The Sentence Errors:
There are three kinds of “sentence errors” and they are called:
1) the sentence fragment
2) the run-on sentence
3) the comma splice
For number 1) the SENTENCE FRAGMENT, consider this paragraph:
First of all,(pause) you should remind yourself that a comma is a notation that represents a brief pause in the reading. (pause pause…) Whereas a period represents a longer pause, and a fresher start.
Notice that the second ‘sentence’ here–‘Whereas a period…etc.–isn’t really a complete thought, nor is it an independent clause, nor does it make sense if you read it out loud in isolation. Try it”
“Whereas a period represents a longer pause, and a fresher start.”
Uhn uhn. Therefore, it is just a part of some sentence, the rest of which has been left out.
Inotherwords, it’s a FRAGMENT of a sentence.
If you don’t believe me, go up to someone and say, “Uh, whereas a period represents a longer pause, and a fresher start.” And see what kind of reaction you get. The clause in question is dependent: it depends for its meaning on the sentence in front of it, but it has been punctuated as if it should stand by itself, with its own capital and period. But it can’t; it’s a fragment.
You’ll see fragments in good writing, but they are intentional. I ask students in English 101, that if they write a fragment intentionally, because they think it sounds better that way–and they may be right–then please put an asterisk by it (*) and
at the bottom of the page just write:
* intentional sentence error
When I’m sure they know what they’re doing, then they can do away with the asterisk. So to say, I actually encourage them to use fragments: it makes for vigorous and supple writing. It’s a stylistic step up. But ugly is ugly. Don’t make them helter-skelter just because you don’t know any better.
2) The RUN-ON error is simply the case where you neglect to put any punctuation at all between two independent sentences you just can’t do that and make good sense obviously that previous sentence as well as this one are both examples of the run-on sentence error. “Run-on” does not mean that it’s a sentence that runs on and on, like something written by Henry James or Faulkner. Those sentences may indeed run on for half a page or so, but they are not usually punctuated wrong. This is a common confusion: now you know better. “Run-on” means two or more sentences jammed into each other with no indication of where one stops and the other begins the kind of ‘running on’ in some novelists’ style is called not “run on” but periodic. James is the master of the periodic sentence. Two sentences back was a run-on, needing some kind of proper punctuation between …the other begins ; the kind of ‘running on…
That seems to me like a hard mistake to make if you’ll just read your copy aloud to yourself, perhaps the most troublesome sentence error to catch is this one, the one I just made two commas back, which leads us to:
3) the third kind of error, the COMMA SPLICE.
All “splice” means in the phrase “comma splice” is that you’ve ‘spliced’ two complete sentences together with just a comma, when in fact you need a period or a semi-colon. You can splice loose ends of two ropes together, using the smaller twinings of rope that rope is compounded of. But you can’t use a comma. That would make you a rope-a-dope. (Sorry, Ali.)
Ok, so how do spot a comma splice and how do you fix it?
Fixing is easier, let’s start there.
(Did you spot it, hunh, did you?
Just use a period and capital, or a semi-colon:
Fixing is easier . Let’s start there.
Fixing is easier ; let’s start there.
Now to make life harder: there is one place where you can connect main clauses (sentences) with commas and that’s if they’re very short: I came, I saw, I conquered.
This is the best of worlds, this is the worst of worlds.
The motion was made, the vote was taken, and tentative plans were begun.
So, alas, Fixing is easier, let’s start there. actually is ok. In fact, it’s coming to be preferred in magazines and journals
BUT,
An instructor teaches students how to think; a minister gives them spiritual guidance; and a parent inculcates love. Grammar they should learn on their own,(pause) by observing what they read.(pause pause) It can be tremendously creative. (pause) (pause) (pause)//////////////////(applause)
As for the SEMICOLON:
Just remember that a semicolon is as strong as a period (the “.” of the “;”) and yet as weak as a comma (the “,” half of the “;”). Maybe that’s confusing.
A semicolon IS a period, that’s grown a tail in order to wriggle out of being too assertive; it maintains the flow of ideas where a period might break the chain.
Dr. Askeland’s take on the semicolon is cute, if a little sexist. She’s not crazy about periods because they’re so pushy, commanding, loud, uncooth–in a word, so male. Whereas the comma, you know, it’s flighty, fickle, sort of intuitive–female? So the semicolon is just a period that’s discovered its feminine side: ;
Independent/Dependent and Phrase/Clause
I’ve been bandying about these two sets of terms. Are you clear on what they mean?
A semicolon should be used only where a period is used—BETWEEN TWO COMPLETE SENTENCES (also called ‘two independent clauses’—they are independent because they don’t
depend on any other clause; they can stand alone, these clauses; YOU CAN READ THEM OUT LOUD ALL BY THEMSELVES AND THEY’LL MAKE SENSE.
Such clauses (clause = group of related words with a subject and a verb and probably some other stuff) are complete ideas, can stand alone, are not dependent on anything else for their modicum of meaning.
They are not dendent, they are independent.
Dependent clauses, on the other hand, have all the features of independent clauses except they can’t stand alone. Whereas a period represents a longer pause and a fresher start. …from our very first example at the top, is dependent. It shouldn’t stand alone, with only a capital and a period. You can’t say it to someone and have them nod their head in agreement. It depends on some other material for its complete meaning. In our case, it depended on the previous sentence; it really should have been attached to it with a comma.
(A phrase = group of related words without a main verb. Think of prepositional phrases, noun phrases, adjective phrases, adverbial phrases. You want examples of all that? Sure you do, but notice how in each phrase below, there is no main verb. There will be verb forms, like infinitives and participles and gerunds, but these aren’t conjugated verbs. (Conjugate just means run it through the I, you, he, she/ we, you, they forms.)
To the lighthouse (a group of related words, no verb, starts with a prepostion. Guess what kind
of phrase it is.)
To greeting the alum boink lighthouse (is a group of words, plain enough, but they aren’t related)
(This is called schizophrenia. You’ll see it in weaker 101
papers. Engfish, or gobbledy-gook.)
Eating Raoul or Spanking the maid (related words, with verb-like elements–to eat, to spank–but
used only as a noun would be used, usually as subject or
object: Spanking the maid was forbidden. We avoided eating
Raoul. Noun phrases: phrases used as nouns.)
Now what’s this next one, an adjective phrase or an adverb phrase?
Climbing over the top of the mountain …
If you said you needed more information before you could identify it, like, how is it used in its sentence, it could be most anything, help…! If you said something like that, then move on to the semicolon below. You’re right. But here’s what yet others aren’t clear about:
The bear, climbing over the mountain, saw the other side. (adjective)
Climbing over the mountain was not what we had in mind. (noun)
They fell while climbing over the mountain. (adverb)
We climbing, happy huntingly, on mountain. (verb, probably a
Japanese speaker, beginning English)
No, you’re not confused. You’re tired. Come back later, or go on, below, with the sexiest part of punctuating sentences:
To be dry about it, then, the semicolon is an internal mark–never at the end–used strictly for separating co-ordinate elements, mostly main clauses. You could use a period instead. You canNOT use a comma in the same place unless you add a co-ordinating conjunction (and, but, for, or, yet, nor).
Yes, sometimes you use a semicolon to separate items in a series that have commas among them–so it becomes a kind of higher level comma: The Republican Presidential contenders in 1964 included Nelson Rockerfeller, the Governor of New York; Barry Goldwater, the Senator from Arizona; and William Scranton, the Governor of Pennsylvania.
(If you didn’t have the semicolons here, you’d mistake the appositives for the other contenders. Goldwater might be from New York or he might be from Arizona; you can’t tell unless you divide it up properly, using the semicolon versus the comma. Or, unless you’re old enough to remember that extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice–something a New Yorker would never say.
So, here’s what goes down: (more or less interchangeable)
Blahblah blah blah . Capital blah blah blahblah. or,
Blahblah blah blah ; little b-blah blah blahblah. or,
Blahblah blah blah , and blah blah blahbhal. (for the ‘and’ you could
have: yet, for, nor, or, but)
Here are some nice uses:
We wanted to go very badly; however, we didn’t have any money.
The food is terrible when it’s leftovers; when it’s left under; when it just should have been left elsewhere.
Our curriculum includes not only physics, but literature; not only chemistry, but art; not only philosophy, but music.
Carpentry is not the only trade in which Sam is competent; he canalso lay bricks.
This is a fairly thorough explanation, rich with examples, of the notation we use to punctuate sentences; use it, fercrissakes.
A semicolon can almost always be used correctly between independent clauses (complete sentences); the writer must decide for him or herself when the connection is close enough to call for a semicolon rather than a period.