Writing Effective
Sentences!
Let’s look at what NOT
to do:
• Fragments
• Run-on’s
• Stringy Sentences
Remember…a Complete
Sentence Has These 3 Things:
•A subject
•A verb
•A complete thought
Believe it or not, some of our
sentences are very scary!
This may seem like common
sense when we’re going over
it, but… these mistakes are
in many of your papers!
Let’s get some help!
A fragment does not give
the whole sentence…only
part of a sentence.
A fragment is a
group of words that
has been capitalized
and punctuated as if
it were a sentence,
but is missing
something.
Your Def: Part of a sentence
acting as whole sentence.
Even though Daffy, Buggs,
and Porky were all in a
cartoon together.
This is not a complete
thought
Tell whether each word group is a sentence
or a fragment
My neighbor, the one with the dark and scary black house.
Fragment
The only time the old lady comes out of her
creepy old house.
Fragment
Is at night when everyone is asleep.
Fragment
She’s a witch.
Sentence
This is when she brings out her secrets.
Sentence
Run-on Sentences….A Bad
Thing!
What are they?
Run-on’s
Two complete sentences put
together with no
punctuation.
Example: I enjoy the weekends I love hanging out with my
friends.
How can we fix this?
3 Different Ways!!!
1.
Semicolon
2.
Comma & Conjunction
3.
Period and Make 2
Separate Sentences
Example: I enjoy the
weekends I love
hanging out with my
friends.
Comma & Conjunction:
I enjoy the weekends, and I love hanging out with my friends.
Semicolon:
I enjoy the weekends; I love hanging out with my friends.
Period & Capital Letter:
I enjoy the weekends. I love hanging out with my friends.
One of these sentences is a run-on!
Can you find it?
When we go out this weekend, we are going to see a movie.
I love a scary movie, it is what we are going to watch.
I love to eat popcorn while I am watching a good movie.
It’s the 2nd one!!!
I love a scary movie, it is what we are going to
watch.
Why is this sentence wrong?
Why is it a run-on?
A comma is separating 2 complete thoughts and that
cannot happen, unless there is a conjunction with it!
How could we fix it?
Fix the fragments and run-on sentences
in this paragraph!
The 1956 movie Godzilla about a
huge reptile. Godzilla looks like a
dinosaur he breathes fire like a
dragon. He comes up out of the
ocean. After an atomic bomb wakes
him up. Godzilla can melt steel with
his breath he is big enough to knock
down huge buildings. In the original
film he destroys the city of Tokyo he
gets killed at the end.
Stringy Sentences……………………
They go on, and on, and
on, and on!
These sentences use commas
and conjunctions, but there are
too many complete thoughts in
1 sentence.
If you read 1 of
these, you might
run out or breath.
Your def is underlined!
Write this example on back of
note sheet instead of on the line!
EXAMPLE:
Harriet Ross grew up as a slave in Maryland,
and she worked on a plantation there, but in
1844 she married John Tubman, and he was a
freed slave.
How many complete
sentences are within this big
sentence?
How
should
we fix it?
1.
2.
4!
You could break the sentence into 2 or more
sentences.
You could turn some of the independent clauses
into phrases or subordinate clauses.
On your paper, revise this paragraph to make it clear.
Possible
Revision:
Harriet Ross grew up
as a slave on a
plantation in
Maryland. In 1844
she married John
Tubman, a freed
slave.
Time to Play!
Here are the Rules:
1. Everyone gets a string
2. I will read you a sentence (page 494, my text book)
3. Every time you hear a conjunction, like “and” or
“but” lightly wrap the string around a different
finger.
Just as your fingers are very tangled…what gets
tangled when you write a stringy sentence?
The meaning of your sentence!
TOT’s are cookin’!
Level 2 Candy!
How do you know when to use a
semicolon and when to use a period?
TOT’s are cookin’!
Level 2 Candy or a
Gumball!
What’s the difference between a runon and a stringy sentence?
TOT’s are cookin’!
Level 1 Candy!
What is a fragment?
The
End!!!!!