ABE Writing: Conjunctions, Fragments, and Run-On Sentences

Yay, Grammar!

I know you guys all love my sarcasm... Lol.

Coordinating Conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions (C.C.) are words that join equally important ideas. When you use a C.C. to join a complete sentence to a fragment sentence, you do NOT need a comma. When you use a C.C. to join to complete sentences, you DO need a comma directly before the C.C. The coordinating conjunctions are:

FANBOYS -- For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So

Examples:

• John and Steven talked to Cody on break. (No comma)
• Jessica walked and laughed in the hallway. (No comma)
• Emily went outside, and she was cold. (Yes comma)

Subordinating Conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions (S.C.) are words that show relationships between ideas. S.C.'s also make one idea more important than the other idea. When you use a S.C. at the beginning of a sentence, you will have a comma where the ideas break. When you use a S.C. in the middle of a sentence, you do not need the comma. Subordinating conjunctions include:

• after 
• although 
• as 
• because 
• before 
• even though 
• if, even if 
• in order that 
• once 
• provided that 
• since 
• so [that implied], so that 
• than 
• that 
• though 
• unless 
• when, whenever 
• where, wherever, whereas 
• whether 
• while

Examples:

• Because he was cold, Jeremy put on his jacket. (Yes comma)
• Jeremy put on his jacket because he was cold. (No comma)
• Erica missed the chair when she sat down. (No comma)
• When she sat down, Erica missed the chair. (Yes comma)

Fragments of Sentences

Sentences fragments are words that don't express a complete thought. Fragments may be missing a subject or an action, or they might be a subordinated clause (a sentence beginning with one of the S.C.'s). Sentence fragments are not necessarily short! Clauses can be 20 words long and still be fragments.

Examples and corrections:

• Worked hard throughout the day. (Missing subject)
• The students worked hard throughout the day.
• The girl who was in orientation with us. (Missing an action)
• The girl who was in orientation with us didn't show up today for class.
• Whenever it was rainy and cold outside. (Subordinated clause)
• Whenever it was rainy and cold outside, the students complained.

Run-On Sentences

Two complete ideas cannot be joined to each other just with a space or a comma, or they will create a run-on sentence. We've already explored how to join two ideas with our C.C.'s and S.C.'s, but you can also fix a run-on sentence with a semicolon (;). Here is a review of the run-on sentence fixes:

Run-on: Frank wanted a hot breakfast so he went to Cracker Barrel. (Remember a C.C. like "so" is not strong enough to hold two complete ideas together!)

Fix 1: Frank wanted a hot breakfast, so he went to Cracker Barrel. (Add comma before C.C.)

Fix 2: Frank wanted a hot breakfast; therefore, he went to Cracker Barrel. (Add semicolon, transition, and comma)

Fix 3: Because Frank wanted a hot breakfast, he went to Cracker Barrel. (Use S.C. with comma)

Fix 4: Frank went to Cracker Barrel because he wanted a hot breakfast. (Use S.C. without comma)

Fix 5: Frank wanted a hot breakfast. He went to Cracker Barrel. (Use a period between thoughts)

See? That wasn't so bad, was it? :)

Until next time, peeps.

-Jc