Sentence Fragments

A sentence fragment is a dependent clause and cannot stand alone. (Fragments often lack a subject or a verb. Sentence fragments are incorrectly punctuated as if they were complete sentences.)

Unlike comma splices and continuous sentences, sentence fragments do not have enough elements to form a complete sentence. To qualify as a sentence, a phrase must have a subject and a verb and make sense on its own. A sentence fragment is incomplete and cannot stand alone as a complete sentence.

[[When you read a sentence fragment, you will have a sense of incompleteness, as if the sentence was getting ready to go somewhere and then didn’t.[[

Combining Sentence Fragments

Examples:

Sentence Fragment: My car is difficult to start in the winter. Because of the cold weather.

should be: My car is difficult to start in the winter because of the cold weather.

Sentence Fragment: Michigan State University offers a variety of courses. Such as Psychology, Biology, Physics, and Music.

should be: Michigan State University offers a variety of courses, such as Psychology, Biology, Physics, and Music.

No-Subject Sentence Fragments

Sentence Fragment: John is a heavy eater. Two hot dogs for lunch and four for dinner.

should be: John is a heavy eater; he normally eats two hot dogs for lunch and four for dinner.

No-Verb Sentence Fragments

Sentence fragments may lack a verb.