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Chapter 11
Complete Sentences
Fragments and Run-on Sentences
Good English consists of clear, well-made, correct sentences. Writers may
understand parts of speech, phrases, and clauses perfectly well,1 yet have trouble with
their sentences. Usually, the trouble arises from confusion in the writer's mind about
what a sentence is and what it is not.
A sentence is a group of words containing a subject and a verb and expressing a
complete thought. This definition is simple enough, but a definition cannot do our writing
for us. Sentence errors are among the most common faults in the writing of young
people. Fortunately, they are also easy to understand and avoid.
As you do more writing, you will develop a "feeling for sentences" or a "sentence sense,"
through which you will recognize almost at once whether a group of words is or is not a
complete sentence. To a great extent, this sense can be developed consciously, by
studying each of your sentences after you have written it, and by guarding against the
carelessness which causes the majority of sentence errors. Above all, you must learn
to watch for the two basic sentence errors: the sentence fragment and the run-on
sentence.
1
To understand this chapter, for example, you should know and understand the following terms: prepositional phrase,
participial phrase, gerund phrase, infinitive phrase, appositive, subordinate clause. If you need to do so, look them up
in Chapters 3 and 4.
A sentence fragment is a part of a sentence used as though it were a whole sentence.
The fragment may be written with a capital letter at the beginning and an end mark (a
period, question mark, or exclamation point) at the end; nevertheless, it is not a
sentence because it does not express a complete thought. A run-on sentence, on the
other hand, consists of two or more sentences which may be separated by a comma
instead of a period or other end mark.
To test your ability to recognize complete sentences, take the following Diagnostic
Test.
Diagnostic Test
Some of the following groups of words are sentences; a few are fragments; others
are run-on sentences. Number your paper 1-15. Place an S after the number
corresponding to each complete sentence, an F for each sentence fragment, and an
R for each run-on sentence.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Realizing that the best thing a college education has to offer.
An editorial board that is made up of outstanding authorities on vocational guidance.
I am sure that she did not know that she was lying.
State your case, and then wait for the decision of the judges.
Robert Frost won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times.
Realizing that you are busy with schoolwork and extracurricular activities.
Last summer I was a camp counselor, I enjoyed myself very much.
Did you know that gold is present in small quantities in sea water?
Tips for getting along on the job.
I will never forget the first time I saw the skyline of San Francisco, a view like that is a
breathtaking sight.
What is the use of studying Latin it is a dead language.
High school students often develop their hobbies into careers.
Often being told to do things I don't like, such as getting out of bed.
I went to the country to visit my aunt, after that I stayed with an old friend for a few days.
Using important ideas as an aid to rapid reading.
SENTENCE FRAGMENTS
11 a. A sentence fragment is a group of words that does not express a complete
thought. Since it is part of a sentence, it must not be allowed to stand by itself, but
should be kept in the sentence of which it is a part.
Read the sentence below and compare it with the sentence fragment that follows it.
High in the sky a silver plane swooped toward the
horizon.
FRAGMENT High in the sky a silver plane swooping toward the
horizon
SENTENCE
Because it lacks a verb, the sentence fragment does not express a complete thought.
The lack of a verb is obvious. The word swooping may deceive you momentarily, but
it is not a verb. Words ending in -ing, like swooping, are not verbs unless helping verbs
are added to them to make a verb phrase. If you are uncertain about what a
helping verb is and how it is used, turn to the discussion of verb phrases on page 13.
Notice how -ing words are used in verb phrases in the following examples.
NO VERB
VERB PHRASE
A blue haze settling over the rooftops
A blue haze was settling over the rooftops.
NO VERB Playing football on Saturday
He was playing football on Saturday when he hurt his knee.
VERB PHRASE
NO VERB Writing novels for ten years
She had been writing novels for ten years before she was recognized as a great
author.
VERB PHRASE
In these examples, the helping verbs round out the verb phrase in order to express a thought
completely. Without a verb or verb phrase, we have only a part of a sentence, a fragment.
EXERCISE 1. Some of the items in this exercise consist of one or more complete sentences; others
contain sentence fragments. Number your paper 1-10. If an item contains only complete sentences
write C alter its number. If an item contains a sentence fragment, rewrite it to eliminate the fragment.
1. Many great Americans had little or no formal education. Among these are political leaders,
writers, artists, scientists, and business executives.
2. When Abraham Lincoln was a young man, he worked in a general store. And at the same time
studied books
on law.
3. Carl Sandburg is another example. Leaving school when he was thirteen years old but later going on
to Lombard College after serving in the army during the Spanish-American War.
4. Our first President, George Washington, was a slow reader and a poor speller. Who struggled in
later life to
overcome his educational deficiencies.
5. Andrew Carnegie, who gave away many millions, to charity, started to work at the age of thirteen. He
attended
school in Scotland but did not go to high school.
6. Eleanor Roosevelt had little formal education. Susan B. Anthony the equivalent of high school
7. Gordon Parks attended high school. And later was named Magazine Photographer of the Year.
8. Booker T. Washington walked five hundred miles to attend school at Hampton Institute. And later
founded
Tuskegee Institute.
9. One of the great letter writers of all time, Abigail Adams, had no formal schooling. It was something she
regretted.
10. On the other hand, many famous Americans had excellent educations. As a child, Willa Gather, for
instance, was taught Greek and Latin by a Nebraska shopkeeper.
The Phrase Fragment
A phrase is a group of words that is used as a single part of speech but does not
contain a verb and its subject. In Chapter 3, many different kinds of phrases are
explained -prepositional, participial, gerund, infinitive, appositive. All phrases, however,
have one important characteristic in common: they are parts of a sentence. A phrase
should never stand alone; it must never be separated from the sentence in which it
belongs. In the following examples, the italicized words are phrase fragments. Notice
how the fragments are eliminated by attaching them to the sentences in which the
phrases belong.
The cold wind made an eerie noise. Like a screech owl's cry. [The prepositional phrase in
italic type acts as an adjective modifying the noun noise. Like any other adjective, the phrase
belongs in the sentence that contains the word it modifies.]
FRAGMENT CORRECTED The cold wind made an eerie noise like a screech owl's cry.
FRAGMENT
FRAGMENT The
haughty Estella denounced Pip. Calling him a clumsy laboring boy. [This participial phrase
fragment modifies denounced. The fragment is corrected by joining it to the sentence in which
it belongs.]
FRAGMENT CORRECTED The haughty Estella denounced Pip, calling him a clumsy laboring boy.
Immediate aid was given to the stricken town. Not only to feed the hungry but also to help
the sick. [Here two infinitive phrases have been separated from the verb phrase was given,
which they explain. Both phrases must be joined with the verb they modify in order to
complete the sentence.]
FRAGMENT CORRECTED Immediate aid was given to the stricken town not only to feed the hungry but also
to help the sick.
FRAGMENT
The Appositive Fragment
An appositive is a word or group of words that closely follows a noun or pronoun and
identifies or explains it. Such a word is "in apposition with" the word it explains. It
cannot stand alone as a sentence; it is always part of the sentence containing the
word it explains.
At nightfall the caravan wound into t fabled city of Kabaka. A cluster of ruins.
[The italicized words stand in apposition with the noun city. Within the appositive we find a
main noun, cluster, modified by a prepositional phrase. The entire appositive must be included
in the sentence of which it is a part.]
SENTENCE COMPLETED At nightfall the caravan wound into the fabled city of Kabaka, a cluster of ruins.
SENTENCE FRAGMENT
The Subordinate Clause Fragment
A clause is a group of words that contains a subject and a predicate and is used as a
part of a sentence. A subordinate clause does not express a complete thought and
cannot stand alone. Separated from the main clause on which it depends, the
subordinate clause becomes a sentence fragment.
If you are not sure of the distinction between main clauses and subordinate clauses,
refer to Chapter 4. It is necessary to understand the difference if you are to write
complete sentences.
In the following examples, the subordinate clauses are printed in italics.
FRAGMENT
Everyone enjoyed the play. Which was Spreading
the News by Lady Gregory. FRAGMENT CORRECTED Everyone enjoyed the play, which was
Spreading the News by Lady Gregory.
The characters and events seemed humorous to the Chicago audience. Although the play,
was written by an Irish woman in the early 1900''s.
FRAGMENT CORRECTED The characters and events seemed humorous to the Chicago audience,
although the play was written by an Irish woman in the early 1900's.
FRAGMENT
11 b. Do not separate a phrase, an appositive, or a subordinate clause from the
sentence of which it is a part.
Rules lla and lib are basic guides for building complete sentences. You may find,
however, that, though you understand the rules perfectly, sentence fragments still
occur in your writing. Almost always, carelessness is responsible for these errors.
You can protect yourself against the use of sentence fragments by being certain
that all your sentences contain complete thoughts. Reading your first draft aloud
helps a great deal.
In checking over your work, you may find that two other constructions cause you
trouble. They are items in a series and compound verbs.
Many reading lists for high school students include translations from Scandinavian writers.
Such as Lagerlof, Undset, and Ibsen. [Items in a series should never be separated from
the sentence of which they are a part.]
FRAGMENT CORRECTED Many reading lists for high school students include translations from
FRAGMENT
Scandinavian writers such as Lagerlof, Undset, and Ibsen.
FRAGMENT
When Pip moved to London, he lived with Herbert Pocket. And was tutored by Matthew
Pocket. [The two verbs lived and was tutored have the same subject. They should be
included in the same sentence.]
FRAGMENT CORRECTED When
Pip moved to London, he lived with Herbert Pocket and was tutored by
Matthew Pocket.
EXERCISE 2. Some of the items in this exercise consist of one or two complete
sentences; others contain sentence fragments. Number your paper 1-20. If an item
contains only complete sentences, write C after its number. If an item contains a
sentence fragment, rewrite the entire item with the fragment included in a complete
sentence.
1. Logical thinking is a skill that can be developed. First by learning what it is and then by practicing
it.
2. Most people, especially teen-agers, have problems. Which can be solved by thinking logically, not
emotionally.
3. Many young people must face similar problems. Such as choosing a career, going steady, and
borrowing the family car.
4. I used to have a problem that made me miserable. My mother and father being my problem.
5. After I studied logical thinking, I realized that many of their requests were made in my interest. Now
we are all happier than we had been.
6. Then the game began to move faster. Almost immediately after Ella's double, came Lill's homerun.
7. Federal budgets are difficult to understand. Especially when they contain so many items.
8. Few of those who left the discussion club had ever been members of our debating team. Frank
Neilson, our former secretary, is the most important exception to the rule.
9. I could not go to his aid. Because, as luck would have it, we had not taken the precaution of
bringing a spare paddle with us. I could only sit and look at him.
10. Beyond the high buildings, over the opposite bank of the river, the sun hung low. Its glow
smothered by a haze.
11. Listen! It is midnight. Standing on this cliff over the town, you can hear the great bell in the church
tower.
12. The ship in which Theseus returned from his victory over the Minotaur was preserved by the
Athenians. Who removed the old planks as they decayed, putting new and stronger timbers in their
place.
13. Treaties of peace are seldom observed for long periods. As history teaches us.
14. Sound trucks roamed through the city on election eve. Roaring the praises of the candidates. We heard
them go by until nearly midnight.
15. As far as competition is concerned, the team has done well. Though they were generally smaller than
their opponents, the boys have turned in a good record.
16. Whenever she went to the country, she went for long hikes. Then she would take a long bike ride into
town. Realizing how healthy the fresh air and exercise made her feel.
17. The book tells the story of how a magazine publisher rose to power. Aided by a group of editors
whom he alternately indulged and disciplined.
18. During the nineteenth century England was the center of a vast world trade. Ships going to England
brought raw materials. On the outbound voyage the ships carried finished
products for resale.
19. The choir sang choruses from the Messiah on Christmas Eve. For an audience that consisted mainly
of relatives and friends.
20. A library catalogue card contains useful information. Including the author's name and the book's
publication date.
RUN-ON SENTENCES
Let us suppose that a writer has in mind a complete sentence. The rules of English
usage tell how to indicate this fact. The sentence may be closed with a punctuation
mark that indicates a full stop —a period, question mark, or exclamation point. If the
writer wishes, the sentences may be linked by using a semicolon or a comma and a
conjunction. The writer may not use any other kind of punctuation or part of speech to
link two complete sentences.
When two complete sentences are separated by a comma or are not separated at
all, the result is called a "run-on sentence." The first sentence "runs on" into the
second. Of all sentence errors, the run-on sentence is probably the most common in
high school writing.
The ordinary run-on sentence, in which a comma is misused to separate sentences or
main clauses, is sometimes said to contain a "comma fault" or a "comma splice." The
run-on sentence in which punctuation is completely omitted between main clauses is
less common, probably because even the most casual inspection will show that
something is wrong with such a sentence. Both errors are usually caused not by a lack
of understanding but by carelessness—carelessness in punctuation, in writing, and in
checking written material.
RUN-ON SENTENCE
The meeting seemed to last for hours, nothing was accomplished.
This run-on sentence consists of two independent clauses,
each capable of standing alone as a complete sentence. We can eliminate the error by
separating the two sentences completely, using a period as punctuation:
The meeting seemed to last for hours. Nothing was accomplished.
We can correct the sentence by using a semicolon:
The meeting seemed to last for hours; nothing was accomplished.
We can link the two main clauses by using a comma and a coordinating conjunction:
The meeting seemed to last for hours, and nothing was accomplished.
We can change one of the clauses to a subordinate clause, I using a subordinating conjunction:
The meeting seemed to last for hours because nothing was accomplished.
The last correction showed one possible relationship between the ideas of the two
clauses: the second clause explained why the meeting seemed long. Using a semicolon
and an adverb, we can bring out a different relationship between the two ideas:
The meeting seemed to last for hours; furthermore, nothing was accomplished.
So far we have found five different ways in which a single run-on sentence can be
corrected. Essentially, the reason for all of these corrections is simple: two complete
sentences cannot be run together. The sentences should either be completely
separated by a full stop or joined by a semicolon or a comma and a conjunction.
11 c. Avoid run-on sentences. Do not use n comma between sentences. Do not
omit punctuation at the end of a sentence.
EXERCISE 3. All items in this exercise are run-on sentences. Number your paper 110. After each number, copy the last word in any complete sentence of the corresponding
item, and add the first word of the following sentence. As you fill in these words, indicate
how you would correct the comma fault. You may use a period and a capital letter, a
comma and a conjunction, a subordinating conjunction, or a semicolon, with or without
an additional word. Do not be satisfied with using a period and a capital letter in every
item; to make clear the relationship of ideas, some of the items should be corrected in
other ways.
EXAMPLE
1. Jane's schedule allowed her only two days in Washington, she can hardly be said to know
the city well.
1. Washington; consequently, she
1. In the past a college education in America was a privilege for a few people, today, higher
education has become a necessity for the many.
2. In the year 1295 Edward I of England gave the Dutch permission to fish in English waters
later the English regretted this generosity when the Dutch became a wealthy and powerful
competitive nation, as a result of the prosperity of their fishing industry.
3. One of the strangest trees in the world is the Welwitschia mirabilis, it lives for one hundred
years and reaches a height of one foot.
4. Proper names, spelled with a capital letter, sometimes become common nouns, spelled with a
small letter, that are used to name one of a class of things, an example of this kind of
language evolution is the word maverick.
5. About three of every four Americans graduate from high school, many millions of young people
every year have difficulty finding work in a society that places value on a high school diploma.
6. According to some, the mind of a newborn child is like a tablet upon which nothing has been
written, then learning and experience begin to write upon the tablet and go on writing until
life is done.
7. Under ordinary circumstances the meetings of the Student Disciplinary Committee are rather
routine affairs, on Wednesday the problem facing the committee was not an ordinary one.
8. Each week magazines by the million pout from the rotogravure presses, the quality of
their color depends upon thin shells of copper deposited on the printing cylinders —
shells that are only 5 O'00 of an inch thick.
9. In spoken English the voice usually drops at the end of a sentence and always pauses, in
written English this full stop is indicated by punctuation.
10.The very room in which the Dramatic Society held its meetings always excited Nancy, it might
look to a visitor like an ordinary classroom, smelling faintly of chalk and ink, to her it was a
theater, with a theater's magic and mystery.
REVIEW EXERCISE. Each item in this exercise contains 1 one or more sentence
errors. Number your paper 1-20 j and correct each item.
1. Some imaginative thinkers have proposed that Antarctica be used as a huge germ-free
"refrigerator." Where all nations' surpluses of food can be stored against lean years. There is
no doubt about the refrigeration, many an Antarctic traveler has used food left behind years
before by a predecessor.
2. Handwriting analysis, called graphology, is a fascinating study that is supposed to reveal many
traits of character. For example, shyness, secretiveness, and boldness.
3. Thanks to radar, ships and airplanes can "see" in fog as clearly as in broad daylight.
But this does not mean that scientists have solved the problem of fog, fog-bound ships fall
behind their schedules, airports close down during a fog.
4. Synonyms, which are words similar in meaning to another word, must be chosen with care.
And used with considerable discretion because of fine distinctions in meaning.
5. Nonfiction is the presentation of factual material, fiction is storytelling.
6. Since its beginning, the United Nations has faced one crisis after another. Not a year has
passed without moments of drama and decision. But the organization has always found
measures that preserved the peace. Often in the nick of time.
7. Anyone who knows the early history of the United States can understand the spirit of the new
nations born since World War II. Nations which have freed themselves from the domination of
another country. Led by patriots who have devoted their lives to bringing independence and selfgovernment to their native lands.
8. The brakes of an automobile generate heat. Far more heat than most of us realize, for
example, bringing a car to a full stop from 70 miles per hour generates enough heat to melt a
pound of iron.
9. Lightning reaches our eyes at 186,000 miles per second through the air. While thunder,
which occurs almost simultaneously, lazes along to our ears at 1,087 feet per second. So
that we sense the same event twice, in different ways, at different times.
10.Hair derives its color from the varying ways in which light is reflected from the cells in a
hair's medulla, or core. Since the cells are grouped in differing patterns with different
shapes of air-space between them.
11.Bearing small white or pink flowers, and also thorns. The hawthorn is the state flower of
Missouri.
12.Hawaii, Maui, and Oahu are only three of the major Hawaiian Islands. Honolulu, the capital,
being on Oahu, right near Pearl Harbor.
13.Stravinsky was most widely praised for his energetic rhythmic effects, he seemed to have a
special genius for creating a highly charged, restless, driving movement; but I like his
harmonies, which he always worked out at the piano keyboard.
14.Movements of the human eye are made possible by seven muscles, which, functioning in
conjunction with each other, make us able to shift the eyeball in all directions. And to see from
almost any perspective we wish.
15.In 1969 the Pulitzer Prize for fiction was awarded to N. Scott Momaday. Who is of Kiowa and
Cherokee descent. For his novel House Made of Dawn.
16.Jade Snow Wong's novel, Fifth Chinese Daughter, was published in 1945, it is a muchacclaimed story of a Chinese-American girl. However, the author, who is a ceramist, has
never written another book.
17.The four major chemical elements of the human body, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen.
These form the protein, fat, and carbohydrates which are the bulk of the body's materials.
18.Although it contains poetry, history, fables, and various forms of sophisticated writings. Western
Scripture does tell, in the overall view, a single general story of human civilization.
19.Many people feel that the expression of a newspaper's opinions should be confined to its
editorial page. So that readers can judge the news for themselves. "Slanted" news can be
much more misleading than no news at all.
20.While the neutron does not carry a positive electric charge, the proton does. And is slightly
lighter in weight. Despite their differences, at very high energies these particles act
similarly.