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Standard English Conventions: Boundaries — Between Sentences

Where one sentence has to stop and the next has to start, drawn as blocks with joints: run-ons, splices, fragments, and the four repairs that all work.

9 topics · 36 questions

Each topic is a path, not a menu: work down it in order and every question builds on the one above. Click any of them to watch the answer draw itself.

What Counts as a Complete Sentence

  1. How it worksHow does a naming half plus a tensed half produce the shortest string of words able to stand alone?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through checking 'Although the kiln reached 1200 degrees overnight' for a subject, a verb, and a finished thought.
  3. Going furtherWhat happens to 'The ferry docked' the second you bolt the word 'Whenever' onto the front of it?
  4. Common mistakeWhy doesn't piling more words onto 'Fog rolled in' ever make it more of a sentence than it already is?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A marine lab is drafting captions for a display of 30 lake-bed sediment cores. Which choice is a complete sentence?

End Marks: Period, Question Mark, Exclamation Point

  1. How it worksHow does dropping a period between two fused blocks leave two structures that each stand up alone?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through punctuating 'The samples arrived frozen the lab thawed them slowly' with one end mark.
  3. Worked exampleFind the right end mark for 'How many species survived the eruption' when the words form a direct question.
  4. Common mistakeWhy isn't a question mark right after 'The geologist wondered where the ash had come from' when a question is being reported?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A park newsletter reports: 'The ranger counted 67 nesting pairs along the north ______ survey covered only half the island.' Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

The Semicolon as a Full Stop

  1. How it worksHow does a semicolon test both of its sides for a subject and a finite verb before it is allowed to stand?
  2. Common mistakeWhy isn't a semicolon simply a stronger comma you can drop in wherever a comma starts to look weak?
  3. Worked exampleShow me why 'The dam held; a testament to the engineers who built it' breaks the semicolon rule.
  4. Going furtherWhat changes about a semicolon when the two clauses it joins have nothing to do with each other?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
A pottery studio's log reads: 'The kiln ran for 31 hours without a ______ crew slept in shifts on the floor beside it.' Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

The Comma Splice

  1. How it worksHow does a comma fail as a joint between two blocks that can each stand alone?
  2. Common mistakeWhy doesn't a splice stop being an error when the two clauses are short and obviously about the same thing?
  3. Worked exampleWalk me through repairing 'Rain fell for six days, the river crested on the seventh' without deleting a word.
  4. Going furtherWhat happens to a splice when the second clause opens with a pronoun pointing straight back at the first?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A copy editor is checking 33 sentences in a draft about a flood. Which choice contains a comma splice?

Fused Sentences and Run-Ons

  1. How it worksHow do you find the seam in a run-on when the writer left you no punctuation to look at?
  2. Worked exampleFind the seam in 'Glaciers carve valleys the debris they drop builds moraines' and mark where one sentence ends.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't a run-on defined by length, given that a fused pair can be only six words long?
  4. Going furtherWhat happens to a run-on when the second clause opens with a word like 'however' that only sounds like a joint?
Your turnmedium1 of 3
A draft reads: 'Glaciers carve 18 deep valleys the debris they drop builds long moraines.' After which word does the first independent clause end?

Participial and Appositive Fragments

  1. How it worksHow does an -ing word impersonate the verb of a sentence while leaving that sentence with no verb at all?
  2. Worked exampleWalk me through turning the fragment 'A composer known for silence' into a real sentence two different ways.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't 'Marie Tharp, a geologist who mapped the ocean floor' a sentence, given that it names a person and a job?
  4. Going furtherWhat happens when you fold the fragment 'A photographer with a cracked lens' back into the sentence before it?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A caption is being drafted for a photograph taken 288 metres above a crater floor. Which choice is a fragment rather than a complete sentence?

Subordinate-Clause Fragments

  1. How it worksHow does a subordinator convert a finished sentence into a piece that has to lean on another one?
  2. Worked exampleShow me the two ways to fix 'While the kiln cooled overnight.' so that it becomes complete.
  3. Common mistakeWhy isn't every clause beginning with 'which' or 'that' allowed to end with a period?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A pottery studio is drafting a notice about a firing that lasted 28 hours. Which choice is a fragment?

Conjunctive Adverbs and the Splice They Hide

  1. How it worksHow does a conjunctive adverb differ from a coordinating conjunction when a comma is the only mark on offer?
  2. Common mistakeWhy doesn't wrapping 'therefore' in commas make it strong enough to fuse two independent clauses?
  3. Worked exampleWalk me through punctuating 'The trial failed however the data proved useful' so that no splice survives.
  4. Going furtherWhat changes when 'however' moves from the front of the second clause into the middle of it?
Your turneasy1 of 3
A medical journal reports: 'The trial enrolled 569 patients and ______ the data it produced proved useful to later work.' Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?

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