Fragments

A fragment is an incomplete sentence. Most fragments occur when a student punctuates a phrase or a dependent clause as if it were a full sentence. One thing to remember is that length does not determine whether something is a fragment. A fragment may be just a few words or it could be pages long.

Walking home from school with my best friend Bob talking about the many things we did that were fun in elementary school like the time that we put a frog in Mrs. Robert's desk and thinking about the fun we were having in high school and all the crazy things we had seen like the time that we saw my mother kissing a stray dog on the sidewalk as she came out of a department store with her arms full of packages which she had bought for Christmas even though Christmas was still at least seven months away or the time that we caught Bob's little brother smoking the cigars that my uncle had given us when his first little boy was born . . .

This sentence is a fragment even though it is very long because it does not have an independent clause--a subject and verb which can stand alone. This fragment is just a series of phrases and clauses linked together by associations in the mind of the writer.

Fixing Fragments

1. First decide if each sentence actually is a sentence or if it is a fragment. A useful way to proofread for fragments is to start with the last sentence of the essay and work backwards.
   • Is there a subject and verb?
   • Is there a word which comes before the subject and verb (like because or which that would make the clause dependent? Note: a word separated from the subject and verb by a comma (c.f., "Meanwhile, I sat down for lunch") does not make the clause dependent. Also the word then does not make a clause dependent.
2. If the sentence is actually a fragment, decide if it makes more sense to attach it to the previous sentence or the following sentence. Remember, base your decision on what makes sense.
3. If it doesn't seem like the fragment should be attached either to the previous sentence or the next one, look to see what can be changed to make the fragment into a sentence.
   • add a verb?
   • add a subject?
   • change a word into a subject or verb?
   • take something out?

Sentence Types