Dr. Stovall
English 50 section 3862
6 February 2013
Passing the Drama Queen In order to punctuate sentences correctly writers must understand certain rules and concepts. A clause is a word group containing a subject and a verb. The two types of clauses are independent and subordinate. An independent clause contains a subject and a verb and can stand alone as a complete sentence. A subordinate clause contains a subordinate conjunction in addition to a subject. A phrase is a group of words that do not contain both a subject and a verb. Three common sentence errors are the fragment, the comma-splice, and the run-on sentence. A fragment is a clause or subordinate clause punctuated as a sentence. A run-on sentence is a word group containing two or more independent clauses without proper punctuation separating them. A comma splice is a type of sentence error that consists of two independent clauses punctuated with only a comma. Stewart Pidd deserves a “D” on his paper “Skating Rules” because he makes many punctuation errors.
Pidd makes a sentence fragment error. He writes, “I don’t like Mr. T`s teaching method. His little step-by-step system for learning.” The mistake occurs between the words “methods” and “his.” Pidd punctuates the phrase, “his little teaching methods” with only a period. He can fix this error by connecting the phrase to a nearby sentence or by converting it into a sentence. To connect the phrase, Pidd must replace the period from the nearby sentence with a comma. He can convert the phrase by making the phrase a subject and adding a predicate.
Pidd makes a subordinate clause error. He writes “When he canters out to his Corvette. He needs to look out” with a period. He can fix this error by combining the subordinate clause to a nearby sentence or by converting it to an independent clause. To connect the clause Pidd needs to omit the period after the subordinate clause or replace it with a comma. He can convert the