Fix two BIG errors in English writing!

Stop making the two most common errors in English writing: run-on sentences and comma splices. Write better email at work and score higher on your IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC, or PTE. These mistakes occur when two sentences are combined incorrectly into one sentence. I'll show you how to correct these mistakes with a period, a semi-colon, a compound sentence, and a complex sentence! One lesson, so much progress!

Test your understanding by taking the quiz at https://www.engvid.com/fix-two-big-errors-in-english-writing/

Next, watch these videos to keep improving:
1. The Secret to Great Writing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8pIidfrSG4&index=2&list=PLxSz4mPLHWDZgp8e6i0oyXOOrTAAaj0O7
2. The Top 10 Most Confusing Words for Advanced English Learners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5pDRnCHbZo&index=25&list=PLxSz4mPLHWDZgp8e6i0oyXOOrTAAaj0O7

#writing
#LearnEnglish
#engvid


TRANSCRIPT

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. In this lesson I'll show you how to avoid the two most common errors made in English writing, and also how to fix them. Okay? So, these two errors are: The run-on sentence and the comma splice.

So, what does that mean? Well, what happens in both these cases is that two sentences are incorrectly joined into one sentence. In one case, the run-on sentence, it's incorrectly joined because there's no punctuation; and in the comma splice, it's incorrectly joined with a comma. Okay? Let's have a look at some examples so you understand exactly what I mean.

So, the first one: "I like your haircut it looks really good." Now, what happened here? We have a subject and a verb, and a sentence here: "I like your haircut." So this sentence is really a sentence by itself; it should end there in some way. Okay? Later we're going to look at exactly how to fix it; there are a few options. But the writer wrote right after that: "...it looks really good", so that's another sentence with a subject and a verb. Right? We have it here. All right? So, this is incorrect, and this is an example of a run-on sentence, because it's two sentences with no punctuation.

Let's take a look at this one: "I like your haircut, it looks really good." Well, it still should be two separate sentences in some way, or correctly joined, but it's not. It was only joined with a comma, which is incorrect. Okay? So this is an example of the comma splice, which is basically these two sentences were combined into one incorrectly with a comma.

Let's take a look at another example. "My brother is a doctor he works at a hospital." So, by now you can probably tell me: Here we have... "My brother" is the subject, "is" is the verb; "he" is the subject, "works" is the verb, but these are two sentences. Right? But what happened? The writer wrote them as one long sentence. "My brother is a doctor he works at a hospital." And really, we needed some kind of break here, and the same thing here. So this was... Sorry. An example of a run-on sentence. Right?

And this one: "My brother is a doctor, he works at a hospital." But, again, we cannot join this kind of... These two sentences with a comma. So this was a mistake called a comma splice.

Now, you're saying to me: "Does a comma really make all that difference?" Yeah, it does, and especially if you're appearing for any kind of exam-okay?-any kind of English exam, like the IELTS, or the TOEFL, or the TOEIC, or the PTE, or anything else; or if you're submitting an assignment in school, or in college, or in university; or if you're writing an email. An email, you're just going to look quite unprofessional; but in school or in any academic situation, you're going to lose marks for sure in your writing with this mistake. Why? Because it's a very basic mistake. Okay? It's not a sophisticated, advanced mistake; it's a basic mistake that you need to know in English. "What is a complete sentence? And how to create a complex sentence or anything else." Okay? So, next we're going to look at how to fix these mistakes.

All right, are you with me? Let's take a look at a new example. "People are buying books online bookstores are closing." All right? So right now, the way it is up here, this is a mistake. This is, which one? Run-on sentence or comma splice? It's a run-on sentence. Okay? If it had had a comma here, then it would be a comma splice. But one way or the other, we have two sentences which are incorrectly joined and made into one sentence.

So, how can we fix it? So, here, first I'm going to show you two easier solutions that you can use. So, the first one is to separate the two sentences with a period. For example: "People are buying books online." (Period). And then, of course, because now we have a new sentence, we need to make this a capital: "Bookstores are closing." All right? Got it? Separate them with a period. Separate the two sentences, and start the new sentence with a capital letter.
[…]