| You must be able to recognize them. |
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Look at a sentence from the capital letter to the period.
Ex: A yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah.
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Ask yourself, "Who does what?" or "Who did what?" or "What happened?"
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A complete sentence will tell you both who (the subject) and what
he, she, or it did (the verb).
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If from the capital letter to the period you find that something is
missing—no words that tell you who did what—you have found a fragment.
(Click HERE to see sample fragments.)
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Sometimes from the capital letter to the period, a group of words will
have a subject and a verb but may still be a fragment. Watch out
for adverb clauses or adjective clauses that are standing on their own
without a main clause to hold on to.
|
| You must be able to fix them. |
There are three ways to fix them:
-
Add whatever is missing (a subject, a verb, or both—a whole main
clause).
-
Combine the fragment to a nearby sentence. (Make sure to combine
the fragment to a sentence though; if you combine a fragment to another
fragment, usually you just create a much longer fragment.) Here's
how:
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Delete the period between the sentence and the fragment.
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Change the upper case letter to lower case.
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Decide whether you need a comma or nothing to replace the period.
Refer to the comma rules and the key words.
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For adverb clause fragments and adjective clause fragments, you might simply
delete
the subordinate conjunction or the relative pronoun.
Ex: When I tied my shoe.
Ex. The woman who bought those new suede boots.
What's the best way to fix fragments? Usually the missing pieces
are right next door in a nearby complete sentence, so the easiest way to
fix fragments is to combine. However, watch out when you do—after
you delete the period between the fragment and the nearby sentence, look
carefully at the resulting sentence structure before you decide
to replace the period with a comma or with nothing. |
