This document discusses run-on sentences, comma splices, and sentence fragments. It defines a complete sentence as having a subject and verb and expressing a complete thought. Sentence fragments are incomplete thoughts. Run-on sentences join two independent clauses without proper punctuation. Comma splices incorrectly use a comma instead of a semicolon or conjunction to join independent clauses. The document provides examples of these issues and their proper corrections using punctuation like periods, semicolons, and conjunctions.

1. Run-on Sentences, Comma Splices
& Sentence Fragments
By Arundathie Abeysinghe
Lecturer in English
International Aviation Academy
SriLankan Airlines
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2.  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.
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3.  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.
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4.  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.
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5.  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.
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6.  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.
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7.  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
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8.  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
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9.  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.
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10.  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.
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11.  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.
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12.  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.
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13.  Thank you!
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