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Comma Splices and
Fragment Sentences |
Comma splices and sentence fragments are two basic punctuation errors that you should NEVER have in any of your documents.
Comma Splice
Do not join two complete sentences with a comma.
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Wrong:
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The timber industry is cyclical , anything that increases economic dependency on it would decrease economic stability.
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| Wrong: |
Select the proper abstract, then a page will appear.
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| Wrong:
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Plagiarism is handing in work that is not your own , it is dishonest.
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The design uses a 31-stage LFSR, the layout is illustrated in Fig. 5.
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How can you correct these sentences?
- Change the comma to a period.
- Combine the sentences with a conjunction
Use a semicolon.
Fragment
Do no write incomplete sentences.
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Wrong:
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Although these facts are correct. |
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Because the nature of the system is complex. |
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Being a superior force in the league. |
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Which is important to their gaining our support. |
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Made up of the sum of all the propagation delays in the feedback path.
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What can you do to correct these sentence fragments? There are lots of possibilities. But note that each case, the thought is incomplete. Sentences need to state a complete idea.
- Although these facts are correct, the conclusions are
wrong.
(I added a clause to complete the thought.)
These facts are correct. (I deleted the subordinator,
“although.” You can start sentences with any subordinator, but you need to combine clauses that include a subordinator (dependent clauses) with a clause that stands on its own (independent clauses).
- The delay is made up of the sum of all the propagation delays in the feedback path. (Here, I
needed to add a subject that tells what is made up.)
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