Fragments, Comma Splices,
and Fused Sentences
The major mistakes in English
grammar!
TCTC Writing Center
Prepared by Jennifer Higgins-Spiers
July 2007
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Fragments
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Fragments are “incomplete” sentences. They
have a subject and a verb but no complete
thought.
Fragments look like sentences; sometimes they
are even punctuated like sentences. Don’t let
them fool you! Don’t let them give you a bad
grade!
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Examples of fragments
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When the party started.
As soon as they get here.
Whenever the traffic gets heavy.
To find a job in another city.
Running laps every day.
Over the hill and around the corner.
Because Sandra is feeling ill.
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How to fix fragments: add a
complete thought
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When the party started.
As soon as they get here.
Whenever the traffic gets heavy.
To find a job in another city.
Running laps every day.
Over the hill and around the
corner.
Because Sandra is feeling ill.
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When the party started, everybody
was dancing.
As soon as they get here, we will
go out to eat.
Whenever the traffic gets heavy, I
get frustrated.
To find a job in another city is
very difficult.
Running laps every day is good
for your health.
Her house is over the hill and
around the corner.
Because Sandra is feeling ill, she
won’t be able to play in the game
tonight.
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Comma splices
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A comma splice is a comma that joins two
independent clauses.
Many students seem to think that a comma
splice is a misplaced comma. Other students
believe that a comma splice is a sentence with
too many commas. This is not always true!
A comma has many jobs; however, one job
that the comma is NOT responsible for is to
combine two independent clauses.
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Examples of comma splices
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Pat wanted to go to Mi
Pueblo, Celeste wanted
to go to Pancho’s.
Matt is excited, he and
his wife are having a
baby.
Robin is the chair of the
English department, she
is the person to ask if
you have any questions.
See how the comma joins
two independent clauses
in these examples? These
are comma catastrophes.
Don’t do this.
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How to fix those comma splices
Since you have a comma joining two independent
clauses, you can do the following things:
 Add a coordinating conjunction after the comma.
 Add a subordinating conjunction in the beginning of
the first independent clause.
 Take away the comma and replace it with a period.
 Take away the comma and replace it with a
semicolon.
 Take away the comma and replace it with a
subordinating conjunction.
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Fixing the errors
Bad sentences:
 Pat wanted to go to Mi Pueblo,
Celeste wanted to go to
Pancho’s.
 Matt is excited, he and his wife
are having a baby.
 Robin is the chair of the
English department, she is the
person to ask if you have any
questions
Good sentences:
Pat wanted to go to Mi Pueblo,
but Celeste wanted to go to
Panchos.
 Matt is excited. He and his
wife are having a baby.
 Since Robin is the chair of the
English department, she is the
person to ask if you have any
questions.
Note: There are many ways to
correct a sentence.
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Fused sentences (otherwise known as
run-on sentences)
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If you join TWO independent clauses with NO
punctuation mark or connecting idea, you have
created a fused/run-on sentence.
Fused/run-on sentences cause great confusion
to your readers.
This error generally occurs when the writer
tries to cram too many ideas into one sentence.
Organize your thoughts so that this error does
not happen!
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Examples of fused/run-on sentences
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Louise didn’t feel like
coming to work she
called Robin pretending
to be sick.
Geoff is a Hokie Matt is
a Tiger.
Pat and Celeste teach
English 101 they read
hundreds of papers a
semester.
Notice how these
sentences have two ideas
crammed into one?
While having many ideas
in one sentence is great, it
is NOT great to combine
sentences this way.
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How to fix fused/run-on sentences
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Add a period between the two independent clauses.
Add a semi-colon between the two independent
clauses.
Add a comma and a coordinating conjunction
between the two independent clauses.
Add a subordinating conjunction between the two
independent clauses.
Add a subordinating conjunction in the beginning of
the sentence, and add a comma between the two
independent clauses.
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Fixing the errors
Bad Sentences
 Louise didn’t feel like
coming to work she called
Robin pretending to be sick.
 Geoff is a Hokie Matt is a
Tiger.
 Pat and Celeste teach
English 101 they read
hundreds of papers a
semester.
Good Sentences
 Because Louise didn’t feel
like coming to work, she
called Robin pretending to
be sick.
 Geoff is a Hokie, and Matt
is a Tiger.
 Pat and Celeste teach
English 101; they read
hundreds of papers a
semester.
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Dilemma?!
Do you NOT know how to tell if you made these
monstrous errors? This is what you can do:
PROOFREAD!
1) Do all of your sentences have subject/verbs/complete
thoughts?
2)Look at your commas. Are they all in the right place?
Do they, at ANY TIME, combine TWO sentences?
3) Do your sentences make sense? Are they jumbled
together?
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The importance of finding these
mistakes
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Fragments, comma splices, and fused/run-on
sentences can COST you good grades.
Many of these mistakes are careless, but is
carelessness and laziness WORTH a bad
grade?
Each of these errors is basically worth a letter
grade. Watch yourself!
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