This deep dive covers 🔎 How to Spot Your Own Boundary Errors within Sentence-Boundary Control for GCSE English Language. Revise Sentence-Boundary Control in AO6 Technical Accuracy for GCSE English Language with 10 exam-style questions and 5 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 3 of 5 in this topic. Use this deep dive to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
🔎 How to Spot Your Own Boundary Errors
Three techniques to use during a final read-through of your exam writing:
- Read aloud (or mouthing the words): your breath will tell you where a sentence naturally ends. If you run out of breath before reaching a full stop, there is probably a run-on.
- The complete thought test: at every full stop, check: does the preceding sentence have a subject, a main verb, and a complete meaning? If any element is missing, it may be a fragment.
- Count your full stops: a paragraph of 80 words with only one full stop almost certainly contains run-on sentences. A paragraph with six full stops in 40 words may have fragments or choppy short sentences.
Quick Check: Fix this run-on into two correctly punctuated sentences: "The hotel was beautiful the lobby smelled of flowers."
"The hotel was beautiful. The lobby smelled of flowers." Two complete sentences, each with a subject and a verb. You could also use a semicolon — "The hotel was beautiful; the lobby smelled of flowers" — because the ideas are linked.
Practice questions for Sentence-Boundary Control
Which of the following is a run-on sentence?
Which of the following is a sentence fragment?