TXE9_A1.07_EditingForCommonErrors_animation

Transcript

(Scene Start: Screen shows an essay titled, Villain Who? By Anthony Smith. Essay contains few paragraphs. Scene End.)

Hi, there! I'm grading some essays that students wrote about their summer adventures and noticed a

(Scene Start: Text on the screen, Common Writing Errors. Scene End.)

few common errors that I wanted to show you so that you don't make the same mistakes. Here's the first one.

(Scene Start: Text on the screen highlights one sentence. Because the view was so beautiful. Because, is encircled, as it is a sentence fragment. Scene End.)

'Because the view was so beautiful.' This is a sentence fragment. It begins with a subordinating conjunction 'because.' Let's look at the sentence before this one.

(Scene Start: The previous sentence is highlighted. It reads, I put my phone away. Scene End.)

I put my phone away.

(Scene Start: The two sentences are, I put my phone away. Because the view was so beautiful. Scene End.)

Ok. I understand what Anthony wants to express, and I know a few ways to correct this fragment. First, let's see what would happen if we just remove

(Scene Start: The word, Because, is removed, and the, is underlined. Scene End.)

'because.' I put my phone away. The view was so beautiful. This corrects the problem, but it sounds choppy. Instead, let's combine the sentences and bring back 'because.'

(Scene Start: The sentences are altered to read, I put my phone away because the view was so beautiful. Scene End.)

I put my phone away because the view was so beautiful. Great! Now, we've corrected the fragment, and the sentence flows naturally.

(Scene Start: Few paragraphs down, another line is highlighted. We went hiking we went kayaking. Text, run-on sentence, is written above it. Scene End.)

Here's another common error I see. We went hiking. We went kayaking. This is a run-on sentence because there are multiple clauses that aren't correctly punctuated.

(Scene Start: We went hiking, is encircled. We went kayaking, is encircled. Scene End.)

We went hiking is an independent clause, and we went kayaking is an independent clause. How can we correct Anthony's run-on sentence? A simple way is to add a period

(Scene Start: The sentence is altered to read, We went hiking. We went kayaking. Scene End.)

and make two sentences, but Anthony may not want too many simple sentences in his essay. We can add a comma and a coordinating

(Scene Start: The sentence is altered to read, We went hiking, and we went kayaking. Scene End.)

conjunction such as 'and.' That works, but there's another way to consider. A semicolon can take the place of the comma

(Scene Start: The sentence is altered to read, We went hiking; we went kayaking. Scene End.)

and the word 'and.' That works too.

(Scene Start: Few paragraphs down, another line is highlighted. It was a wonderful adventure, I was happy to return home. Scene End.)

Let's look at one more common mistake.

(Scene Start: It was a wonderful adventure, is underlined. Scene End.)

It was a wonderful adventure.

(Scene Start: I was happy to return home, is underlined. Scene End.)

I was happy to return home. Here, Anthony has combined two independent clauses with only a comma.

(Scene Start: The comma used between the sentences has an arrow pointing to it, and calling it comma splice. Scene End.)

This is a comma splice and it's easy to fix. The quickest way is to add a coordinating conjunction. In this case, Anthony should add the coordinating conjunction

(Scene Start: The sentence is altered to read, It was a wonderful adventure, but I was happy to return home. Scene End.)

'but.'

(Scene Start: Text on the screen, Common Writing Errors. Scene End.)

Our work here is done.

(Scene Start: Text on the screen, Common Writing Errors, sentence fragment, run-on sentence, comma splice. Scene End.)

Don't forget to look for these common errors when you're writing.