Sentence Fragments

Now that we know that a complete sentence needs a subject and a predicate, we're going to focus on identifying and avoiding sentence fragments. We will have a quiz on sentence fragments this Friday (since there's no vocab). You will need to identify fragments and then correct a few fragments; you will then be asked to write a one-paragraph response to a question, in which you should avoid sentence fragments.

Remember, a sentence fragment is one that is missing either a subject or a predicate; it does not communicate a complete thought. It is not an independent clause and cannot stand on its own. For example:

"Some kids in the class." --- This is a fragment. It contains a subject (kids) but does not tell us what the subject is doing or being. Therefore it is incomplete and considered a dependent clause. Let's add a verb so it makes sense:

"Some kids in the class use Blogger to study."

"Because she didn't like the way the market smelled." --- This is also a fragment. Sentences that begin with "because" are very tricky. Unless the sentence tells you the answer to, "..because what?" it is a fragment. It is a dependent clause that requires more explanation. Either of these corrections would fix it:

"Berenice did not visit the market because she didn't like the way the market smelled."
"Because she didn't like the way the market smelled, Berenice did not visit the market."

We will be discussing these more in-depth this week and completing some class drills in preparation for your quiz. Here's a cool online tool that will help with identifying fragments:

http://www.chompchomp.com/frag01/frag01.htm