Robin is the chair of the
English department, she is the
person to ask if you have any
questions
Good sentences:
 Pat wanted to go to Mi Pueblo,
but Celeste wanted to go to
Panchos.
 Matt is excited. He and his
wife are having a baby.
 Since Robin is the chair of the
English department, she is the
person to ask if you have any
questions.
Note: There are many ways to
correct a sentence.
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Fused sentences (otherwise known as
run-on sentences)
 If you join TWO independent clauses with NO
punctuation mark or connecting idea, you have
created a fused/run-on sentence.
 Fused/run-on sentences cause great confusion
to your readers.
 This error generally occurs when the writer
tries to cram too many ideas into one sentence.
 Organize your thoughts so that this error does
not happen!
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Examples of fused/run-on sentences
 Louise didn’t feel like Notice how these
coming to work she sentences have two ideas
called Robin pretending
crammed into one?
to be sick.
While having many ideas
 Geoff is a Hokie Matt is
a Tiger. in one sentence is great, it
 Pat and Celeste teach is NOT great to combine
English 101 they read sentences this way.
hundreds of papers a
semester.

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 How to fix fused/run-on sentences
 Add a period between the two independent clauses.
 Add a semi-colon between the two independent
clauses.
 Add a comma and a coordinating conjunction
between the two independent clauses.
 Add a subordinating conjunction between the two
independent clauses.
 Add a subordinating conjunction in the beginning of
the sentence, and add a comma between the two
independent clauses.

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 Fixing the errors
Bad Sentences Good Sentences
 Louise didn’t feel like  Since Louise didn’t feel like

coming to work she called coming to work, she called

Robin pretending to be sick. Robin pretending to be sick.
 Geoff is a Hokie Matt is a  Geoff is a Hokie, and Matt

Tiger. is a Tiger.
 Pat and Celeste teach  Pat and Celeste teach

English 101 they read English 101; they read

hundreds of papers a hundreds of papers a
semester. semester.

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 Dilemma?!
Do you NOT know how to tell if you made these
monstrous errors? This is what you can do:

PROOFREAD!
1) Do all of your sentences have subject/verbs/complete
thoughts?
2)Look at your commas. Are they all in the right place?
Do they, at ANY TIME, combine TWO sentences?
3) Do your sentences make sense? Are they jumbled
together?
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 The importance of finding these
mistakes
 Fragments, comma splices, and fused/run-on
sentences can COST you good grades.
 Many of these mistakes are careless, but is
carelessness and laziness WORTH a bad
grade?
 Each of these errors is basically worth a letter
grade. Watch yourself!

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