18: Common Sentence Errors
- Page ID
- 315402
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In this chapter, you will learn how to
- Identify and correct run-ons, comma splices, and sentence fragments for clearer, more concise writing.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that, sooner or later, most of us will make a first impression on someone not in person but via something we have written that someone else will read. That writing potentially will give rise to all kinds of assumptions about us in that person: everything from our level of education or intelligence to our competence or ability to learn. This is of course hugely unfair to us, but we cannot change this. One thing we all can do to make the odds more favorable to us, though, is to come to respect the value of a carefully crafted essay, letter, or resume, and to learn the rules governing mechanical correctness in writing—that is, the rules governing grammar, spelling, and punctuation. While these rules may feel arbitrary or superfluous at times, showing that we can follow them consistently is a key to clear and effective writing, and that can mean the difference between an “A” and a “C” in the classroom, or between “Welcome to the team” and, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you” in the professional world.
As you proofread your essays throughout the semester, you will need to pay close attention to your writing at both the paragraph and sentence level to ensure that you are communicating as clearly and effectively as possible. (One trick you can employ to help you proofread more effectively is to print off a hard copy of your paper and read it out loud: getting away from the computer screen and hearing your own voice as you read changes how you interact with the text you have written; in effect, you become your own audience, reading/hearing it a little more like others might read or hear it.) During this process, you may come across a few specific types of sentence errors—most notably sentence fragments, run-ons, and comma splices. In this chapter, we will define these terms and work through examples so that you can easily identify and correct them in your own writing.