6th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 5 of 17
Sentence Repair
Fragments, run-ons and comma splices
What your child practices
Spotting sentence fragments, run-on sentences and comma splices, and choosing correct ways to fix them with periods, semicolons, joining words or dependent clauses.
New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 6L1; 6L2 · fixing fragments, run-ons and comma splices
How we explain it
Children can open this short lesson before they practice.
- A fragment is missing a subject or verb, or can’t stand alone.
- A run-on joins two sentences with nothing between them. A comma splice joins them with only a comma.
- Fix them with a period, a semicolon, a comma and a joining word, or a dependent clause.
Example: Fix this comma splice: “It was cold outside, I wore my warmest coat.” Two whole sentences are joined by only a comma. Make the first part a dependent clause with “because.” Answer: Because it was cold outside, I wore my warmest coat.
Sentence Repair in New York
In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 5 of 17 in 6th grade English Language Arts, after Agreement and before Commas & Clauses.
Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
Sort each one: complete sentence, fragment or run-on?
Sort into: ✅ Complete · 🧩 Fragment · 🚂 Run-on
- 📝Although Kenji was tired, he finished the race.
- 📝Whenever it snows in the mountains.
- 📝The tall girl with the green scarf.
- 📝Ana finished her book she started another one right away.
- 📝The bell rang everyone rushed outside.
- 📝My little brother loves dinosaurs.
✅ Complete: Although Kenji was tired, he finished the race., My little brother loves dinosaurs. · 🧩 Fragment: Whenever it snows in the mountains., The tall girl with the green scarf. · 🚂 Run-on: Ana finished her book she started another one right away., The bell rang everyone rushed outside.
Hint: A complete sentence has a subject, a verb and a complete thought. A run-on jams two sentences together with no punctuation.
Question 2
Is this a complete sentence, or does it have a problem?
Because it was raining, we played board games inside.
- Run-on (fused) sentence
- Comma splice
- Fragment
- Complete sentence
Complete sentence
Hint: It has a subject and a verb and expresses one complete thought.
Question 3
Is this a complete sentence, or does it have a problem?
It was cold outside, I wore my warmest coat.
- Complete sentence
- Run-on (fused) sentence
- Fragment
- Comma splice
Comma splice
Hint: Two complete sentences are joined with only a comma. That's a comma splice.
Question 4
Is this a complete sentence, or does it have a problem?
For example, the bright red maple leaves.
- Comma splice
- Run-on (fused) sentence
- Fragment
- Complete sentence
Fragment
Hint: It's missing a subject, a verb or a complete thought, so it can't stand alone. That's a fragment.
Question 5
Is this a complete sentence, or does it have a problem?
Leo forgot his lunch, his friend shared a sandwich.
- Complete sentence
- Run-on (fused) sentence
- Comma splice
- Fragment
Comma splice
Hint: Two complete sentences are joined with only a comma. That's a comma splice.
Question 6
Which is a correct way to fix this comma splice?
Leo forgot his lunch, his friend shared a sandwich.
- Leo forgot, his lunch, his friend shared a sandwich.
- Leo forgot his lunch his friend shared a sandwich.
- Because Leo forgot his lunch.
- Leo forgot his lunch; his friend shared a sandwich.
Leo forgot his lunch; his friend shared a sandwich.
Hint: A comma alone can't join two sentences. Use a period, a semicolon, a comma plus a joining word (and, but, so), or make one part dependent.