17 Sentences – Sentence fragments and Run-on sentences

Category:           Sentences

Concept:            Sentence fragments and Run-on sentences

Connections to The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8: Language (2023):

_____B3. Language Conventions for Reading and Writing

     ________B3.1 Syntax and Sentence Structure

     ________B3.3 Capitalization and Punctuation

 Prior Knowledge:

• Understanding that a sentence has a subject and a predicate
• Differentiating between phrases and clauses
• Understanding the function of capitalization and punctuation in sentence formation (See chapter on capitalization and punctuation)

What’s the definition?

A complete sentence expresses a thought and contains a subject and a predicate. A sentence fragment, therefore, is missing a subject or a predicate. As such, it does not express a complete thought.

A run-on sentence contains multiple independent clauses but does not have punctuation to indicate where one thought is complete before starting the next one.

Both types of sentence errors can be corrected by using the appropriate punctuation for the intended meaning. It’s worth noting that, at times, an experienced writer can use sentence fragments and/or run-on sentences purposefully, often in narrative texts, or as part of created dialogue.

What does it look/sound like?

Sentence Fragments:

Commonly, sentence fragments are actually phrases or dependent clauses.

Consider this example:

Cupcakes are my favorite dessert. Because they are small and yummy. You can have them in many flavours. Like chocolate, vanilla, and red velvet. With frosting on top and sometimes sprinkles. My mom makes the best cupcakes. When she uses the pink icing. They taste so good. And fun to eat!

There are four complete sentences in this passage; the rest are sentence fragments, including dependent clauses and phrases.

Run-on Sentences:

Consider also the following paragraph with run-on sentence errors.

I love cupcakes they are so delicious and fun to eat my favorite kind is chocolate with lots of frosting on top I usually eat them at birthday parties or when we bake at home we make them with sprinkles and sometimes candy too my sister likes vanilla but I think it’s too plain I always ask for extra icing because it’s the best part and I could eat five cupcakes in one day if my mom let me!

As you read, notice where you would place the punctuation, and where you may be uncertain where the punctuation would be placed based on the intended message.

Click the audio icon to hear the passage read aloud.

Why does it matter?

Clarity in expressing intended meaning is the principal purpose for teaching students about sentence fragments and run-on sentences.

When students are confident and nimble in being able to express their ideas, students can more purposefully edit their writing as part of producing and potentially publishing their work.

Readers (or consumers of text) have a greater chance of comprehending the intended meaning of a written passage when the ideas flow in complete sentences that are related well.

How do I teach this?

The strength of the writing process is that students can be encouraged to create and draft without being overly concerned with sentence, spelling and grammatical errors when they first start. The goal in the inital stage is for students to get their ideas down.

It’s at the editing stage that students can use their own work to examine, for example, their sentence structure. Reading text aloud can be helpful to hearing where the natural pauses are in the way in which a student is trying to get their message across. This can provide the “teachable moment” for students to identify and correct sentence fragments and run-on sentences. It’s also when students can explore multiple ways to express their ideas in functionally correct sentences.

Notice the natural pauses that happened in the audio recording above, as the reader read the chocolate cupcake paragraph aloud. See where the punctuation corrections made the most sense to this reader.

Peer editing is another useful learning opportunity for students to learn about clarity in their expression of ideas, particularly in using complete sentences. Have students read aloud their writing to  a partner. Or, have students read each others’ writing aloud to “hear” where the natural pauses should be to convey the desired message

If some students are having difficulty identifying and correcting sentence structure errors, small group explicit instruction can be a helpful response.

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Online Resources:

TVOlearn

https://tvolearn.com/pages/grade-5-language-writing-learning-activity-10

Quill Connect

https://www.quill.org/tools/connect

Instagram: TVOlearn video for run-on sentences link: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI18JBcyuxT/

“Teacher Winnie” video for run-on sentences

Link: https://www.tvokids.com/school-age/videos/language-homework-zone-run-sentence