← Chapter 12
English Composition · Chapter 12

The Boundary Repair Shop

A comma splice, a fused sentence and a fragment are all the same underlying problem: a container that does not fit its contents. First diagnose the specimen, then try each of the five repairs and read what it does — because the repairs are not interchangeable. Each one makes a different claim about how your two ideas relate.
Specimens
The sentence as written
Step 1 · What is wrong with it?
Step 2 · Choose a repair
A run-on is not a long sentence. Length has nothing to do with it. A sixty-word sentence can be perfectly punctuated, and a fused sentence can be eight words long. What matters is only this: where does one independent clause end, and what did you put at the seam?
The repaired sentence
Diagnose the specimen on the left, then choose a repair. The rebuilt sentence appears here with the seam highlighted.
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Diagnosed
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Repairs tried
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Best fits found
The five-second clause test
Put a lead word in front of a perfectly good clause and watch it stop being able to stand alone. That single word is what creates every fragment you will ever write.