Who did what for how long?

Imagine this: you arrive late to your Ancient British History class. Sliding into a back-row seat you try to pick up the thread of the lecture. It’s not easy; the professor is dull, and sitting in the back makes is difficult to hear. He seems to be talking about the black plague, but the details are unclear. In the end, basically all you get from the lecture, and into your notes, is: “In the fourteenth century. Over half the population. Carried rats. Believed the end times. All segments of society.”

That night, you try to figure out what you were supposed to have learned. Although you can piece a few things together from your notes, you’re not sure what information was important and why, or how the ideas fit together. Did half the population of fourteenth-century England carry rats because they believed it was the end times? Probably not.

You eventually connect the dots: half the population of fourteenth-century England, rich and poor, young and old, died from a plague carried by rats, and many believed it was the end times. But this was so much trouble to work out, you have little patience to try and understand what, if anything, is important about this information. If it’s this much trouble to figure things out, why bother?

 A sentence communicates at least one full thought.  A sentence fragment passes itself off as a complete thought while in fact confusing the reader by giving incomplete information.  The man hunting deer.  Although he drank poison.  Has never been to Galveston.  Blinn college’s Buccaneer football team.

Reading a text written with an abundance of sentence fragments can seem just like that. Your reader will be confused, frustrated, and ultimately may not want to stick around to hear what you have to say.

Tests for Avoiding Fragments  1. Find the subject.  2. Find the verb.  3. Make sure it is not a subordinate clause

Find the verb What is actually happening? Must be finite—tell when the action ended. Check endings to see if it is a verbal (a verb used as a noun). Verbs ending in “–ing” are usually verbals. If it’s a verbal, add a helping verb or change the verbal to a finite verb. Example: I running. I was running. I ran. Fragment Helping verb added Changed to simple finite verb

Not a subordinate clause Subordinate conjunctionsRelative pronouns  After  Although  As  Because  if Subordinate clauses (a.k.a. dependent clauses) contain a subject and verb but do not complete a full thought. Often, this is because they contain one of the following:  Once  Since  Than  That  Unless  Until  When  Where  Whereas  While  That  Which  Whose  Who/whom  Whoever/ whomever

Fix these fragments  The man hunting deer. The man was hunting deer. Or The man hunts deer.  Although he drank poison. Although he drank poison, he didn’t die.  Has never been to Galveston. Small-town Sam has never been to Galveston.  Blinn’s Buccaneers football team. Blinn’s Buccaneers football team won the 2009 NJCAA national championship.