Grammar Lesson: Fragments

FRAGMENTS

A fragment is a group of words that cannot stand on its own as a complete sentence even though it may be trying to.

• From the previous lesson
  • “She sneezed” is a complete sentence, but “Or she sneezed” is not.
    • “Or” is one of those conjoining words that belongs in between two complete sentences. It should never start a sentence.
      • The same is true of

and, but or, so, for (with the meaning of because) or yet (with the meaning of but).

• Trying to start a sentence with one of these words will result in a fragment.
  • Yes, professional writers sometimes write in fragments by starting with these words. Writing for school and work is NOT the same as being a novelist.
    • (This fact will pop up many times over the semester.)

• Many people accidentally make fragments then don’t find them when they proofread their papers. The reason why is often that they put the fragment in front of a complete sentence, and mentally join the two together.
  • Example:
  • After the teacher handed out the glue sticks. She taught the children how to paste the pieces of the box together.
    • When these two pieces are read straight across in a row, they flow together, and it is hard to notice that the first piece is not a complete sentence.
      • People who make these errors frequently should proofread by reading the last sentence of an essay first, and then the second to last, and so on, continuing backwards, so that each sentence has to be read on its own without any logical flow into the one after it.

What if a writer wants to start a sentence with a word that means and/but/or/so/for/yet but knows that this is impossible to do? Well, there are words that CAN start sentences without creating fragment errors.