Find and Fix Fragments

Irfana Omar
 PHRASE
• A phrase is a group of words that together have a particular meaning, but do not
express a complete thought or do not meet the requirements of being a
grammatical sentence. Phrases are the smaller parts that make a clause.

• a six-week trip (noun phrase)

• to Europe (prepositional phrase)
• its beautiful cities (possessive phrase)
• are going to (verb phrase)
• want to see (infinitive phrase)
 CLAUSE
• A clause includes at least a subject and a verb. There are two kinds of clauses:
dependent and independent. Clauses are the smaller parts that make a sentence.
We are going to take a six-week trip to Europe | because we want to see its
beautiful cities.
• An independent clause expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a
grammatical sentence. It has at minimum a subject and verb.

We are going to take a six-week trip to Europe.

• A dependent clause has a subject and verb, but does not express a complete
thought and may sound like nonsense as a stand-alone sentence. A dependent
clause often begins with an adverb or a connector (before, after, because, while,
though, and, but, so, etc.) and requires attachment to an independent clause to
complete the rest of the thought.

because we want to see its beautiful cities.

 A Sentence
• A sentence must have at least one main clause and optionally one or more dependent clauses. . A
main clause contains an independent subject and verb and expresses a complete thought.
A Sentence

• We are going to take a six-week trip to Europe because we want to see its beautiful cities.
• Tom laughed.
• Because she exercises regularly, she is in good condition.
• It has been raining all day.
• Be quiet. (The subject "You" is understood.)
• He's quiet, and he's very polite.

Not A Sentence
• And yawned loudly enough to make everyone in class turn around.
Subject = Ø ; verb = yawned; complete thought = Ø.
• The boy sitting on the fire escape dropping water balloons on the pedestrians below.
Subject = boy; verb = Ø; complete thought = Ø.
• After Gabriel ate half a box of Devil Dogs.
Subject = Gabriel; verb = ate; complete thought = Ø.
 A Fragment
• A fragment is only a piece of a complete thought that has been punctuated like a
sentence. Fragments can be phrases or dependent clauses or any incomplete
word group.

• A fragment occurs when:

1. You begin a group of words with a capital letter.
2. You conclude this group of words with an end mark—either a period [ . ],
question mark [ ? ], or exclamation point [ ! ].
3. You neglect to insert a main clause somewhere between the capital letter at the
beginning and the end mark concluding the word group.
Example :
Walking to the store. She saw a car accident.
Because she exercises regularly. She is in good condition
 Avoiding Fragment
• We had a wonderful time there. In fact, great!
• We had a wonderful time there; in fact, it was great! (Add a subject, verb
and punctuation.)
• He crashed his car. Because he was texting and not paying attention.
• He crashed his car because he was texting and not paying attention. (Join
the dependent clause to the independent clause)
• Put the book there. On my desk.
• Put the book there, on my desk. (Add the prepositional phrase with a comma
as it restates there.)
• The thing that amazed me.
• The thing that amazed me was the architecture
• The city had fewer than a million people before became a world trading center.
The city had fewer than a million people before it became a world trading center.
(Add a subject to the dependent clause.)
• Keep bedrooms free of clutter where bedbugs can hide and seal wall cracks and
crevices.
• Keep bedrooms free of clutter where bedbugs can hide. Seal wall cracks and
crevices. (The best solution is to separate the clause into its own sentence.)
Types of Fragments

1. Subordinate Clause Fragment

2. Participle Phrase Fragments
3. Infinitive Phrase Fragments
4. Afterthought Phrase Fragment
5. Lonely Verb Fragments
6. Appositive Phrase Fragments
7. Intentional Phrase Fragments
 1.Finding and Fixing
Subordinate Clause Fragments
• A subordinate clause fragment [sometimes called a dependent clause fragment]
will begin with a subordinate conjunction, a relative pronoun, or a relative
adverb. It will also contain a subject and a verb. Unfortunately, this combination of
words will not express a complete thought by itself.
• Examples:

• Flooring the accelerator, Juan wove through the heavy traffic. As his ex-friend Gigi
chased him down the interstate.

• Flooring the accelerator, Juan weaved through the heavy traffic as his ex-friend
Gigi chased him down the interstate.
• As his ex-friend Gigi chased him down the interstate, Juan floored the accelerator,
weaving through the heavy traffic.
• Flooring the accelerator, Juan weaved through the heavy traffic. In great spirit was
his ex-friend Gigi, who was chasing him down the interstate.
• Because Chase caught the eye of the beautiful brunette in
algebra.
Chase caught the eye of the beautiful brunette in algebra.

• Until Rachel notices the toilet paper stuck to her shoe.

We will continue giggling until Rachel notices the toilet
paper stuck to her shoe.

• Even though Fred stuck straws up his nose.

Even though Fred stuck straws up his nose, Melissa ate

her tuna fish sandwich and continued to ignore him.
 2. Finding and Fixing
Participle Phrase Fragments
• A participle phrase usually begins with an ing or ed word. In the case of irregular
verbs, an irregular past participle, like burnt or spoken, will begin the phrase.

• Aunt Olivia always wears a motorcycle helmet. Worrying that a meteor or chunk
of space debris will conk her on the head.

• Worrying that a meteor or chunk of space debris will conk her on the head, Aunt
Olivia always wears a motorcycle helmet.
• Because she worries that a meteor or chunk of space debris will conk her on the
head, Aunt Olivia always wears a motorcycle helmet.
• Aunt Olivia always wears a motorcycle helmet. She worries that a meteor or chunk
of space debris will conk her on the head.
• Sunning themselves on the hot concrete until they heard human feet crashing
down the sidewalk.
The little lizards were sunning themselves on the hot concrete until they heard
human feet crashing down the sidewalk.

• All the while twirling the baton with the speed and ferocity of helicopter blades.
The majorette marched at the front of the parade, all the while twirling her
batons with the speed and ferocity of helicopter blades.

• Sucked down the pipe with a hearty slurp.

Sucked down the pipe with a hearty slurp, the dirty bath water drained from the
tub.
 3. Finding and Fixing
Infinitive Phrase Fragments

• An infinitive phrase will begin with an infinitive [to + base verb].

• Jiggling his foot nervously, Ronald sat in the provost's office. To explain why he
had brought Squeeze, his seven-foot pet python, to Mr. Parker's English class.

• Jiggling his foot nervously, Ronald sat in the provost's office to explain why he
had brought Squeeze, his seven-foot pet python, to Mr. Parker's English class.
• To explain why he had brought Squeeze, his seven-foot pet python, to Mr.
Parker's English class, Ronald sat in the provost's office, jiggling his foot
nervously.
• Jiggling his foot nervously, Ronald sat in the provost's office. He needed to
explain why he had brought Squeeze, his seven-foot pet python, to Mr.
Parker's English class.
• Only to watch in dismay as Dr. Frazier poured her chemistry experiment into
the sink.
Amber watched in dismay as Dr. Frazier poured her chemistry experiment into
the sink.
• To catch butterflies for her biology project.
Jossie enlisted the help of several spiders to catch butterflies for her biology
project.

• To break a piece of plywood with his bare hands.

To break a piece of plywood with his bare hands, Daniel followed his karate
teacher's advice and focused power.
 4. Finding and Fixing
Afterthought Phrase Fragments

• Afterthought fragments begin with these transitions: especially, for example, for
instance, like, such as, including, and except. These transitions frequently
introduce good details that the writer is providing as an afterthought for previous
information.
• Jacob has several ways to annoy his instructors. Such as rolling his eyes, smirking,
reading supermarket tabloids during lecture, folding handouts into paper
airplanes, and drawing caricatures on his desk.

• Jacob has several ways to annoy his instructors, such as rolling his eyes, smirking,
reading supermarket tabloids during lecture, folding handouts into paper
airplanes, and drawing caricatures on his desk.
• Rolling his eyes, smirking, reading supermarket tabloids during lecture, folding
handouts into paper airplanes, and drawing caricatures on his desk are the many
ways Jacob annoys his instructors.
• Jacob has several ways to annoy his instructors. For example, he rolls his eyes,
smirks, reads supermarket tabloids during lecture, folds handouts into paper
airplanes, and draws caricatures on his desk.
• For example, leaky pens, candy wrappers, dollar bills, and paperclips.
For example, the desk drawer contained leaky pens, candy wrappers, dollar bills,
and paperclips.

• Such as leaving the stove on and teasing mean dogs.

John has many unsafe habits, such as leaving the stove on and teasing mean dogs.
 5. Finding and Fixing
Lonely Verb Fragments

• Lonely verb fragments occur when you have a verb phrase without a subject.
Typically, the subject is understood, but because it does not occur within the word
group, the necessary main clause is missing.

• After dinner, Mike and Pat leave their dirty dishes on the back patio. And let the
raccoons, opossums, and armadillos that visit the yard eat the leftovers.

• After dinner, Mike and Pat leave their dirty dishes on the back patio and let the
raccoons, opossums, and armadillos that visit the yard eat the leftovers.
• After dinner, Mike and Pat leave their dirty dishes on the back patio so that the
raccoons, opossums, and armadillos that visit the yard can eat the leftovers.
• After dinner, Mike and Pat leave their dirty dishes on the back patio. They enjoy
letting the raccoons, opossums, and armadillos that visit the yard eat the
leftovers.
• And dashed through the downpour as raindrops softened the hairspray shell
holding her elaborate coif in place.
Betty dashed through the downpour as raindrops softened the hairspray shell
holding her elaborate coif in place.

• But knew that all of his effort would prove useless in the long run.
With a heavy sigh, Darryl began counting the words of his essay but knew that all
of his effort would prove useless in the long run.
 6. Finding and Fixing
Appositive Phrase Fragments

• An appositive is a word or group of words that renames a noun right beside it.
Because an appositive does not contain a main clause, it cannot stand alone as a
complete sentence.

• When Dustin pulled into the driveway, Alicia admired his flashy new car. A red
convertible with fancy rims and fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror.

• When Dustin pulled into the driveway, Alicia admired his flashy new car, a red
convertible with fancy rims and fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror.
• Alicia admired Dustin's flashy new car, a red convertible Mustang with fancy rims
and fuzzy dice hanging from the rearview mirror, when it pulled into the
driveway.
• When Dustin pulled into the driveway, Alicia admired his flashy new car. Dustin
recently bought a red convertible with fancy rims and fuzzy dice hanging from
the rearview mirror.
• The unprepared student who was always begging for an extra pencil and a couple
sheets of blank paper.
The unprepared student who was always begging for an extra pencil and a couple
sheets of blank paper screamed.

• A slacker wasting his afternoon in front of the television.

Brian, a slacker wasting his afternoon in front of the television, opened a bag of
potato chips instead of his chemistry textbook.

• A dog around whom people need to guard their fingers and food.
On the lawn chair lay Rocket, a dog around whom people need to guard their
fingers and food.
 7. Finding and Fixing
Intentional Phrase Fragments

• Occasionally, writers will include an intentional fragment to emphasize a point.

• Because the milk carton was empty, Paul poured orange juice on his bowl of
cereal. What a dork!

Intentional fragments are not grammar errors but shall be used carefully.