How to Avoid Sentence Fragments and Run-On Sentences

Sentence fragments and run-on sentences are common grammatical flaws. They both involve sentence construction errors and can make writing unclear or confusing. Readers may find these fragmented sentences irritating if they are not well-executed.

Sentence Fragment

A sentence fragment is an unfinished sentence that lacks one or both of the phrase’s basic components, generally a subject or a verb. Sentence fragments frequently do not represent a complete thought on their own and must be connected to a complete phrase in order to make sense.

Some examples of sentence fragments:

  1. “In the house.” (Fragment, lacking a subject and verb)
  2. “Because she was tired.” (Fragment, lacking a main clause)
  3. “Jumping on the rooftop.” (Fragment, lacking a subject and verb)

Here, we can see that none of the above sentences express a clear idea of what the author is trying to say because these phrases are not complete on their own.

How to correct a sentence fragment

To fix a sentence fragment, either add the missing subject, verb, or both or combine it with a complete sentence.

Let’s fix the sentence fragment examples mentioned above –

  • “In the house.”

Corrected: “We had a party in the house.” (Added subject “We” and verb “had”)

  • “Because she was tired.”

Corrected: “She didn’t attend the party because she was tired.” (Added the main clause “She didn’t attend the party”)

  • “Jumping on the rooftop.”

Corrected: “She started jumping on the rooftop.” (Added subject “She” and verb “started”)

Run-on Sentence

A run-on sentence occurs when two or more separate clauses (complete thoughts) are incorrectly joined without the necessary punctuation or conjunctions. Run-on sentences can be too lengthy and difficult to read.

Run-on phrases are categorized into two types:

  • Comma Splice: A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses are separated by only a comma.

For instance: “She wanted to go to the movies, he preferred staying home.”

  • Fused Sentence: When two separate clauses are connected without any punctuation or conjunction, this is referred to as a fused sentence or run-on.

For instance: “She wanted to go to the movies he preferred staying home.”

How to correct run-on sentences

You can use punctuation (such as a comma and a coordinating conjunction), a semicolon, or break the clauses into two new phrases to fix run-on sentences.

Here are corrected versions of the above run-on sentence examples:

  1. “She wanted to go to the movies, but he preferred staying home.” (Comma splice corrected with a coordinating conjunction)
  2. “She wanted to go to the movies; he preferred staying home.” (Run-on corrected with a semicolon)
  3. “She wanted to go to the movies. He preferred staying home.” (Run-on corrected by separating into two sentences)

Both sentence fragments and run-on sentences can make your writing less clear and professional. To enhance your writing, you must identify and fix these errors, by ensuring that each phrase has a subject and verb and that independent clauses are correctly punctuated and linked. Because, whether it’s academic writing, business communications, or creative writing, proper sentence structure is always important.

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