
Which she eventually sent to her supervisor with the strongest of recommendations.
Fragments examples full#
She spent a full month evaluating his computer-based instructional materials. The best ideas that they had heard in years. The committee considered her ideas for a new marketing strategy quite powerful. And made a convincing presentation of her ideas about the new product. Ivana appeared at the committee meeting last week. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples: Count how many times the word fragrant is used during commercial breaks. Commands are the only grammatically correct sentences that lack a subject: If you start a sentence with a coordinating conjunction, make sure that it is followed a complete clause, not just a phrase!Īs you’re identifying fragments, keep in mind that command sentences are not fragments, despite not having a subject. Relative pronouns, like that and which, do the same type of thing as those listed above.Ĭoordinating conjunctions (our FANBOYS) can also cause problems. This class of word includes the following: after For example “I was a little girl in 1995” is an independent clause, but “Because I was a little girl in 1995” is a dependent clause.
Words like since, when, and because turn an independent clause into a dependent clause. In order for these to be clauses, they would need an additional verb that acts as a verb in the sentence. Since non-finite verbs don’t act like verbs, we don’t count them as verbs when we’re deciding if we have a phrase or a clause. Let’s look at a few examples of these:Įven though all of the above have non-finite verbs, they’re phrases, not clauses. Non-finite verbs (gerunds, participles, and infinitives) can often trip people up as well. Additionally, fragments often come about in writing because a fragment may already seem too long. However, there is a difference between writing and speech, and it is important to write in full sentences. Part of the reason we write in fragments is because we often speak that way. Let’s dive in and see just what makes these both fragments.
Ensuring his own survival with his extensive cache of supplies (food, water, rope, tarps, knives, and a first aid kit). So how can we tell the difference between a sentence and a sentence fragment? And how can we fix fragments when they already exist?Īs you learn about fragments, keep in mind that length is not very helpful when determining if a sentence is a fragment or not. Both of the items below are fragments: These are grammatical structures that cannot stand on their own: they need to be connected to an independent clause to work in writing. We talked about phrases and clauses a bit in Text: Parts of a Sentence. Fragments are simply grammatically incomplete sentences-they are phrases and dependent clauses.