Basics about Fragments

Now that you understand what a sentence needs to be complete, we can discuss how to avoid and fix incomplete sentences (called "fragments"). Read the following sections to learn about this common writing error.

Basics about Fragments

Recall the three pieces you learned a sentence needs to be complete:

  1. subject
  2. verb
  3. a complete thought

An incomplete sentence (that is, a fragment) is going to be missing one or more of these pieces.  Think of these three items as a sort of test you are going to use on every sentence you write.    The last item here, a "complete thought", is not something we have to worry about unless there is a dependent word present (you'll read about those in the next section). So really, what you were doing when you were identifying subjects and verbs was practicing the skills you need to check if a sentence is complete or not.   

Please be careful not to fall into the trap of assuming that a short sentence is a fragment or that a long sentence is not a fragment. The following, for example, is a complete sentence:

I walked. 

It has a subject ("I") and a verb ("walked"), and because it does not contain a dependent word (see the green box below), we don't need to worry about a complete thought.

Source: Erin Severs
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