Fragments and Run-Ons

Written by J.L. (A/F block); edited by Mrs. Adkins: Fragments and run-on sentences are two different grammatical issues. Fragments are pieces of a sentence that are either missing the subject or the verb. An example of a fragment is as follows: "The chair." A run-on sentence is two or more independent clauses that run together into one sentence. An example of a run on sentence is as follows: "The dog ate and the cat took a nap and the hamster napped." There is some conflict regarding run-on sentences and fragments. Fragments are interesting, because they can only be fragments if they are missing the noun or the verb. When people are texting, most of the time, they are using fragments (like "be right back" and "laugh out loud"). Sometimes, people forget to use commas or periods and create run-on sentences. When I (J.L.) was younger, I would forget to use periods and would write a giant run-on sentence instead of a paragraph.