Run-on sentences and sentence fragments are common errors that occur when clauses are improperly joined or incomplete. A run-on sentence incorrectly connects two independent clauses without proper punctuation or conjunction. Sentence fragments lack a subject and verb and cannot stand alone. The document provides examples of run-on sentences and fragments, explains how they occur, and offers guidance on how to identify and correct them. Quizzes are included to help the reader practice identifying and fixing run-on sentences.

1. Run-on Sentences
Learning how to punctuate

2. After the sixth inning, I went home, my family
stayed.
I believe that the teacher has been grading me
unfairly, all she does is look for minor mistakes.
Are these sentences
well written?

3. What is it?
A RUN-ON
SENTENCE (or "fused
sentence") has at least two
parts, either one of which
can stand by itself (in other
words, two independent
clauses), but the two parts
have been joined together
instead of being properly
connected.

4. The length of a sentence does not define a run-on.
A run-on is a structural flaw that can plague even a
very short sentence:
The sun is high, put on some sunscreen.
Length?

5. How do you recognize
it?
Two independent clauses connected by only a comma
= a run-on sentence called a comma-splice.
When you use a comma to connect two independent
clauses, it must be accompanied by a little
conjunction (and, but, for, nor, yet, or, so).
The sun is high, so put on some sunscreen.

6. Why and how are they
created?
I. When an independent clause gives an order or
directive based on what was said in the prior
independent clause.
This next chapter has a lot of difficultinformation in
it,you should start studying right away
How to correct it? (.) or (;)

7. II. When two independent clauses are connected
by a transitional expression (conjunctive adverb)
such as however, moreover, nevertheless.
Mr. Nguyen has sent his four children to ivy-league
colleges, however,he has sacrificed his health
working day and night in that dusty bakery.
III. When the second of two independent clauses contains
a pronoun that connects it to the first independent clause.
This computer doesn't make sense to me,it came
without a manual.

8. Quiz Time!!
Try to repair the following run-on sentences.

9. 1. Entrepreneurship is the study of
small businesses, college students are
embracing it enthusiastically.
2. My father is chairman of the
Committee on Foreign Relations, he
also heads the Warrant Commission.
3. All over the country, people sell
products over the Internet, these
people are making impressive profits.

10. 4. One person had been exporting
farm equipment, in fact he exports
over 30,000 pieces of machinery a
year.
5. Formal courses at the graduate
level are now being taken by many
elderly citizens, some schools even
offer them special programs.

11. 6. While time often erases bad
memories, my ex-girlfriend never
forgets anything, she even remembers
things that happened over five years
ago.
7. Even though the semester is almost
over, the teacher does not know my
name, she confuses me with other
students.

12. Sentence Fragments

13. Fails to be a sentence in the sense
that it cannot stand by itself. It does
not contain even one independent
clause.
A Sentence Fragment

14. Why and how are they
created?
I. It may locate something in time and place with a
prepositional phrase or a series of such phrases, but
it's still lacking a proper subject-verb relationship
within an independent clause:
In Japan, during the last war and just
before the armistice.

15. II. It describes something, but there is no subject-
verb relationship:
Working far into the night in an effort to salvage her little
boat.
III. It may have most of the makings of a sentence
but still be missing an important part of a verb
string:
Some of the students working in Professor Espinoza's
laboratory last semester.

16. IV. It may even have a subject-verb relationship,
but it has been subordinated to another idea by a
dependent word and so cannot stand by itself:
Even though he had the better arguments and was by
far the more powerful speaker.

17. Although women's college basketball in Connecticut is a
marvelously entertaining and popular sport. It not hard to
remember. When it was not so popular. Which is hard to believe.
Only a few years ago, my friends and I to go to a women's
basketball game. And we could get seats for free near center
court. Especially on Sunday afternoons. Of course, that before
names such as Rebeccca Lobo, Jenn Rizzotti, and Kara Wolters
became household words. Lobo's book, HOME-COURT
ADVANTAGE, which she wrote with her mother. A best-seller in
Connecticut. If more than a couple of hundred fans showed up
for a game. It was considered a big turnout. And games were
played in practically silent gyms. Because the fans didn't care
who won. Nowadays, it almost impossible to buy tickets to a
women's game, and you can't get seats. Unless you know
someone.
Exercise

18. Although women's college basketball in Connecticut is a
marvelously entertaining and popular sport. It not hard
to remember. When it was not so popular. Which is hard
to believe. Only a few years ago, my friends and I to go to
a women's basketball game. And we could get seats for
free near center court. Especially on Sunday afternoons.
Of course, that before names such as Rebeccca Lobo,
Jenn Rizzotti, and Kara Wolters became household
words. Lobo's book, HOME-COURT ADVANTAGE,
which she wrote with her mother. A best-seller in
Connecticut. If more than a couple of hundred fans
showed up for a game. It was considered a big turnout.
And games were played in practically silent gyms.
Because the fans didn't care who won. Nowadays, it
almost impossible to buy tickets to a women's game, and
you can't get seats. Unless you know someone.

19. References
•Guide to Grammar and Writing. (2014, April 28). Retrieved from Quizes:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/runons_quiz.htm
•Guide to Grammar and Writing. (2014, April 28). Retrieved from Run-on
Sentences: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/runons.htm