Lesson 14
            Fragments, Splices, and Run-ons
           
            In Units 2 and 3, you learned how to create several different kinds of sentences. In doing so, you used punctuation and conjunctions to help your reader know when a new idea begins, when it ends, and how your ideas are connected. In this lesson, you will study three types of sentence mistakes often made by writers:

• Fragment- and incomplete or broken “sentence” that does not express a complete thought

Machinery a fraction of the width of a human hair.

• Splice- two or more complete thoughts “spliced” together with a comma but without conjunctions to show how the ideas are connected

Nanotechnology is the development of machinery a fraction of the width of a human hair, in the future it might be used to cure paralysis and detect cancer in its early stages.

•  Run-on- two or more complete thoughts that are run together without punctuation or conjunctions to show where one idea and another begins

The technology is remarkable it requires scientists to create structures too small for human hands or even robots to manipulate.

Fortunately, correcting these common sentence problems is easier than working with nanotechnology. This lesson will show you how.

 

TIP 1.    Avoid sentence fragments by including a subject and a predicate in every sentence you write.

A complete sentence has both a subject and a predicate and expresses a complete thought. If a group of words is punctuated like a sentence but is missing either a subject or a predicate, it is called a sentence fragment. A fragment does not express a complete thought. Take a look at the following example:

Mountaineering is the sport of climbing mountains. Primarily for enjoyment.

The first sentence contains a subject (mountaineering) and a predicate (is the sport of climbing mountains) and expresses a complete thought. However, the second “sentence” is missing something. If we remove it from the context, it doesn’t make any sense:

Primarily for enjoyment.

This phrase is a fragment; it doesn’t contain a subject or predicate. It doesn’t tell what is “primarily for enjoyment.”  The error can be corrected by attaching the phrase to the previous sentence:
Mountaineering is the sport of climbing mountains primarily for enjoyment.
Unit 4- Writing Conventions

            Sometimes a fragment will be in the form of a clause that contains a noun (or pronoun) and a verb but that still doesn’t express a complete thought. For example:
The sport had its beginnings in Europe in 1760. When a young scientist from Geneva offered a reward to anyone who would climb Mont Blanc.

If we remove the first sentence, it becomes clear there is something missing from the second sentence:
When a young scientist from Geneva offered a reward to anyone who would climb Mont Blanc.

The word when is a subordinating conjunction and suggests that something more is needed to make this clause a complete thought. To correct the fragment, connect it to the sentence to which it refers.

The sport had its beginnings in Europe in 1760, when a young scientist from Geneva offered a reward to anyone who would climb Mont Blanc.

To make sure a sentence is complete, check to see whether it-

• has a subject, AND
• has a predicate, AND
• Expresses a complete thought.

AIMS Practice activity 1
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DIRECTIONS: Examine each of the following items to determine whether it contains a sentence fragment. If the item contains a fragment, rewrite it to correct the error.
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• Lying along the border between France and Italy, Mont Blanc rises to 15,771 feet making it the highest peak in the Alps.

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• Michel Paccard and Jacques Balmat collected the reward for climbing Mont Blanc in 1786 more than a quarter century after it was offered.

 

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• Interest in the sport grew as other peaks in the Alps were attempted Most notably the Matterhorn (14,690 ft.) on the border between Switzerland and Italy, which was summated in 1865.

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4. One of the major European peaks had been attained, mountaineers turned their attention to the highest peaks on other continents.  Including the Andes of South America, the Rockies of North America, the peaks of Africa, and the Himalayas.

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5. The highest peak in North America, Alaska's Mount McKinley (20,320 ft.), also known as Denali McKinley was first climbed in 1913 by Hudson Stuck and his party.

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6. Because climbing in the Himalayas is made extremely dangerous by high altitudes, extreme cold, and sever weather.  Few climbers in the early 20th century attempt the worlds highest peaks.

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7.  In 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tezing Norgay reached the summit of Mont Everest.  Which, at 29,035, is the word's tallest mountain.

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8. The first woman to reach the summit of Everest was Junko Tabei of Japan.  In 1975, she climbed Everest on the South Col route, an achievement previously described as almost impossible.

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9. Since most of the world's highest peaks have been climbing.  Today's mountaineers focus on finding new routes and method.

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10. Mountaineering has always involved rock climbing and ice climbing.  Two pursuits which have evolved into independent sports.

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Correct comma splices by adding a conjunction or replacing the comma with a semicolon.

A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses are joined by a comma without a coordinating conjunction.
The Lumbee Tribe is the largest tribe of Native Americans east of the Mississippi River, it is the ninth largest tribe in the nation.

This is essentially two complete sentences that have been "spliced" together with a comma.  This error can be corrected in different ways.

• Add a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, yet).

      The Lumbee Tribe is the largest tribe of Native Americans east of the Mississippi River, and it is the ninth largest tribe in the nation.

• Replace the comma with a semicolon.

            The Lumbee Tribe is the largest tribe of Native Americans east of the Mississippi River;            it is the ninth largest tribe in the nation.

• Use a period to create two sentences.

            The Lumbee Tribe is the largest tribe of Native Americans east of the Mississippi River. It is the ninth largest tribe in the nation.

• Blend two clauses by making one the main clause and the other a dependent clause or phrase.

            The Lumbee Tribe, which is the largest tribe of Native Americans east of the Mississippi
            River, it is the ninth largest tribe in the nation.

            The largest Native American tribe east of the Mississippi River, the Lumbee Tribe is the
            ninth largest tribe in the nation.

In some cases, a colon can be used to connect two independent clauses.  A colon can be used only when the second clause serves to clarify, explain, or describe the first.
If you've never heard of the Lumbee, the reason can't be the tribe's size: with over 40,000
            members, the Lumbee is the ninth largest tribe in the nation.
Two independent clauses can exist in the same sentence if-

• They are joined by a comma plus a conjunction, OR
• They are joined by a semicolon, OR

• They are joined by a colon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Practice Activity 2
Directions: Examine each of the following items to determine wheather it contains a comma splice.  If the item contains a splice, rewrite the sentence.

1. The Lumbee Tribe takes its name from North Carolina's Lumber River, the river was once called the Lumbee.

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2. In southeastern North Carolina, there are approximately 48,000 Lumbee, the largest tribe of Native Americans who do not live on a reservation.

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3. In the nineteenth century, the Lumbee were frequently called the Croation, in the sixteenth century, the natives of Hatteras Island on North Carolina's Outer Banks were known as the Croation.

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4. The only remaining sign of the famous Lost Colony of Roanoke Island, North Carolina, was the word "Croation," the colony's governor, John White, found it carved in a tree when he returned from England in 1590.

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5. White knew that the Croatoan lived on Hatteras Island, he attempted to reach the island in hopes of finding the colonists, but poor weather forced him to abandon the quest.

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6. Modern historians disagree about what happened to the colonists, some believe they traveled north to Chesapeake Bay, where they were eventually killed by natives, and others believe they may simply have mingled with several natives peoples.

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7. Still other historians believe the colonists were taken in by the Croatoan, Lumbee tradition holds that they are descendants of the lost colonists and the Croatoan.

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8. There was a history of friendly relations between English settlers and the Croatoan, two Croatoans, named Manteo and Wanchese, visited England in 1584 with members of an earlier expidition to North Carolina.

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9. Later settlers of North Carolina reported meeting natives who spoke English and practiced Christianity, in 1891, a historian reported that the Lumbee spoke English much as it would have been spoken in the 1590s.

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10.  Many Lumbee today have the same last names as the families of the Roanoke colony, they are puzzled, in fact, by the name "Lost Colony," for they know exactly who and where they are.

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Correct run-on sentences by adding semicolons or by adding a comma and a conjunction.

A run-on sentence is a compound sentence without any punctuation at all.
My little brother ate a ton of cotton candy at the circus he had a stomachache later that night.
The simple way to correct a run-on sentence is to punctuate the clauses so that they become two more separate sentences.
My little brother ate a ton of cotton candy at the circus.  He had a stomachache later that          night.
Sometimes the thoughts expressed by the clause of a run-on sentence are closely related.  (That's probably why the writer forgot to separate them properly.) In such cases, you might want to keep the sentence together but separate the clauses with a coordinating conjunction-
My little brother ate a ton of cotton candy at the circus, and he had a stomachache later            that night.
-or use a subordinating conjunction to make one clause subordinate to the other.
Because my little brother ate a ton of cotton candy at the circus, he had a stomachache later that night.

 

Directions: Examine each of the following items to determine whether it contains a run-on sentence.  If the item contains a run-on sentence, rewrite it to correct the error.

1. Many well-known writers--Thoreau or Melvin, for example--led lives of travel and adventure Emily Dickinson knew little more than the four walls of her own house.

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2. Many critics consider Dickinson one of the greatest American poets for most of her life, she never left home.

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3. Often alone in her room Dickinson wrote more than 1,700 poems of these, fewer than ten were published in her lifetime.

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4. Dickinson wanted her poetry to be as private as the rest of her life she shared poems with only a handful of trusted friends.

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5. She took her writing seriously enough to work through several drafts of each poem as she finished a group, Dickinson carefully stitched the pages into little booklets.

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6. Even after her poetry became widely known, it took a long time before readers fully understood her original and challenged style.

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7. She lived a private and, some might say, lonely life Dickinson didn't have trouble finding things to say in her poetry.

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Directions: Go back to the fragment, comma-splice, and run-on examples presented at the beginning of this lesson.  On the lines below, rewrite each sentence, correcting the error.

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Lesson 15
Verbs

Verbs are where the action is.  They show what a noun is or does.  Without verbs, your sentences would be quite boring.  Actually, they wouldn't really be sentences at all.  For example, look at the following lines:
Captain Freda, in her finest ball gown.
            The bongo players, all in their places, before an audience of hundreds.
            Far from home, Lucius, about his grandmother's alligator pie.

Without verbs, nouns just sit around waiting for something to happen.
This lesson will review a few important facts about how verbs do their jobs.  You'll also learn ways to avoid some of the problems that verbs can cause in your writing.

Verb Tense
The lovely, golden haired princess sat high in her tower all alone, would have peered out          the window at the gardens below, and will be hoping that someday her prince came.    Meanwhile, a very green and very anxious frog is hopping back and forth across the lawn         far below. "Yo, lady!" he says. "If you will just look down here, your troubles would have     been over."

The verbs in this paragraph can't seem to decide whether they describe actions happening in the past, present, or future.  It isn't very likely that you would write such a confusing story, but verb tense can indeed be problematic for both you and your readers.  Verbs tenses help tell when an action is happening.  They can also help tell whether the action is continuing and when it is completed.

In previous lessons, we talked [past tense] about several ways to improve your writing.  Now, we begin [present tense] a review of verb tense.  Next, you will learn [future tense] ways of keeping time clear in your writing.

Become familiar with the different tenses and what they do.
The three basic tenses are past, present, and future:
            Ralph chanted.             Ralph chants.              Ralph will chant.
If you want to show an action that is completed in the time period you are writing about, use a perfect form of the verb:
            Ralph had chanted.      Ralph has chanted.      Ralph will have chanted.
If you want to show an action that is in process during the time period you are writing about, use a progressive form of the verb:
            Ralph was chanting.     Ralph is chanting.        Ralph will be chanting.