Common Causes of Fragments

In order to avoid writing fragments, a student should be alert to these facts:

     1.    An –ing word is not a definite verb; it will not make a sentence.

Suppose that you overheard a little boy say, “I going home.”  You wouldn’t think about his poor grammar because he is too young to know better.  But when adults speak, they say, “I am going home.”  This shows that an –ing word always needs a helping verb to make a sentence.  The chief helpers include such words like is, am, are, was, and were.

2.       Certain words called “subordinators” can change a sentence into a fragment.

Look again at the sentence, “I am going home.”  Suppose you add if, a subordinator:

“If I am going home ….” Do you see that the subordinator changed the sentence to a fragment? A reader is left wondering, “What if ….?”  We need to complete the sentence by adding a main part (independent clause) for the subordinate fragment to depend on. We might write something like this:

a.                   “If I am going home, I will need my coat and hat.”  Here a new independent clause follows the subordinate clause (the fragment part).  Notice the comma.

b.                   “I will need my coat and hat if I am going home.”  Here the new independent clause comes first.  There is no need for a comma in this case.

You should be very familiar with these subordinators:

After                before                          than                 when                which

Although          if                                  that                  where               what

As                    in order that                 though             whereas            why

As if                 provided that                till                    whether            how

As long as        since                            unless              while   

Because            so that                          until                 who, whom, whose

3.                     An explanatory phrase or group of words does not make a sentence.

Suppose a student wrote, “I like to watch sports.”  He realized that the sentence was vague, so he added, “Such as hockey.”  Then he remembered that he likes to watch sports on television, so he added, “When they are on television.”  Now he has this:

“I like to watch sports. Such as hockey. When they are on television.”

Look closely; you will see that the last two “sentences” aren’t really sentences at all.  One is only an explanatory phrase and the other is a subordinate clause.  If the student combines the pieces with the independent clause, he will no longer have any left-over fragments:

“I like to watch sports, such as hockey, when they are on television.”

L. Perkins, 1977

(SCSU Writing Clinic)

Please locate and fix the fragment problem areas.

Mr. Turner: The Science Guy

            I usually liked my high school teachers.  For the most part.  They were friendly and competent.  Willing to help any student who showed the faintest flicker of interest.  I liked them, but I do not remember them very distinctly.  Except for Mr. Turner, my science teacher.  He was a lively, eccentric little man.  Five feet five inches in his bare feet.  With a freckled, bald head.  When he smiled.  His mouth stretched from ear to ear.  And his eyes sparkled brightly.  If a student went to Mr. Turner after class and asked a question.  He would grasp the student firmly by the elbow.  Knitting his brows in concentration.  He would formulate an answer.  Relaxing into a grin as his questioner nodded his head in understanding.

            He spoke with a slight lisp.  Which became pronounced whenever he was upset.  Once during an examination.  Ben Sanders crept stealthily across the classroom floor to give a classmate a “hot foot.”  Mr. Turner spotted him.  With a glint of determination in his eyes.  He tapped him on the shoulder.  As Ben rather sheepishly straightened up.  Mr. Turner eyed him intensely.  “Mr. Thanders,” he said.  “Pleath thee me after clath.”  We all laughed.  Not disrespectfully.  But because out diminutive teacher was disciplining a student who towered fourteen inches over him.  And weighed 100 pounds more.

(SCSU Writing Clinic, 1976)