Overview
Some of the errors to watch for when editing an essay include sentence fragments and run-on sentences. Sentence fragments are phrases that may have subjects but lack verbs. Run-on sentences go on and on and on, and they may need to be separated into two or three separate sentences.
Sentence Fragments
A sentence fragment is part of a sentence. It may begin with a capital letter and end with a period, question mark, or exclamation point, but it is still incomplete. Some sentence fragments can be joined to a previous sentence. For example, the sentence, “Writing is often difficult, but it is also rewarding” can be followed by a fragment, “When ideas are down on paper, expressing just the thought the writer wants to present.” That fragment can be fixed by joining the two parts together, as in the sentence “Writing is often difficult, but it is also rewarding when ideas are down on paper, expressing just the thought the writer wants to present.”
Isolate Sentences
When editing the essay, read everything that starts with a capital letter and ends with a sentence closer such as a period, question mark, or exclamation point. Make sure to identify that each sentence has a subject and a verb. Pay special attention to verbs that end in –ed or –ing, because those endings can turn a verb into a noun or adjective, leaving a phrase without a verb. “The children singing new songs” is not a sentence. “The children were singing new songs “has a full subject, children, and a full verb, were singing.
Run-On Sentences
Run-on sentences are also called comma splices. They contain two or three independent clauses that are often separated by a comma or with no punctuation at all. They most often occur when the writer is trying to get ideas onto the page very quickly, what writers are doing when they have an essay due right away. That sentence is an example of a run on, and can be fixed. They most often occur when the writer is trying to get ideas onto the page very quickly, such as when an essay is due right away.
Finding and Fixing Run-On Sentences
Run-on sentences occur when independent clauses lack conjunctions such as and, but, or, nor, so, or yet. Sometimes run-on sentences can be found and fixed by separating the clauses into sentences of their own. They can be edited by reading sentence by sentence, to see if clauses can stand on their own. Sometimes, go through every sentence in the essay, marking every comma, in order to discover and fix comma splices.
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