Fragments, Comma Splices, and Fused Sentences

The major mistakes in English grammar!

TCTC Writing Center Prepared by Jennifer Higgins-Spiers July 2007

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. Dont let them fool you! Dont let them give you a bad grade!

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: 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 wont be able to play in the game tonight.

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 Pueblo, Celeste wanted to go to Panchos. 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.

See how the comma joins two independent clauses in these examples? These are comma catastrophes.

Dont do this.

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 Panchos. 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.

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 didnt feel like coming to work she called Robin pretending to be sick. Geoff is a Hokie Matt is a Tiger. Pat and Celeste teach English 101 they read hundreds of papers a semester.

Notice how these sentences have two ideas crammed into one? While having many ideas in one sentence is great, it is NOT great to combine sentences this way.

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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 Louise didnt feel like coming to work she called Robin pretending to be sick. Geoff is a Hokie Matt is a Tiger. Pat and Celeste teach English 101 they read hundreds of papers a semester. Good Sentences Because Louise didnt feel like coming to work, she called Robin pretending to be sick. Geoff is a Hokie, and Matt is a Tiger. Pat and Celeste teach English 101; they read hundreds of papers a 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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