Sentence Fragments Created by Kathryn Reilly

Sentence Fragment Basics Sentence Fragments are incomplete sentences. – Lost the game. (missing subject) – The championship football game. (missing verb) All sentences must have a subject and verb. – The correct shortest sentence may be two words. She cheered. – However, most sentences contain many more words in order to convey important details to the reader.

Identifying Sentence Fragments Two ways exist to help a writer identify fragments: – Ask who or what is doing the action to identify the subject – Ask what the subject is doing to identify the verb. If either of these questions cannot be answered, then the sentence is a fragment. – Lost the game. (missing subject) Who lost the game? The reader doesn’t know! – The championship football game. (missing verb) What is happening at the game? The reader doesn’t know!

Correcting Fragments Add a subject (who or what) OR Add a verb (what the subject is doing) Added details may be a word OR phrase The visiting team lost the game. (answers who) The championship football game ended the team’s undefeated season. (provides action)

Sentence Fragment Review Which of the following examples are fragments? Laughter filled the room. Laughed very loudly. Michael, his sides hurting. Michelle laughed. Laughing for ten minutes.

Sentence Fragment Review Which of the following examples are fragments? Laughter filled the room. Laughed very loudly. Michael, his sides hurting. Michelle laughed. Laughing for ten minutes. Let’s Correct them on the next slide.

Sentence Fragment Review Which of the following examples are fragments? Michael laughed very loudly. Michael, his sides hurting, continued to laugh. Laughing for ten minutes, Michelle couldn’t stop either.

Remember All sentences need a subject and verb. Identify who or what is doing the action to find the subject. Identify what the action is to find the verb.