2018-02-01 Writing: corrections and fragments

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - Notes from all my classes
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Homework: complete and rewrite your essay, and try to fix the mistakes that I underlined today.
(I collect writing and take it with me, so in the future make sure you write on a page you can give to me.)
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Sentence Fragment: an incomplete piece of a sentence (written as if it were a complete sentence)
*If you want to transfer to a four-year college.
*Because it was raining when we left.
*Ron, who also takes night classes.
*The book that was on the table.
- The underlined clauses are not independent clauses, so they can’t be alone in a sentence.
Sentence fragments can also happen because there is no complete clause at all (usually due to no verb):
*Due to the weather.
*To transfer to a four-year college.
*For example, the book.
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Handout p. 186 practice 10A: Read the phrases and decide if each one is a Fragment or a complete Sentence.
3 F - There’s no verb.
4 S
5 F - Medical schools, [extra information] (there’s no main verb about what medical schools do)
6 S
7 F - relative clause, no main clause
8 S
9 S
10 F - relative clause, no main clause
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part B - Fix the fragments.
3 Nowadays, more women work in traditionally male occupations, such as the field of medicine.
  For example, the field of medicine used to be almost entirely male, but now half of all doctors are women.
5 There are now more women than men in medical schools, which didn’t use to accept many women.
  Medical schools didn’t use to accept many women.
7 Men are also working in traditionally female occupations, such as nursing, which used to be a woman’s profession.
  Nursing used to be a woman’s profession.
10 Her dream is to supervise the construction of bridges and dams.
   Her dream, which is to supervise the construction of bridges and dams, is becoming a reality.
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*Housekeepers, such as nursing - This means nursing is an example of housekeepers.
*Housekeepers, like nursing - This is wrong because “housekeepers” are people and “nursing” is a field
-> Housekeepers, like nurses, ... OR Housekeeping, like nursing, …
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The opposite problem from fragments is run-on sentences.
- Most sentences should only have one independent clause.
- If a sentence has two or more independent clauses, they need to be connected with a conjunction (FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
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*This sentence has two independent clauses, they are connected only with a comma. (“comma splice”)
This sentence has two independent clauses, and they are connected with a comma and conjunction. (OK)
It is possible to connect independent clauses with a semicolon; however, they need to be closely related.