A sentence fragment leaves readers hanging as they wait for the rest of the idea. If a sentence is missing either a subject or a verb, it is a sentence fragment. The subject of the sentence is the girl sitting on the bench.
She is the actor at the beginning of the sentence. It has both a subject and a verb that work together to form a complete thought, so it is not a sentence fragment. There are many ways to create a sentence fragment. Look out for subordinating conjunctions. Subordinating conjunctions are words like after, because, although, since, if, though, when, while, unless, or until , which introduce dependent clauses and phrases.
Look out for relative adverbs. Relative adverbs are words like who, which, or that. Look out for words that end in -ed,-d,-t, or -n. Look out for prepositions. Prepositions are words like at, to, toward, in, on, up, near, by, etc. Prepositions begin prepositional phrases which cannot stand on their own as complete sentences. Look out for infinitives. Infinitives can begin sentences, but they cannot make complete sentences on their own.
Look out for gerunds. Look out for sentences beginning with words like especially, such as, particularly, usually, specifically, preferably, like, or including. Extra information introduced by these words should be added to the previous sentence or expanded with its own subject and verb into a complete thought.
Original: I like dogs. You may have noticed that newspaper and magazine journalists often use a dependent clause as a separate sentence when it follows clearly from the preceding main clause, as in the last example above. This is a conventional journalistic practice, often used for emphasis.
For academic writing and other more formal writing situations, however, you should avoid such journalistic fragment sentences. Some fragments are not clearly pieces of sentences that have been left unattached to the main clause; they are written as main clauses but lack a subject or main verb. These last three examples of fragments with no subjects are also known as mixed constructions , that is, sentences constructed out of mixed parts. They start one way often with a long prepositional phrase but end with a regular predicate.
Correcting the Problem There are many ways to correct the sentences above. Correct: I went to the store yesterday. Correct: After the classes, I am going to the library. This happens to be my life nowadays. As the following examples illustrate, a sentence may consist of a single clause or may contain multiple clauses: One clause: I hate listening to political pundits. Two clauses: Students dislike Mr. Jones because his classes can be tough. Two clauses: I am upset that it is snowing in the middle of April.
Three clauses: Since you drew the short straw, you must walk to the gas station while we stay here. Phrase fragments Incorrect: Since I was done with the exam, I put my pen and paper down. Waiting for the teacher to start collecting papers. Correct: Since I was done with the exam, I put my pen and paper down, waiting for the teacher to start collecting papers. Correct: I was done with the exam; I put my pen and paper down and was waiting for the teacher to start collecting papers.
Subordinate clause fragments Incorrect: Students dislike Mr. Because his classes can be tough. Incorrect: Since you drew the short straw.
You must walk to the gas station while we stay here. Rule to Remember Correct sentence fragments by joining two fragmented parts with either a conjunction or an adverb.
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