

What other ways could you create complete sentences in the examples above to correct the fragments? Identifying Fragments in Paragraphs I ate biscuits smothered in gravy with a side of bacon.Stinging jellyfish swarmed on the beach in Florida.Even though I drove downtown, I couldn’t find the bookstore.If we were going to turn the previous examples into independent clauses or complete sentences, we would need to add either a subject, a verb, or both. The sentences above begin with a capitalized word and end in a period, but it takes more than that to make a complete sentence! Smothered in gravy with a side of bacon.Stinging jellyfish on the beach in Florida.Below are some examples of sentence fragments: In everyday speech, we often talk in fragments, but in writing, a fragment is an incomplete thought, often lacking a subject or verb. It may look like a sentence, and even be quite long, but it is not a complete thought. All of the examples above are complete sentences, and all independent clauses.Ī fragment, in contrast, is a group of words without an independent clause. Below are other examples of short, independent clauses:Ī sentence is a group of words that contain at least one independent clause. When you read an independent clause, you don’t require additional information to complete the thought.


Even though it’s short, it has a subject (John) and a verb (drives). For example, “John drives racecars” is a complete sentence. An independent clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb. To identify a sentence fragment, let’s do a short review on exactly what qualifies as a sentence.Ī complete sentence requires an independent clause. Even though it sounds simple, fragments are one of the most common sentence-level errors for English language writers. A sentence fragment is simply an incomplete sentence, meaning, more words are needed to make a complete thought, sort of like a puzzle missing some pieces.
