Complete sentences have three important parts:

1. a subject or actor
2. a verb or action
3. words to complete the thought

Sentence fragments are simply grammatically incomplete sentences—they lack one of the three important parts. So how can you tell the difference between a sentence and a sentence fragment? And how can you fix sentence fragments?

As you learn about fragments, keep in mind that sentence length is not very helpful in identifying a fragment. Both of the items below are fragments:

• Before you go.
• Ensuring his own survival with his extensive cache of supplies (food, water, rope, tarps, knives, and a first aid kit).

Common Causes of Sentence Fragments

Part of the reason we write in fragments is because we often speak that way. However, there is a difference between writing and speech.  While it’s fine to speak in partial sentences, it’s important to write in full sentences, because your reading audience will not have access to the gestures, inflections, and other visual cues that make partial sentences in speech understandable.

In writing, sentence fragments also occur because they seem to link with other phrases or sentences, as in the following examples: fragments are highlighted and enclosed in brackets

• As a child, Henry liked to run away from his mother.  [Who always became frantic when that happened.]
• Make sure to keep your passwords in a separate place, which you keep private. [To ensure your safety and security].
• [Insecure herself during elementary school].  Alice, as an elementary teacher, was therefore very sensitive to other students with learning disabilities.

Fixing Sentence Fragments

There are two ways to fix sentence fragments:

1. add the missing element: a subject or actor, a verb or action, words to complete the thought
2. link the incomplete fragment with the phrase or sentence that comes before or after, as appropriate

Examples: fragments are highlighted and enclosed in brackets

• Karen appeared at the committee meeting last week. [And convincingly presented her ideas about the new product].

Possible corrections:

Karen appeared at the committee meeting last week.  She convincingly presented her ideas about the new product. [added a subject to the fragment]

Karen appeared at the committee meeting last week and convincingly presented her ideas about the new product. [connected the two pieces]

• The committee considered her ideas for a new marketing strategy quite powerful. [The best ideas that they had heard in years.]

Possible corrections:

The committee considered her ideas for a new marketing strategy quite powerful.  They were the best ideas that they had heard in years. [added a subject and verb]

The committee considered her ideas for a new marketing strategy quite powerful; in fact, they were the best ideas that they had heard in years. [connected the pieces and added a subject and verb]

• [Because Karen’s ideas were so powerful.]  The committee voted to implement them immediately. And they put Karen in charge of the implementation.

Possible corrections:

Karen’s ideas were so powerful.  The committee voted to implement them immediately.  And they put Karen in charge of the implementation. [added a subject]

Because Karen’s ideas were so powerful, the committee voted to implement them immediately, and they put Karen in charge of the implementation.

(Note that in this example, the second correction is better stylistically than the first.  Although the first correction is valid, the sentences are choppy.  Sometimes one way to correct a sentence fragment will be easier or more obvious than others.  Note as well that the last part, “and they put Karen in charge of the implementation,” is actually not a sentence fragment, even though some fragments start with “and,” “but,” or “or.”  It’s not a fragment because there is a subject or actor, “they,” a verb or action, “put,” and words to complete the thought.)