1. What is a Sentence? A sentence is a word group that contains a subject and a verb and that expresses a complete thought. That day, the emperor decided to parade through town in new clothes.

2. What is a Fragment? All sentences are required to have a __________________, a ________________ and a ____________________________________. If one of these important parts is missing, it’s not a sentence! It’s a… FRAGMENT!!!

3. Say the sentence out loud. Often, the ear will catch what the eye misses. Conduct a “ Say, what? ” test: try the sentence out on someone else. If the listener acts confused, your sentence may be a fragment. For example, the sentence fragment “ Which is why he retired early from buffalo wrangling ” would leave the reader wondering what happened to cause the wrangler to leave the business so soon. Adding the missing information makes the fragment a full sentence (and a complete thought): “ Max finally got accepted into the Water Ballet Institute, which is why he retired early from buffalo wrangling. ” Fragments are often fixed by adding them either to the sentence before or to the sentence after.

4. Blocking my driveway was a car. X A huge SUV.  (I realize) a huge SUV. I was really upset. X Because I knew I would be late for work.  (I realize) because I knew I would be late for work. I beeped my horn a couple of times. X Letting the driver know I had to get out.  (I realize) letting the driver know I had to get out. You can put I realize in front of most complete sentences and make a new grammatical sentence. However, when you put I realize in front of a fragment, the result will not make sense.

5. Lesson 1 Fragments Monday, August 29 th Re-namer fragment: Blocking my driveway was a car. X A huge SUV. Adverb Fragment: I was really upset. X Because I knew I would be late for work. -ing Fragments I beeped my horn a couple of times. X Letting the driver know I had to get out. A fragment is a group of words that cannot stand alone as a sentence but is mistakenly punctuated as though it were. Most fragments fall into one of three categories: renamers, adverbs, and –ing fragments. Fixing fragments: -attach it to the preceding sentence -turn it into a complete sentence

6. Lesson 1 Fragments Monday, August 29th Blocking my driveway was a car, a huge SUV. I was really upset because I knew I would be late for work. I beeped my horn a couple of times, letting the driver know I had to get out. Corrections: