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Introduction

A sentence fragment tries its best to be a sentence, but it


just can’t make it. It’s missing something.
Often, it’s missing a verb or part of a
verb string:

John working extra hard on his


hook shot lately.

Here, for instance, we’re missing an


auxiliary — has been, in this case, probably
— that would complete the verb string and
the sentence.
© Capital Community College
Incomplete Verb, Part Two

A sentence fragment tries its best to be a sentence, but it


just can’t make it. It’s missing something.
Often, it’s missing a verb or part
of a verb string:

Spending hours every day after


school and even on weekends.

This time we’re missing a whole verb.


“Spending” is a participle wanting to modify
something, but there is no subject-verb
relationship within the sentence.
© Capital Community College
Avoiding Sentence Fragments

Sometimes a sentence fragment can give you a great deal


of information, but it’s 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.
© Capital Community College
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 don’t
contain a subject and verb.

© Capital Community College


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

© Capital Community College


Avoiding Sentence Fragments

Now you never again will have trouble


with sentence fragments!

© Capital Community College


This PowerPoint presentation was created by
Charles Darling, PhD
Professor of English and Webmaster
Capital Community College
Hartford, Connecticut
copyright November 1999

© Capital Community College

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