This tutorial discusses three common sentence structure errors, fragments, common splices, and run-ons. After viewing, please refer to the corresponding chapters in your grammar text for more information. A fragment is another way to say that a sentence is incomplete. It may be punctuated like a sentence, an independent clause, but it is not really a sentence. An independent clause is another way to say a complete sentence. It must include a subject, a verb, and also be a complete thought. To determine whether a group of words is an independent clause or complete sentence, start by locating the action in the sentence. This is the verb. Then determine who or what is doing the action. This will be the subject. For example, Bob threw his grammar book against the wall. Through is the action, so it is the verb. Bob is doing the action, so he is the subject. Once you have located the subject in verb, you then need to ask yourself if it is a complete thought. One quick way to do this is to ask yourself if I walked up to someone and said this, would it make any sense or does there seem to be something missing? Here's another example, until I went home. Went is the action, so it's the verb. I is doing the action, so that is the subject. However, if I walked up to someone and said until I went home, it would not make any sense. Therefore, it is not a complete sentence and is a fragment. Once you locate a fragment, then you need to repair or fix it. There are two ways to do this. First, you can attach the fragment to the sentence before or after depending on the context, what the meaning is in the sentence. Another way to do this is that you can turn the fragment into a sentence. Here's an example of how to attach a fragment to another sentence. On that morning, I sat in my usual spot. On the wooden stool in the corner. On the wooden stool in the corner is a fragment. We can connect them and make a sentence. On that morning, I sat in my usual spot on the wooden stool in the corner. Here are some other examples of how you can turn a fragment into a complete sentence by making some changes to the fragment. Although we seldom get to see wildlife in the city, this is not a complete thought, so it is a fragment. Fix it by deleting although and uppercasing the W in we. We seldom get to see wildlife in the city. Mary suffers from agoraphobia. I fear the outside world. The first sentence is complete, but the second is not, so it is a fragment. Fix it by adding a comma to create a non-restrictive clause at the end of the sentence and lowercase A. Mary suffers from agoraphobia, a fear of the outside world. Is it ever appropriate to use fragments for effect? In an English class, the answer is no. Only very experienced, often professional writers can get away with this. Otherwise, it just looks like you don't know how to write a complete sentence, so play it safe and avoid fragments. Now, it's on to comma splices. You may have seen teachers mark your papers with the abbreviations C-S. This is referring to a comma splice. Sometimes these are also referred to as few sentences. Coma splices occur when two complete sentences are joined with a comma. This is not correct. Periods, question marks, and exclamation marks come after a complete sentence. Sometimes semi-colons and columns do as well, but is never correct to put a comma in between two independent clauses. Luckily, comma splices are pretty easy to find if you are checking on your commas for accuracy. If you can't match up a comma to a comma rule, this could mean you have a comma splice. Check to see if there are two subjects and two verbs. For example, the car was damaged, comma, the frame was twisted. Car and frame are subjects, was damaged, and was twisted, and the verb phrases. This is a comma splice and should be punctuated as two complete sentences. The car was damaged, period. The frame was twisted, period. Not only are comma splices easy to find if you're checking your commas, but they are also very easy to fix. See your grammar text for more ways to fix comma splices, but here are a few to consider. Replace the comma with a period and capitalize the first letter after the period. Replace the comma with a semicolon. Add a conjunction like and or but, part of the fanboys after the comma. Finally, we have run on sentences. You may have seen the abbreviation RO used to indicate run on in your writing. A run on is the same as a comma splice. It's just that without the comma separating the two sentences, it might be a little bit difficult to find it. Instead, one sentence runs into another, so they can be a little tricky to locate. The comma will tip you off normally in a comma splice, but with a run on, you don't have the comma to check. Here's an example. The car was damaged, the frame was twisted. To correct the run on, you would also use the same, the same fixes you would for a comma splice. Fragments, comma splices, and run on are some of the most pervasive writing errors you will ever have to deal with. However, since complete and accurate sentence structure is a critical part of writing clearly, it is worth the time and effort to locate and correct these errors in your writing. It is also part of learning to edit your own work, and the more you practice editing, the better you will become at it.