46
HOW TO WRITE GREAT ESSAYS
CHAPTER 4 Mechanics
too quickly; they are phrases that are not whole thoughts. Run-on sentences don’t stop soon enough; they include two complete clauses or sentences.
SENTENCE FRAGMENTS A sentence fragment is a group of words that, although punctuated as a sentence, does not express a complete thought. Fragments are often missing a subject or verb, and may be dependent clauses. Fragments also can be phrases or parts of other sentences. Examples
At the zoo. Cried a lot. Can’t go to the store. When we finished the game.
RUN-ON SENTENCES A run-on sentence is made up of two or more independent clauses or complete sentences placed together into one sentence without proper punctuation. Examples
We were hungry and John was tired so we had to stop at the first rest area that we saw. Kim studied hard for the test that’s why he got an A. Patty took flying lessons every Saturday so she couldn’t go to the picnic and she couldn’t go to the graduation party either but she has already signed up for another group of flying lessons because she likes it so much. Here are a few ways to correct run-on sentences. 1. Break up the run-on sentence into two or more complete sentences. 2. Use a comma and a conjunction (and, or, nor, for, so, but, yet) to set apart an independent clause. 3. Break up the sentence by inserting a semi colon between two clauses. 4. Use a dash to separate parts of the sentence. 5. Add a dependent clause (use words such as because, after, since, and while).Δ