© Capital Community College Introduction A sentence fragment tries its best to be a sentence, but it just can’t make it. It’s missing something. Often, it’s missing a verb or part of a verb string: John working extra hard on his hook shot lately. Here, for instance, we’re missing an auxiliary — has been, in this case, probably — that would complete the verb string and the sentence.

© Capital Community College Incomplete Verb, Part Two A sentence fragment tries its best to be a sentence, but it just can’t make it. It’s missing something. Spending hours every day after school and even on weekends. This time we’re missing a whole verb. “Spending” is a participle wanting to modify something, but there is no subject-verb relationship within the sentence. Often, it’s missing a verb or part of a verb string:

© Capital Community College Avoiding Sentence Fragments Sometimes a sentence fragment can give you a great deal of information, but it’s still not a complete sentence: After the coach encouraged him so much last year and he seemed to improve with each passing game. Here we have a subject-verb relationship — in fact, we have two of them — but the entire clause is subordinated by the dependent word after. We have no independent clause.

© Capital Community College Avoiding Sentence Fragments e alert for strings of prepositional phrases that never get around to establishing a subject-verb relationship: Immediately after the founding of the college and during those early years as the predominant educational institution in the American Midwest. Again, be careful of sentences which give their share of information but still don’t contain a subject and verb.

© Capital Community College Avoiding Sentence Fragments If you still have problems identifying sentence fragments and repairing them, it might be helpful to review the material in the Guide to Grammar and Writing on CLAUSES PHRASES (and the types of sentences in) SENTENCE VARIETY

© Capital Community College Avoiding Sentence Fragments Now you never again will have trouble with sentence fragments!

© Capital Community College This PowerPoint presentation was created by Charles Darling, PhD Professor of English and Webmaster Capital Community College Hartford, Connecticut copyright November 1999

© Capital Community College Recognize a fragment A fragment occurs whenever you do these three things: 1.Begin a group of words with a capital letter. 2.Conclude this group of words with an end mark either a period [. ], question mark [ ? ], exclamation point [ ! ]. 3.Neglect to insert a main clause between capital and end mark.main clause

© Capital Community College FIX a Fragment Revise the fragment so that it has a main clause Connect the fragment to a main clause that comes before or after it When you connect, you have to know whether or not punctuation is required If it precedes the main clause, add a comma No comma required if the fragment follows the main clause

© Capital Community College Types of Fragments Participle Phrase Lonely Verb Appositive Subordinate Clause Afterthought Infinitive Phrase

© Capital Community College Subordinate Clause Fragment Contains subordinate conjunction Subject/verb Does not express a complete thought The Fragment: Flooring the accelerator, Juan wove through the heavy traffic. As his ex-girlfriend Gigi chased him down the interstate. The Simple Fix: Flooring the accelerator, Juan weaved through the heavy traffic as his ex-girlfriend Gigi chased him down the interstate.

© Capital Community College Write two other fixes You have three minutes: stopwatch.com/eggtimer-countdown/full-screen/ stopwatch.com/eggtimer-countdown/full-screen/ Introductory subordinate: As his ex-girlfriend Gigi chased him down the interstate, Juan floored the accelerator, weaving through the heavy traffic. Two sentences: Flooring the accelerator, Juan weaved through the heavy traffic. In hot pursuit was his ex- girlfriend Gigi, who was chasing him down the interstate.

© Capital Community College Participle Phrase Fragment Begins with verb + “ing” or “ed” Irregular verbs use past participle beginnings like spoken or burnt Still not a complete thought The Simple Fix: Change the phrase to an introductory clause, concluding subordinate clause, or make two sentences

© Capital Community College Infinitive Clause Fragment Begins with infinitive verb to + base verb Subject/verb The Simple Fix: Use the same fixes as before Introductory subordinate Concluding subordinate Separate thoughts into two sentences

© Capital Community College Afterthought Fragment Begins with these transitions Especially For example For instance Like Such as Including Except The Simple Fix: Use the same fixes as before Introductory subordinate Concluding subordinate Separate thoughts into two sentences

© Capital Community College Lonely Verb Fragment A verb phrase without a subject The Simple Fix: Join thoughts with the simple conjunction “and” Inject a qualifying conjunction (….so that ….. Separate thought into a second sentence

© Capital Community College Appositive Fragment Renames the noun right beside it using a different noun Does not contain a main clause Can be separated into a separate sentence EXAMPLE: When Dustin pulled into the driveway, Alicia admired his flashy new car, a red convertible with fancy rims and fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror.

© Capital Community College Intentional Fragment Use rarely!!!!!!!! Get coaching before the first try. Can emphasize a point: READ – Because the milk carton was empty, Pau poured orange juice on his bowl of cereal. What a dork!

© Capital Community College Proofreading for Fragments Read backwards! Sharon has to close her eyes, and I’ve had to fight the urge to gag. For example, broccoli dipped in chocolate sauce, a raw fish head with the eyes intact, and a handful of live earthworms. We have watched him consume many nauseating things. David will eat anything on a dare.