Introduction

A sentence fragment tries its best to be a sentence,

but it just cant make it. Its missing something.
Often, its missing a verb or part
of a verb string:
John working extra hard on his
hook shot lately.
Here, for instance, were missing an
auxiliary has been, in this case,
probably that would complete the
verb string and the sentence.
Incomplete Verb, Part Two
A sentence fragment tries its best to be a sentence,
but it just cant make it. Its missing something.
Spending hours every day after
school and even on weekends.
This time were missing a whole verb.
Spending is a participle wanting to
modify something, but there is no
subject-verb relationship within the
sentence.
Often, its missing a verb or
part of a verb string:
Avoiding Sentence Fragments
Sometimes a sentence fragment can give you a
great deal of information, but its 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.
Avoiding Sentence Fragments
Be 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 dont contain a subject and verb.
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
Avoiding Sentence Fragments
Now you never again will have trouble
with sentence fragments!
This PowerPoint presentation was created by
Charles Darling, PhD
Professor of English and Webmaster
Capital Community College
Hartford, Connecticut
copyright November 1999