A common mistake in student writing assignments is the sentence fragment, which simply means an incomplete sentence. The word "fragment" means piece, and sentence fragments are usually phrases or clauses that are missing main verbs or fail to make a complete thought. The following are three examples of sentence fragments.
Incorrect:
- Because smartphones facilitate cheating.
- Which had devastating effects on the country's economy
- For instance, the price of oil.
- Teachers trying to motivate their students.
The first two examples are incomplete because they are dependent clauses. Conjunctions such as although, because, while, after, etc make a clause dependent, as do pronouns such as who and which. These dependent clauses must be connected to an independent clause (main clause) to be grammatically complete. Therefore, to fix these fragments, you must either remove the subordinating conjunction (although), replace the pronoun with a noun, or add an independent clause:
Corrected:
- Because smartphones facilitate cheating, they must be switched off and put away during the exam.
- The stock market collapsed, which had devastating effects on the country's economy.
This third example is a fragment because it has no verb and is just a subject modified by a prepositional phrases. A main verb needs to be added to create a complete sentence.
Corrected:
- For instance, the price of oil affects the cost of travel and food.
The final example is a fragment because the present participle (trying) alone cannot be the main verb of the sentence. An "ing" verb needs the verb be in order to be the main verb of a sentence. Also, the infinitive form of a verb (to try) can never be the main verb of a sentence. To fix this error, the word trying must be changed, or a main verb can be added to the sentence:
Corrected:
- Teachers try to motivate their students.
- Teachers trying to motivate their students often turn to technology.