Introduction
One of the keys to writing effectively is to ensure that you write in grammatically coherent sentences. There are two particularly common sentence errors which can adversely affect the quality of your writing – run-on sentences and fragment sentences. In this short article, we’ll explore both in turn, looking at how to spot them in your own writing and, more importantly, how to fix them.
Independent and dependent clauses
Before we look at run-on and fragment sentences, it’s important to understand the distinction between independent and dependent clauses.
An independent clause is a clause that can stand as a sentence in its own right.
A dependent clause is a clause that cannot stand as a sentence in its own right (to make any sense, it is dependent on another clause)
For example, the first sentence of this section comprises two clauses – ‘Before we look at run-on and fragment sentences‘ + ‘it’s important to understand the distinction between independent and dependent clauses‘
The first clause – ‘Before we look at run-on and fragment sentences‘ – is a dependent clause. It doesn’t mean anything on its own, it needs the second clause in order for it to make any sense.
By contrast, the second clause – ‘it’s important to understand the distinction between independent and dependent clauses’ – is an independent clause. If we took away the first clause, it could still stand as a sentence in its own right.
Once you recognise the distinction between independent and dependent clauses, you can easily understand and start to spot run-on and fragment sentences.
Run-on sentences
Run-on sentences occur when two or more independent clauses are joined together as one sentence, without the appropriate conjunction. For example, the following is a run-on sentence:
Design thinking is one way to foster effective leadership, this approach allows for a more agile and human-centred response to challenges.
Both Design thinking is one way to foster effective leadership and this approach allows for a more agile and human-centred response to challenges can stand on their own separate sentences. When they are joined together like this, they create a run-on.
How to fix run-on sentences
We have 2 options if we want to fix a run-on sentence:
Option 1 – make them two separate sentences:
Design thinking is one way to foster effective leadership. This approach allows for a more agile and human-centred response to challenges.
Option 2 – change one of the clauses into a dependent clause:
Design thinking is one way to foster effective leadership, allowing for a more agile and human-centred response to challenges.
(In this example we’ve turned the second clause from an independent to a dependent clause – ‘Allowing for a more agile and human-centred response to challenges‘ would not now stand on its own as a sentence, it has become dependent on the preceding clause.
Fragment sentences
Fragment sentences occur when a dependent clause is treated as if it were independent. For example:
Design thinking is one way to foster effective leadership. Allowing for a more agile and human-centred response to challenges.
In this example, the first sentence is an independent clause but the second is not – it cannot stand on its own as a grammatically coherent sentence, it’s a fragment and to make any sense it is dependent on the clause which precedes it.
How to fix fragment sentences
You may have noticed that fragment sentences are essentially just the reverse of run-on sentences. The good news is that once you learn to spot one, it’s likely you’ll also be able to spot the other. And the further good news is that our 2 options for fixing fragments mirror the fixes we’ve already seen for run-on sentences.
Option 1 – make them two separate sentences:
Design thinking is one way to foster effective leadership. This approach allows for a more agile and human-centred response to challenges.
Here we’ve simply rephrased the second clause so it does stand as an independent clause.
Option 2 – dock the dependent clause to the independent clause by making it all one sentence:
Design thinking is one way to foster effective leadership, allowing for a more agile and human-centred response to challenges.
Summing Up
Whilst the errors and rules we’ve discussed here can seem quite technical and impenetrable, once you understand dependent and independent clauses it becomes quite straightforward to understand how run-on and fragment sentences occur, and to spot them in your own writing.
These are by some distance the two most common sentence errors that crop up in writing at all levels. By being able to recognise and fix these errors in your own writing you will go a long way towards writing in the clear and effective manner expected of you at this level.
