Grammar Fragments

What are Fragments? A fragment is a group of words that does not express a complete thought. What makes a complete thought? In order to understand that, you have to know the hierarchy of sentences and clauses.

The Grammar Hierarchy The lowest are the freshmen. They are called: Series A Series is a list. Example: oranges, bananas, and apples. The sophomores are known as Phrases A phrase has either a subject or a verb, but not both. It is also an incomplete thought. Examples: to the store. without a second thought. on the front page!

The Grammar Hierarchy Cont. Next are the juniors. These are Clauses A clause has a subject and a verb and can have punctuation, but is not a complete thought. This is always true with Subordinate Clauses Example: when I awoke this morning. The highest level is the seniors. These are Sentences. Sentences have a subject, a verb, punctuation, and a complete thought. Example: Julia’s infatuation embarrasses Joe Page.

So How Do You Fix Fragments? To NOT be a fragment, it has to be a complete thought. There are two ways to fix it: Take away words that won’t change the meaning. Example: By learning about the nature of a shark can make a person want to be an ocean biologist. To fix this, drop the word “by” from the sentence. Add to the sentence so it makes sense. Example: A gaggle of geese. To fix this, add a verb to make the thought complete.