AVOIDING SENTENCE FRAGMENTS

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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.

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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.
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.
Often, it’s missing a verb or
part of a verb string:

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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