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Lesson 2 - Common Sentence Errors

This document outlines common sentence errors and learning objectives for students to identify and correct these errors. Key topics include sentence structure, fragments, run-on sentences, comma splices, misplaced modifiers, and dangling modifiers. The lesson aims to help students create grammatically correct and effective sentences in their writing.

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14 views26 pages

Lesson 2 - Common Sentence Errors

This document outlines common sentence errors and learning objectives for students to identify and correct these errors. Key topics include sentence structure, fragments, run-on sentences, comma splices, misplaced modifiers, and dangling modifiers. The lesson aims to help students create grammatically correct and effective sentences in their writing.

Uploaded by

itechzonepublication
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ENGLISH

COMPOSITION
MARK JEZREEL A. GABALES, LPT
COMMON
SENTENCE
ERRORS
LEARNING
OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

01 Differentiate between correct and incorrect sentence


constructions.
02 Identify and correct common sentence errors in given
sentences and paragraphs.

03 Create grammatically correct and effective sentences


in their own writing.
LESSON
CONTENTS
01 SENTENCE: DEFINITION AND STRUCTURE

02 SENTENCE FRAGMENTS

03 RUN-ON SENTENCES

04 COMMA SPLICES

05 MISPLACED MODIFIERS

06 DANGLING MODIFIERS
WHAT IS A
SENTENCE
?
WHAT IS A SENTENCE?

• A true sentence must have the following:


 A subject (what the sentence is about, the topic of the
sentence)
 A predicate (what is said about the subject)

You speak English.

Ram and Tara speak English when they work.

• If a group of words is missing any of these components, it is


not a real sentence.
SENTENCE FRAGMENTS

• A proper sentence has a subject, a verb that is linked to that


subject, and it presents a complete thought.

Unless there is a question on bio-ethics, I will do well in


the exam.
• A fragment is not a true sentence, though it is capitalized and
punctuated as if it were a sentence:

If there are no more malpractice suits, the hospital will


win its license renewal. However, no one can be sure of
the hospital’s future, Bbcause patients are very quick
to go to court.
SENTENCE FRAGMENTS

A group of words can contain a noun that looks like a subject and
a verb and still be a fragment:

Local agencies will become overcrowded and


ineffective unless the number of mental health
services is increased.

In August of 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit Florida and


Louisiana with winds that clocked 175 mph, The
country’s worst natural disaster of the century.
SENTENCE FRAGMENTS

Another way to revise a fragment is to turn the fragment into a


stand-alone sentence:

Prospectors invaded the newly discovered gold field.


Some in wagons, some on horseback, and a few in
heavily laden canoes.

The second part is a fragment because it has no verb. We can


still have two separate sentences here; we just have to provide a
verb to make the second part a sentence:
SENTENCE FRAGMENTS

1. Exhausted by the long hot drive. We reached Omaha at


midnight.
2. He left the game early. Knowing his team wouldn’t win.
3. Just because I totaled the car. I lost my insurance.
4. After the Congress had passed the bill. The President vetoed it.
5. Actors like to visit remote islands. Where they will not be
recognized.
ARE ALL FRAGMENTS
WRONG?
Writers sometimes use fragments deliberately
for emphasis or to convey a sense of
excitement.

The intentional fragments below are from


advertising print media about the 2010 movie
The Social Network:
Splendid entertainment from a master
storyteller.

A soon-to-be classic.
RUN-ON
SENTENCES

• A run-on is a sentence construction error that occurs when two


independent clauses (complete sentences) are not separated
by a coordinating conjunction or any punctuation.

Walk with your feet dance with your heart.

• “Walk with your feet” is a complete sentence. “Dance with


your heart” is also a complete sentence. We need some
punctuation between the two sentences. Without punctuation,
we have a run-on.
RUN-ON
SENTENCES

• A run-on sentence can be very short.

I’ll cut you choose.

• “I’ll cut” is a complete sentence. “You choose” is also a


complete sentence. Because there is no punctuation between
them, this is a run-on sentence.
RUN-ON
SENTENCES

Peter dawdled on his way home he was late for supper.


Peter dawdled on his way home, so he was later for supper.

We cannot find Eva anywhere everyone is worried.

I am enjoying this book it is well-written and interesting.

Thoreau went into the woods to simplify his life he also wanted
to live close to nature.
RUN-ON
SENTENCES
• One way to revise a run-on is to add a period and a capital
letter.

Thoreau went into the woods to simplify his life. He


also wanted to live close to nature.

Thoreau went into the woods to simplify his life; he


also wanted to live close to nature.

Thoreau went into the woods to simplify his life,


because he also wanted to live close to nature.
RUN-ON
SENTENCES

• A second way to revise a run-on sentence is to add a


semicolon.

Some working people get a raise every year however,


inflation often leaves them with no increase in buying
power.

Some working people get a raise every year; however,


inflation often leaves them with no increase in buying
power.
COMMA SPLICES

• A comma splice occurs when two complete sentences are


separated only by a comma.

Wearing a seat belt is not just a good idea, it’s the law.

• “Wearing a seat belt is not just a good idea” is a complete


sentence. “It’s the law” is also a complete sentence. If we want
to keep them both in one sentence, we need more than just a
comma to hold them together.
COMMA SPLICES

• One way to revise a comma splice is to add a period and a


capital letter.

Ethan didn’t show up for class until it was half over,


then he asked the professor if he could leave early.

Ethan didn’t show up for class until it was half over.


Then he asked the professor if he could leave early.
COMMA SPLICES

• Another way to revise a comma splice is to replace the comma


with a semicolon.

No one knows where Alex went, she just resigned


from her job and took to the open road on her scooter.

No one knows where Alex went; she just resigned


from her job and took to the open road on her scooter.
MISPLACED
MODIFIERS

• A misplaced modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that is


improperly separated from the word it modifies or describes.
• Typically, modifiers are adjectives and adverbs, but they can
also be prepositional phrases or even entire clauses.

On her way home, Jean found a gold man’s watch.

• Misplaced modifiers can usually be corrected by moving the


modifier to a more sensible place in the sentence, generally
next to the word it should be modifying.
MISPLACED
MODIFIERS

Our food stayed in the bag while it was hot.

The torn student’s book lay on the desk.

There’s nothing like a chocolate cone of ice cream on a hot


day.

We glued together the vase we broke quietly.


MISPLACED
MODIFIERS

She wore a bicycle helmet on her head that was too large.

They bought a kitten for my brother they call Shadow.

The patient was referred to the physician with stomach


pains.

Dolger discovered an ancient Mayan civilization using


astronavigation.
DANGLING
MODIFIERS

• A dangling modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that are not


modifying anything in the sentence because the word has
been left out.
• When there is nothing that the word, phrase, or clause can
modify, the modifier is said to dangle.

Riding in the sports car, the world whizzed by rapidly.

In the incorrect sentence, riding in the sports car is dangling.


You are left wondering who is riding in the sports car.
DANGLING
MODIFIERS

TIPS ON HOW TO CORRECT DANGLING MODIFIERS


• Name the appropriate or logical doer of the action as the
subject of the main clause.

Having arrived late for practice, a written excuse was


needed.

• Change the phrase that dangles into a complete introductory


clause by naming the doer of the action.

Without knowing his name, it was difficult to


DANGLING
MODIFIERS

TIPS ON HOW TO CORRECT DANGLING MODIFIERS


• Combine the phrase and main clause into one.

To improve his results, the experiment was done


again.

To revise, combine the phrase and the main clause into one
sentence. The revision might look something like this:

He improved his results by doing the experiments


again.
DANGLING AND MISPLACED
MODIFIERS

Walking home at night, the trees looked like spooky aliens.

Riding in the sports car, the world whizzed by rapidly.

To win the spelling bee, Luis and Gerard should join our
team.

Painting for three hours at night, the kitchen was finally


finished by Maggie.

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