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Record Number: W7N06A
Transcript of the Student's Text
Coded for Statistical Analysis
Statistics: Table of Contents

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My Brother

      \-\My brother's name is Tom  \R\RO#05he is almost tewenty-one. \-\He had a brown car {with a bumbing stearo.} \-\He had three cars {before this one.} \-\He had a ford and two chevey.=CC  \-\And now he has a another chevey \C\but this one is bad \R\RO#06it has park and all that stuff=CC {in the floor.} \-\My brother is nice {to me} \R\RO#07he takes me {to dances} [RAVFwhen he goes.] \-\And then [LAVFwhen he go riding*GerNu01] he let's me go*INFDO02 sometime. \-\But [LAVFwhen he get's {with his friends}] then he won't let me go*INFDO04 {with him.} \-\But he can be nice sometime {like [RNOPwhen he took me to see*INFAV08 Chuck Brown over {at the dominion}]\R\RO#08it was fun to. \F\Frag#03And [RAVFwhen he took me over {to Woodstock.}] \-\I had some fun then [RAVFbecause they had a party {over there.}\F\Frag#04And [RAVFbecause I got to play basketball {with the big boys} and win.=CV] \-\Then [LAVFwhen it gets dark] we all go over {to McDonald} and eat.=CV \-\And then we go {to a friends house} and go stay=CV {for a while.} \-\Then would come back {in town} and go=CV {on the lot} [RAJFwhere my friends are.] \F\Frag#05And stay there {for about and hour.} \-\Then we would come home#NuA01 and and which*=CV some basketball {on TV.}  \-\And then [LAVFwhen basketball goes off] we would turn the TV {to HBO} \R\RO#09that's the chennel [RAJFwhere all the good movie come on]
 

* "watch"

Analysis of Fragments, Comma-Splices and Run-ons

Frag #03 -- Length and Complexity: This could be an afterthought, but I'm attributing it to length and complexity because the fragment is, in essence a second example, parallel to the first "when" clause. An adult might write, "But he can be nice sometime like [RNOPwhen he took me to see Chuck Brown over at the dominion, [which was fun too]], and [RAVFwhen he took me over to Woodstock.]" The "adult" version is a 31-word main clause, more than three times this writer's 9.8 average, and 1.5 times the longest main clause in the passage (19 words). I would probably ignore this error unless the student were analyzing this passage for clause structure. In that case, I would probably explain the "adult" version and perhaps add something such as "Wow! You almost hit a home run in a big league ball park!" 
     I would, however, also caution against striving for length -- control is more important. (Gregg Maddox, a control pitcher, generally does better than Randy Johnson, a speed pitcher.) In this case, the reader can be confused because the fragment can also go with the following main clause: "And [RAVFwhen he took me over to Woodstock,] I had some fun  [RAVFbecause they had a party over there.]"
Frag #04 -- Length and Complexity:  This could be an afterthought, but I have counted it as length because the fragment consists of a subordinate clause that is parallel to that in the preceding main clause and presents a second reason for the "fun." This fragment could also be counted in the "subordination" category. Note, by the way, that teaching students that a sentence consists of a subject and a verb does not help them avoid these subordinate clause fragments unless we also teach them to recognize and understand the function of subordinate conjunctions.
Frag #05 -- Length and Complexity:  This is probably more the result of complexity than of length. The writer may have had the entire "adult" version in STM: "Then we would come back in town,  go on the lot [RAJFwhere my friends are], and stay there for about an hour." In haste to get it all down before it was lost, the writer omittted the "we."  The "adult" version, however, is 22 words long, three words longer than the longest main clause in the passage. The "adult" version given above views the fragment as the third in a series of compound verbs, with the second verb in the series being indirectly modified by a subordinate clause. The combination of length and complexity tripped up the student. Theoretically, confusion in STM reverberates after the error, which may account for the "and hour" instead of "an hour."

RO #05 -- Careless: I'm counting this one as careless, but the writer could have had amplification in mind: "My brother's name is Tom  -- he is almost tewenty-one." His STM may also have been cluttered with the coming spelling of "twenty-one."
RO #06 -- Amplification (possibly subordination): This is an interesting one. Does "it has park and all that stuff in the floor" give the details of how it is bad (amplification)? Or did the writer intend this clause to explain, more directly, why it is  bad ("because it has park and all that stuff in the floor")? Note that whereas the run-on suggests that the writer saw a connection between the two clauses, the second in some way amplifying or explaining the first, the typical advice given to students ("Use a period and a capital letter.") severs this connection.
RO #07 -- Amplification: "My brother is nice to me [: or --] he takes me to dances when he goes." Note the possible ambivalence between ambivalence and cause/effect: "My brother is nice to me because he takes me to dances when he goes."
RO #08 --  Subordination: Note  that this would create a second-level embedding: "But he can be nice sometime like [RNOPwhen he took me to see Chuck Brown over at the dominion, [which was fun too]]."
RO #9 -- Amplification: It gives details about "HBO." The best punctuation would be a dash or a colon.