Run-ons, Fragments

	Avoiding Run-ons and Fragments
	Welcome to Dr. Anasuya Pal's pages at the San Bernardino Valley College. Here you will learn about my Engl-015 classes, research interests, readings and travels and links to some other sites of ESL interest.

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	The exercises on this page will help you learn how to avoid two common errors in writing the sentences: the fragments and the Run-ons.
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Sentences in English are traditionally described as simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex.

The Four Types of Sentences

Students need to know and practice all these four sentence types.

A simple sentence has one independent clause that contains one subject and at least one verb.

	A 'run-on' error occurs in a compound or compound-complex sentence that is not properly connected.
	A fragment is a word-group that is not a sentence because it does not contain at least one independent clause. Clearly, in order to understand what the 'Run-on' and 'fragment' errors are, we first need to know what factors make a sentence, whether simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex, really a sentence.

Note that a clause is a group of related words containing a subject and a verb. It differs from a phrase in that a phrase does not include a subject and verb relationship.

	A compound sentence has two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).
	A complex sentence has one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.
	A complex-compound sentence has at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

The Simple Sentence:

A simple sentence has a single subject-verb combination. Thus, it has only one idea, or thought.

Examples:

Birds fly.

The meeting started early.

Water has been contaminated by the sewage system.

A simple sentence may have more than one subject.

Examples:

Mary and Sam went home.

Sand and dust covered my clothes.

A simple sentence may have more than one verb.

Examples:

The boys played and won the game.
The machine belched smoke and stopped.

Clearly, a simple sentence may have several subjects and verbs, as in the following sentence, for example:

Joe, Sally, and Peter cleaned the carpet, washed the windows, and changed the curtains.

Try this quiz:

Which of the following sentences has a single subject and a single verb?

The boys and girls went to a movie.	True	False
Tom has left the class.	True	False
The alarm sounded.	True	False
Teachers, students and parents met and voted for the president.	True	False

Great, you have now covered the first steps on the way to avoiding the run-ons and fragments! Simple sentences are easy to write and easy to read. But they convey only one idea at a time. Let us therefore bring in some variety into your writing.

The Compound Sentence:

A compound sentence combines two simple sentences.

Examples:

Birds fly, but fish swim.
The meeting started early, so we were late.
Water has been contaminated, for the sewage system broke down.

Clearly, such a sentence carries more than one idea. Note that each of these examples has two subjects, two verbs and two ideas.

Two simple sentences should be combined correctly in order to write a compound sentence.

Example: Mary wanted to go shopping, but Ron wanted to watch the game.

A compound sentence is often prone to the run-on error.

What is a 'Run-on'?

Click here to view the PowerPoint presentation of Langan's Run-Ons Chapter. Click here if you need to download the Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer.

In Run-on sentences, the ideas run together, without any correct punctuation marks connecting them.

Example of a 'Run-on' sentence: Mary wanted to go shopping Ron wanted to watch the game.

The correct form of this sentence is:

Mary wanted to go shopping, but Ron wanted to watch the game.

Try this quiz on identifying run-ons:

Which of these sentences have 'Run-on' errors?

Tom and Gloria went to the movie, but the tickets were sold out.

Correct

Run-on

The alarm sounded Gloria woke up.

Correct

Run-on

The game stopped, for the rain came.

Correct

Run-on

The meeting was over; therefore, we went home.

Correct

Run-on

Run-ons reveal fused sentences. The following methods are commonly used to correct them.

The common methods to correct a run-on:

Method 1: Period and a Capital Letter

Break the two complete thoughts into two separate sentences by putting a period at the end of the first thought, to form a complete sentence, and then a capital letter to begin the second thought as a separate sentence.

Take this word-group with a run-on, for instance:

Last summer no one swam in the lake a little boy had dropped his pet piranhas into the water.

The period-and-capital-letter method corrects it to the following:

Last summer no one swam in the lake. A little boy had dropped his pet piranhas into the water.

Note the period after "... in the lake" and the capital letter "A" to begin the second sentence.

Method 2: Comma and a Joining Word

Use a comma and a joining word to connect the two complete thoughts.

Common joining words:

Want to try a quiz? Click here.

1. First try these seven:

, for , and , nor , but , or , yet ,so

2. Then try these nine coordinating conjunctions.

;consequently,

; furthermore,

; however,

; indeed,

; in fact,

; moreover,

; nevertheless,

; then,

; therefore,

Method 3: Semicolon

Use a semicolon to mark the break between two thoughts.

Example:   The restaurant was beautiful the food was overpriced.

This sentence is a run-on, because the two ideas, 'restaurant was beautiful', and 'food was beautiful', are two separate thoughts. We need to use a semicolon to mark the break between these two thoughts. Therefore, the corrected form of this sentence will be

The restaurant was beautiful; the food was overpriced.

The above example uses semicolon alone. However, we can also use a semicolon with a transitional word and a comma. In this case, we use the second set of coordinating conjunctions listed in the table above.
Example:     I did not understand her point therefore I asked her to repeat it.
The correct sentence would be as follows:
I did not understand her point; therefore, I asked her to repeat it.

Method 4: Subordination

This method of joining related thoughts uses subordination, by showing that one thought in a sentence is not as important as the other thought.

Example:    Although my grades are very good this year. My social life rates only a C.

The first word-group is clearly a fragment, and not a complete sentence. Following is one way to construct a single sentence by combining the two:

Although my grades are very good this year, my social life rates only a C.

The Complex Sentence:

The complex sentence has a simple sentence and a statement that begins with a dependent word.

Example: I failed the final exam because I did not answer all the questions.

A complex sentence can also start with a dependent word statement followed by a simple sentence.

Example: Because I did not answer all the questions, I failed the final exam.

In this second example here, 'because' is called a dependent word. The first part of this sentence is not complete in its meaning and is called a fragment. For instance, if you were to present it as a sentence,

Because I did not answer all the questions

it would be an incomplete thought, and will be called a fragment, because you need the second part (", I failed the final exam") to complete the thought.

What is a fragment?

A complete sentence must have a subject and a verb and must express a complete thought. Therefore, a fragment is a word group that

	lacks a subject or a verb, and
	fails to express a complete thought.

Clearly, in order to avoid the 'fragment' errors in your writing, you need to learn to write the complex sentences correctly.

Examples of dependent words:

after
although, though

because
before

even though

how

since

that

unless

until

what, whatever

when, whenever

where, wherever

whether

which, whichever

while

who, whoever

whose

The Compound-Complex Sentence:

	The compound-complex sentence has both, compound as well as complex, sentences. Example: I finished my household chores, so I decided to do some shopping although I did not have any money. Note that the first part here ("I finished ... some shopping") is a compound sentence.
	In constructing compound-complex sentences, therefore, we need to guard against both the errors described above: run-ons as well as fragments.

This site was last updated on 04/13/08