Grammar - Lindblom Math and Science Academy



Grammar

Round 4 Day 1

Topic 1: Run-ons, Comma Splices, Fused Sentences, Fragments

Run-ons, comma splices, and fused sentences are all names given to compound sentences that are not punctuated correctly. The best way to avoid such errors is to punctuate compound sentences correctly by using one or the other of these rules.

1. Join the two independent clauses with one of the coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet), and use a comma before the connecting word.

_________________________, and _________________________.

He enjoys walking through the country, and he often goes backpacking on his vacations.

2. When you do not have a connecting word (or when you use a connecting word other than and, but, for, or nor, so, or yet between the two independent clauses) use a semicolon (;).

__________________________;_____________________________.

He often watched TV when there were only reruns; she preferred to read instead.

or

__________________________; however,____________________.

He often watched TV when there were only reruns; however, she preferred to read instead.

So, run-ons and fused sentences are terms describing two independent clauses which are joined together with no connecting word or punctuation to separate the clauses.

Incorrect: They weren't dangerous criminals they were detectives in disguise.

Correct: They weren't dangerous criminals; they were detectives in disguise.

Incorrect: I didn't know which job I wanted I was too confused to decide.

Correct: I didn't know which job I wanted, and I was too confused to decide.

Fragmented Sentences

A complete sentence will have at least one subject and one verb. Sentences are considered fragments when they are missing either a subject or a verb. Consider the following two fragment sentences and their corrected versions:

• No Subject: Went to the store to buy brownie mix.

Added Subject: My dad went to the store to buy brownie mix.

• No Verb: Brownie mix at the store expensive.

Added Verb: Brownie mix at the store was expensive.

In addition to containing a subject and verb, a complete sentence will express a complete thought. Consider the following two sentences and their revised versions.

• Incomplete: When he went to the checkout counter to pay for the brownie mix.

Complete: When he went to the checkout counter to pay for the brownie mix, he got distracted by a display of cake mixes.

• Incomplete: The variety of yummy cake mixes.

Complete: The variety of yummy cake mixes convinced him that he’d rather bake a cake than brownies tonight.

The following sentences are comma splices. For each sentence, suggest two possible revisions.

1. I didn’t like the movie, it was way too long.

2. She and Jerry are getting married in the fall, they didn’t want a summer wedding.

3. My favorite bands are all really loud, playing loud music is good for stress relief.

Some of the sentences below are fragments. Play editor on the sentences. Could you tell these writers why the fragments are incomplete sentences? Also, how would you tell the writers to fix them?

1. Then I attended Morris Junior High. A junior high that was a bad experience.

2. In the seventh grade every young boy goes out for football. To prove to himself and his parents that he is a man.

3. She opened the door and let us into her home. Not realizing at the time that we would never enter that door in her home again.

4. Making up his mind quickly. Jim ordered two dozen red roses for his wife. Hoping she would accept his apology.

5. They were all having a good time. Until one of Joe's oldest and best friends had a little too much to drink.

Some of the sentences below are run-ons. Play editor on the sentences. Could you tell these writers why the run-ons are incorrect? Also, how would you tell the writers to fix them?

6. We were really busy at the restaurant tonight. I waited tables straight through from 3:30 to 11:30 I never sat down for even one break.

7. My dog had to go to the vet today. She cried and cried when the clipped her toenails, but then she was fine when they gave her a shot!

8. The book we had to read for class was really long my teacher doesn’t seem to understand that we have other classes to read for too.

Grammar

Round 4 Day 2

Topics 1 and 2: Run-ons, Comma Splices, Fused Sentences, Fragments; RCFF-Review

The sentences below appeared in papers written by students. Act as their editor, marking a C if the sentences in the group are all complete and an F if any of the sentences in the group is a fragment. Could you tell these writers why the fragments are incomplete sentences?

____ 1. The scene was filled with beauty. Such as the sun sending its brilliant rays to the earth and the leaves of various shades of red, yellow, and brown moving slowly in the wind.

____ 2. He talked for fifty minutes without taking his eyes off his notes. Like other teachers in that department, he did not encourage students' questions.

____ 3. Within each group, a wide range of features to choose from. It was difficult to distinguish between them.

____ 4. A few of the less serious fellows would go into a bar for a steak dinner and a few glasses of beer. After this meal, they were ready for anything.

____ 5. It can be really embarrassing to be so emotional. Especially when you are on your first date, you feel that you should be in control.

____ 6. The magazine has a reputation for a sophisticated, prestigious, and elite group of readers. Although that is a value judgment and in circumstances not a true premise.

____7. As Christmas grows near, I find myself looking back into my childhood days at fun-filled times of snowball fights. To think about this makes me happy.

Rewrite the following paragraph to eliminate run-on sentences. Use correct punctuation, capitalization, and appropriate conjunctions as needed.

The most popular feature of the Internet is e-mail, it allows you to exchange messages electronically with people anywhere in the world. It is fast, it is efficient, it is inexpensive. Knowing good “Netiquette” keeps you from embarrassing yourself or offending others, you can have fun using emoticons and creative abbreviations which enliven you e-mail, they also reveal some of your personality. But you also need to be careful, email isn’t completely private.

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Grammar

Round 4 Day 3

Topics 1, 2, and 3: Run-ons, Comma Splices, Fused Sentences, Fragments; RCFF-Review; Coordination in Compound Sentences

Rewrite the paragraph below, correcting any run-on sentences.

Have you ever visited the Internet, it is a fascinating experience, you can research topics for a school project, you can just go “window shopping.” Many young people have set up their own websites Jerry is an example. He has an account with a service provider, his provider gives him three megabytes of storage for his files, Jerry started a site about his favorite sports teams.

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Coordination in the Compound Sentence

Coordination confers equal value and significance on two or more elements in a sentence. You can use coordination to join words, phrases, and even independent clauses that could be sentences in their own right.

When you use coordination to combine sentences, the result is a compound sentence. Compound sentences can be created using coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) and correlative conjunctions (not only…but; either…or; just as…so also); however, you can also use a semicolon alone or coupled with a conjunctive adverb (however, indeed, thus, moreover, in fact, therefore, nevertheless), as we’ve done in this sentence.

Punctuation of Sentences that Contain Coordination

A comma indicates a pause in a sentence; a semicolon indicates a full stop in a sentence that joins two complete thoughts, as you can see in this very sentence. Using a semicolon is an effective way to establish coordination between two sentences. Think of the semicolon as a fulcrum between two equal weights, such as you find in the middle of a seesaw or teeter-totter; you know what happens when the two sides try to support different weights.

Comma Splices

If you omit the conjunction or semicolon and instead place only a comma between main clauses, you are splicing the clauses. Grammatically, splicing means “joining loosely or ineffectively.” You can eliminate a comma splice by using a coordinating conjunction, a semicolon, or even a period.

Incorrect

She began by sitting and thinking, soon she was just sitting.

Correct

Comma and a coordinating conjunction:

Semicolon:

Semicolon and a conjunctive adverb:

Two separate sentences:

As you can see, the correct way to fix a comma splice is to divide it into two separate sentences or turn it into a compound sentence.

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Rhetorical and Stylistic Strategy

Writers make deliberate decisions regarding coordination. On the most basic level, writers use coordinating conjunctions to smooth two shorter sentences into a single longer one that is more cohesive. In the following example, it refers to the theory that parents can “mold their children like clay.”

It has distorted the choices faced by others as they try to balance their lives, and it has multiplied the anguish of parents whose children haven’t turned out as hoped.

-Sven Birkerts

If Birkerts had put a period after lives and begun the next sentence with it, the result would have been two abrupt sentences. The simple addition of and that turns two simple sentences into a compound sentence also adds to the fluency of the prose. In this case, joining the two also emphasizes that the two results (distorting and multiplying) are equally detrimental.

The inclusion or exclusion of conjunctions may have a strong rhetorical effect, influencing pace and emphasis, and adding complexity. The use of many conjunctions has the effect of speeding up the pace of a sentence, and stressing the connections among things linked, as you will see in the following example of polysyndeton.

Polysyndeton: the deliberate use of a series of conjunctions.

When you get to college you may study history and psychology and literature and mathematics and botany.

Omission of conjunctions, on the other hand, has the ironic effect of separating ideas more distinctly, giving them greater emphasis. This is called asyndeton.

Asyndeton: the deliberate omission of conjunctions

From his parents he received his wardrobe, his car, his tuition, his vacation, his attitude.

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Eliminate the comma splices in the following sentences.

1. Ms. Suh is fabulous, her students are fabulous too.

2. Danielle would love to go out with you this evening, she has to wash her hair.

3. Danielle is lying about why she does not want to go out with you, it is wrong to do that.

4. Greg, Demetrius, and David take Lang and Comp, it is their favorite class. (

5. Joan likes to be dramatic, Ms. Suh likes to tease him for it.

6. Maryam loves to check out a book from the library, sit down with a snack, and read for hours, she reads books in both English and Arabic, so selecting a title sometimes takes her a long time.

7. Either my parents will drive us to the movies, we will take the bus.

8. Lauren wants to buy a hybrid car this year, as a result, she will spend less money on gas and also help the environment.

9. Antionette loves to play soccer, field hockey, and volleyball, however, she is so busy at school now that she has no time to play any sports.

10. Richard did very well on the first grammar quiz, it was not difficult for him.

Grammar

Round 4 Day 4

Topics 1, 2, 3, 4: Run-ons, Comma Splices, Fused Sentences, Fragments; RCFF-Review; Coordination in Compound Sentences; Parallel Structures

Combine each of the following pairs of sentences into a smoother sentence by using a coordinating conjunction or a conjunctive adverb. Remember to punctuate correctly.

1. Marshawn has very neat handwriting. Donalisa has very neat handwriting too.

2. Cell phones have become practically ubiquitous. Some people like them. Some people hate them.

3. Digital cameras have made taking pictures easier. Digital cameras have made developing pictures cheaper.

4. Francisco learned how to fix computers in colloquium. This was one of the most important classes that he took. He fixes computers all the time.

5. When Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations he was paid by the word. When Victor Hugo wrote Les Miserables he was paid by the word also. Some speculate that this contributed to the descriptive style of both authors.

Parallel Structures

Parallel Structures

Sentences or parts of sentences are parallel when structures within them take the same form. Parallelism is important at the level of the word, the phrase, and the clause.

Examples:

Parallel words:

Chicago is home to many universities, museums, and libraries.

Parallel phrases:

Chicago is famous for housing the Sears Tower, publishing the Chicago Tribune, and hosting the Chicago Marathon.

Parallel clauses:

Because the students loved reading and because the students loved writing, the students loved going to Ms. Suh’s Language and Comp class.

Parallel sentences:

The students came. The students saw. The students conquered.

Rhetorical and Stylistic Strategy

Use parallelism to create a rhythm and emphasize key ideas in your writing. Parallelism not only ensures similarity of form but also enhances coherence by clearly relating paired or opposite units.

Faulty Parallelism

Faulty parallelism occurs when equal grammatical structures are not used to express equal or related ideas. Faulty parallelism can involve words, phrases, and clauses in series as well as in comparisons.

1. Nonparallel Words, Phrases, and Clauses in Series

Nonparallel Structure: Museums, theaters, and listening to live music make Chicago an exciting destination.

Corrected Sentence:

Nonparallel Structure: Demetrius and Julian rowed past the boathouse, under the bridge, and the boat crossed the finish line.

Corrected:

Nonparallel Structure: Mr. Demski says that I have a very strong voice, but I sing off key.

Corrected:

2. Nonparallel Comparisons

Nonparallel Structure: Gella prefers Flamin’ Hots to eating Doritos.

Corrected:

Nonparallel Structure: Cindy enjoys watching movies as much as attending concerts thrills Greg.

Corrected:

Exercise #1: Recognizing Parallel Structures

Underline the parallel words, phrases, or clauses in each of the following sentences.

1. “A penny saved is a penny earned.” (Benjamin Franklin)

2. Was this act the work of a genius or a lunatic?

3. This situation is a problem not only for the students but also for the teachers.

4. After you finish your homework and before you check your email, please do your chores.

5. At school, Franklin proved himself excellent in reading, fair in writing, and poor in math.

Exercise #2: Correcting Faulty Parallelism

Correct the faulty parallelism in the following sentences.

1. My new exercise program and going on a strict diet will help me lose the weight I gained over the holidays.

2. Philadelphia is considered the birthplace of freedom, and it is the birthplace of our nation.

3. The city extends between the two rivers, consists of a regular grid, and it includes four public squares.

4. A new job is likely to cause a person anxiety and working extra hours to make a good impression.

5. A competent doctor will assess a patient’s physical symptoms, and mental attitude will also be considered.

Exercise #3

Identify the examples of parallel structure in the following sentences and explain their effect.

1. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organization ties here. – Martin Luther King Jr.

2. Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. – Martin Luther King Jr.

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