The workshop taught participants how to identify and correct common sentence errors like fragments, run-on sentences, and comma splices. It defined what constitutes a complete sentence and explained the differences between fragments, run-ons, and comma splices. The workshop provided strategies for fixing each error type, including using conjunctions, semicolons, dependent clauses, and separating sentences. Participants practiced applying these techniques to sample sentences and learned how to check their own writing for these errors.
Access to Secretarial and Administrative Support in Serviced Apartments.pptx
Grammar gremlins
1. BEFORE
The Tutoring & Learning Center AFTER
attending Presents attending the
the workshop workshop
GRAMMAR
GREMLINS
Understand basic sentence structure and eliminate
errors that bedevil your writing such as sentence
fragments, run-on sentences, and comma splices.
Take the steps to develop a polished writing style
that will help you get through your courses.
Facilitator: Julie Ewing
5. In order to answer those questions, we first need to answer
a more important question:
What is a sentence?
6. A sentence is not merely a group of words with a capital letter at the
beginning and a period or question mark at the end. A complete sentence has
three components:
• a subject (the actor in the sentence)
• a predicate (the verb or action), and
• a complete thought (it can stand
alone and make sense—it's
independent).
7. Example:
Subject Predicate
• Mary drove. • Mary drove from New York to Los
Angeles.
This sentence has a subject (Mary) and • Mary drove from New York to Los
a verb (drove), and it expresses a Angeles last Tuesday.
complete thought. We can
understand the idea completely • Mary drove her brand new, cherry-
with just those two words, so again, red convertible from New York to Los
it's independent—an independent Angeles last Tuesday.
clause. But independent clauses
(i.e., complete sentences) can be • Mary drove her brand new, cherry-
expanded to contain a lot more red convertible from New York to Los
information, like this: Angeles last Tuesday because she
had an audition for a part in the new
Sylvester Stallone movie.
8. As your sentences grow more complicated, it gets harder
to spot and stay focused on the basic elements of a
complete sentence, but if you look carefully at the
examples above, you'll see that the main thought is still
that Mary drove—one main subject and one main
verb. No matter how long or short the other sentence
parts are, none of them can stand alone and make
sense.
Being able to find the main subject, the main verb, and
the complete thought is the first trick to learn for
identifying fragments, comma splices, and run-ons.
9. What is a sentence fragment?
A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence.
It lacks a subject, a verb, or both.
• Flying from New York to Los Angeles. (Who or what was flying?)
• Last Tuesday, the hottest day of the year. (What happened
Tuesday?)
• In her brand new, cherry-red convertible. (Who and what did she
do?
• A tired, filthy, rangy mutt. (What about the mutt?)
10. Fixing Sentence Fragments
Determine what is missing (noun, verb, both)
and add it:
Flight 892 was flying from New York to Los
Angeles.
The pilot who was flying from New York to Los
Angeles has 25 years of flight experience.
Flying from New York to Los Angeles can be
exhausting.
11. The fragments that most students have trouble with,
however, are dependent clauses—they have a subject
and a verb, so they look like complete sentences, but
they don't express a complete thought. They're called
"dependent" because they can't stand on their own :
• Because she had an audition for a part in the new
Sylvester Stallone movie.
• As she accelerated faster and faster down the empty
highway.
12. Combining Dependent and
Independent Clauses
The original fragmented Combine the two clauses:
sentence:
Mary drove her brand new, Mary drove her brand new,
cherry-red convertible from cherry-red convertible from
New York to Los Angeles. New York to Los Angeles
Because she had an because she had an
audition for a part in the audition for a part in the
new Sylvester Stallone new Sylvester Stallone
movie. movie.
13. Recognizing Sentence Fragments
If you have trouble seeing the sentence
fragments in your writing, try this:
• Read your paper aloud, one sentence at a
time.
• Preface each sentence with the words “I think
that.”
• If it doesn’t make sense, it’s a fragment and
needs revision.
14. Which one works?
• (I think that) Mary drove her brand new,
cherry-red convertible from New York to Los
Angeles.
• (I think that) because she had an audition for a
part in the new Sylvester Stallone movie.
15. Which of the following sentences are
fragments?
Surfing the Internet now competes with
watching television as our national pastime.
People, it seems, have a natural ability to sit
for hour upon hour. Passively watching images
flit before their eyes. Whether these appear
on a TV screen or a computer screen. Doesn’t
seem to make much difference. What counts
are the images themselves. Not where they
come from.
16. The corrected version:
Surfing the Internet now competes with
watching television as our national pastime.
People, it seems, have a natural ability to sit
for hour upon hour, passively watching images
flit before their eyes. Whether these appear
on a TV screen or a computer screen doesn’t
seem to make much difference. What counts
are the images themselves, not where they
come from.
17. The “I think that” method
Works about 95% of the time.
However, it doesn’t work for:
• Questions (I think that how are you?)
• Commands (I think that sit down!)
• Exclamations (I think that yippee!)
18. What is a comma splice?
What is a run-on sentence?
Comma Splice Run-on
A comma splice is a sentence A run-on is a sentence error in
error in which the writer which the writer incorrectly
incorrectly connects two connects (or fuses) two
complete sentences with a complete sentences with no
comma: punctuation:
• John didn’t bother to study • John didn’t bother to study
for the exam, he was for the exam he was
confident he knew the confident he knew the
material. material.
19. The “smart” errors
Students often create comma splices and run-
ons because they instinctively realize that
there is a relationship between the two ideas.
Using a period doesn’t seem right:
John didn’t bother to study for the exam. He
was confident he knew the material.
20. How to fix comma splices and run-ons
You have many options:
• Use a comma and a coordinating conjunction:
(FANBOYS) (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
John didn’t bother to study for the exam, for he
was confident he knew the material.
21. • Use a semicolon:
John didn’t bother to study for the exam; he was
confident he knew the material.
• Use a subordinating conjunction to make one
of the clauses dependent:
(because, although, as, while, when, after, since, unless, if, etc.)
John didn’t bother to study for the exam
because he was confident he knew the
material.
22. • Use a period to create two sentences:
John didn’t bother to study for the exam. He
was confident he knew the material.
• Try to turn the two clauses into one clause:
John’s confidence in the material kept him from
studying for the exam.
23. Recognizing comma splices and run-ons
Fixing comma splices and run-ons is pretty easy
once you see them—but how do you find out
if a sentence is a run-on if you aren't sure? You
can test your sentences with two methods:
• Turn them into yes/no questions.
• Turn them into tag questions (sentences that
end with a questioning phrase).
24. Look at the following sentence:
John didn’t bother to study for the exam.
• If you turn it into a question that someone
could answer with a yes or no, it looks like
this:
Did John bother to study for the exam?
• If you turn it into a tag question, it looks like
this:
John didn’t bother to study for the exam, did he?
25. Now try it with the original run-on sentence:
John didn’t bother to study for the exam he was confident he knew the
material.
The yes/no question can only be made with each separate thought, not the
sentence as a whole:
Did John bother to study for the exam? Was he confident he knew the
material?
The tag question can also only be made with each separate thought, rather
than the whole:
John didn’t bother to study for the exam, did he? He was confident he knew
the material, wasn’t he?
26. Now that you know how to recognize and fix
sentence fragments, comma splices, and run-
ons, you can apply these tests and corrections
to your own writing and never be plagued by
these errors again!
27. Works Cited
“Fragments and Run-ons.” The Writing Center. Ed.
Kimberly Abels. 8 August 2008. University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. 16 April 2009.
<http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/fragme
nts.html>.
Hacker, Diana. Rules for Writers. 5th ed. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004.
“Sentence Fragments.” Guide to Grammar and Writing.
2004. Capital Community College Foundation. 16 April
2009.
<http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/fragm
ents.htm>.
