PDF Punctuation Rules-Run On Sentences Comma Splices and Sentence Fragments 18 Slides
PDF Punctuation Rules-Run On Sentences Comma Splices and Sentence Fragments 18 Slides
By Arundathie Abeysinghe
Lecturer in English
International Aviation Academy
SriLankan Airlines
Arundathie Abeysinghe 1
A group of words which meets the following criteria:
Has a verb (a word or phrase that explains an action)
e.g. eat, bathe, swim, study
Children eat apples.
She goes to school by bus.
Some sentences have more than one verb
e.g. She wrote a letter and sent it to her aunt.
She bought bread and made sandwiches.
Arundathie Abeysinghe 2
Has a subject (someone or something that performs
the action or is the main focus of the sentence)
e.g. Aditya and David both want to study
engineering.
Monica works hard to achieve her goals.
Arundathie Abeysinghe 3
Expresses a complete thought
A complete meaning (Independent clause)
e.g. She arrived 10 minutes later than usual.
James tried to explain his position to his employer.
Arundathie Abeysinghe 4
Sentence fragments are dependent clauses
They are not complete sentences
They are simply phrases
Incorrect
e.g. If she arrived 10 minutes later than usual.
However James tries to explain his position.
Arundathie Abeysinghe 5
Correct
If she arrived 10 minutes later than usual, she
wouldn’t have met with that accident.
Correct
However James tries to explain his position, his
employer didn’t understand him.
Arundathie Abeysinghe 6
A special type of run-on sentence in which a comma
is used in place of a semicolon to join two
independent clauses without a conjunction
A comma splice can be corrected by placing a
semicolon in place of the comma splice or by adding
a conjunction after the comma
Arundathie Abeysinghe 7
Incorrect
e.g. Monica lives in Sri Lanka, she has been there for
10 years.
Correct
Monica lives in Sri Lanka; she has been there for 10
years.
OR Monica lives in Sri Lanka, and she has been there
for 10 years
Arundathie Abeysinghe 8
Incorrect
Mary is the president, John is the treasurer.
Correct
Mary is the president; John is the treasurer.
OR Mary is the president, and John is the treasurer.
Arundathie Abeysinghe 9
An independent clause is a group of words that could
be a complete sentence by itself
A run-on sentence is one in which independent clauses
have been run together without punctuation (a
comma, semicolon or period)
Incorrect
Dave moved from Boston his job was transferred.
They got some food then they headed off to Sydney.
Arundathie Abeysinghe 10
By adding a period and a capital letter
Incorrect
Dave moved from Boston his job was transferred.
They got some food then they headed off to Sydney.
Correct
Dave moved from Boston. His job was transferred.
They got some food. Then they headed off to Sydney.
Arundathie Abeysinghe 11
By adding a comma and a conjunction
e.g. for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
Incorrect
Dave moved from Boston his job was transferred.
They got some food then they headed off to Sydney.
Correct
Dave’s job was transferred, and he moved from Boston.
They got some food, and they headed off to Sydney.
Arundathie Abeysinghe 12
Thank you!
Arundathie Abeysinghe 13