1. Grammar
Fragments

2. 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.

3. 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!

4. 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.

5. 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.