Correcting
Common Sentence Errors
Finding and Fixing Comma Splices, Run-ons,
Fragments and Parallelism
Do you want papers
with fewer red marks?
This workshop will:
Help you identify common sentence
errors
Give you easy ways to make
corrections
Enable you to develop your own
personal editing checklist
This workshop will NOT:
Make your sentence errors
disappear
Guarantee “A” papers
But it will help you get closer to your
goal of less red, more well said
Examine the following:
 In addition, Obafemi Awolowo was a leader who believed that the




state should offer resources for example, he introduced free
primary education and free health care in the Western Region.
Citizens who had worked hard over the year are being recognized
with an award for their service to the nation these citizens
celebrate with their leaders.
Fru Ndi stood up, no matter what, and he formed a political party
to challenge the dictator.
Traditional dances with different colors of dressing.
They will tend to find happiness if their marriage is successful,
their investment they made for retirement were successful and
also with their children achievement in life.
First Example
In addition, Obafemi Awolowo was a leader who believed that
the state should offer resources, for example, he introduced
free primary education and free health care in theWestern
Region.
 Identify subjects and verbs
 What is the relationship?
 Think about ideas
 Why did the author believe these ideas should be
connected?
 Identify sentence type
 Comma used between two independent clauses
Second Example
Citizens who had worked hard over the year are being
recognized with an award for their service to the nation
these citizens celebrate with their leaders.
 Identify subjects and verbs
 What is the relationship?
 Think about ideas
 Why did the author believe these ideas should be
connected?
 Identify sentence type
 No punctuation between clauses
Third Example
Fru Ndi stood up, no matter what, and he formed a
political party to challenge the dictator.
 Identify subjects and verbs
 What is the relationship?
 Think about ideas
 Why did the author believe these ideas should
be connected?
 Identify sentence type
 Compound sentence
Fourth Example
Traditional dances with different colors of dressing.
 Identify subjects and verbs
 What is the relationship?
 Think about ideas
 What is the author trying to explain?
 Identify sentence type
 An incomplete thought
Fifth Example
They will tend to find happiness if their marriage is
successful, their investment they made for retirement
were successful and also with their children achievement
in life.
 Identify conjunction
 Think about what is joined together
 Are the items joined the same?
 Conjunctions require parallel structure
Comma Splice
 Very common error
 Using a comma incorrectly to separate
independent thoughts
 Commas have specific uses
 Link to Comma Rule power point
 Commas can never separate independent clauses
in academic writing
Run-On
 Punctuation is necessary for reader to process
ideas.
 Separating or joining independent and/or
dependent clauses follows specific rules for
punctuation.
Correcting
Run-Ons and Comma Splices
 Four ways
 Add punctuation that separates (period [full
stop], exclamation, semi-colon)
 Use a comma and FANBOYS
 Use a semi-colon and a transitional word
 Create a dependent clause, using appropriate
punctuation
Fragment
 An incomplete thought
 Leaves the reader with a question
 Requires either
 A subject
 A real verb
 An independent clause
 Removal of dependent word
Parallelism
 Items must be the same grammatical structure
 Determine words that indicate parallel structure
 Understand:
 Parts of Speech
 Clauses
 Phrases
A Subject
 What is a subject?
 Usually a noun or noun phrase
 Autumn
 The very messy room
 A verbal
 Eating lots of candy
 To debate
 A clause
 The woman who walks to work everyday
 How ever long it takes
 All sentences in English require a subject except commands.
A Real Verb
 What is a real verb?
 An action or feeling word that is conjugated
correctly
 talks
 will have been developed
 Not a verbal
 He running down the field
 -ing only becomes a verb with the helping verb BE
 She to take classes this semester
Practice
 Review the following collection of words.
 Determine sentence type or
 Determine structural error
 If there is an error, how can you correct it?
Practice
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
This is when a friend sees you for who you are and not being
hasty to judge you.
Telephone systems are important because they connect people.
A friendship should make both people in the relationship happy,
both people should have fun when they spend time together,
accept one another for whom they are.
Though human beings can clash easily when they are not
acceptable to each other, which makes it hard for some people
to maintain many friends.
Although both genders have probabilities in having common
ways in expressing friendships with the same gender, but also
there are still a lot of particular habits they differ from each
other; communication, how they show support and intimacy.
Recognition and Correction
 In your own writing, be aware:
 Clauses and Phrases
 Sentence Types
 Avoid four common structural errors
 Comma Splice
 Run-On
 Fragment
 Faulty parallel structure
Your Own Checklist
Do you ever see these markings on your papers?
CS
RO
Frag
Not //
Your Own Checklist
Add these to your editing checklist when revising
a paragraph or essay.
CS – comma splice – look at either side of the comma. Reassess
punctuation.
RO – run-on – find the complete thoughts; do they need to be
joined together? Separate or join appropriately.
Frag – fragment – you need to have a subject and a verb to have
a sentence.
Not // - not parallel – find the conjunction and determine part
of speech, clause or phrase; change parallel items to same
type of grammatical structure.
Any questions?
Thanks for your attention.