These are fragments, parts and some students don't create sentences. They create just fragments.
Which one of these is a complete sentence?
1 The people that make these structures they are impressive.
2.In the world are a lot of amazing places.
3.Is one of the most beautiful places in the world.
4.I want to go there because is one of the most beautiful places in the world.
5. There are several people study English.
6.I think that they crazy.
7.I would love to visit the Pyramids. Because they are one of the most impressive structures that man has built.
8.I think that every country has its own unique places that are beautiful.
If you guess the last one, you got it right.
In this lesson, we will learn the 5 types of fragments and learn how to identify and edit our own fragments.
I.Let’s begin with defining what fragments are. What is a fragment anyway?
A fragment is an incomplete sentence. It is less than a simple sentence. Now how do students create fragments? They create them in one of the ways given in this chart.
1.Two subjects
2.Two verbs
3.No subject
4.No verb
5.Problem with a clause
The good news is that you won’t create every one of these fragments. If you create a fragment, you will create 1 or 2 of the types. So the good news is that once you identify the type of fragment that you create, it will be much easier to fix it in your writing.
Let’s look at each of the types from the chart.
1.The first type is problems with subjects.
Some students have two subjects.
Sample 1: The people that make these structures they are impressive.
Why is this one a fragment? Well, “the people” is one subject and “they” is a second subject. This type tends to occur because the student learned adjective clauses wrong. They write a subject and then an adjective clause and then add an extra subject. No one told them that you can’t do 2 subjects.
2.Some students don’t have a subject.
Here are three common examples:
Example 1: In the world are a lot of amazing places.
There is no subject in this sentence. “In the world” is a prepositional phrase and prepositional phrases are not typically subjects. So you need to add a subject. Because we are talking about location, you need to add “there.”
In the world, there are a lot of amazing places.
Note: When a phrase begins a sentence, we can add a comma. If the phrase is short like this one, some people will not add a comma. We will talk more about commas later though.
If you create this type of fragment, you will tend to see IN at the beginning of a sentence and no subject after it. Notice this sentence where you see the sentence beginning with IN.
Example 2: In the article entitled “Stranger Helps Woman Down on Her Luck; years later, the woman repays the favor.
The student put a semicolon instead of a comma. A semicolon joins 2 closely connected sentences so you need a subject and verb before the semicolon and a subject and verb after the semicolon. Be careful with IN. The noun after it is not the subject.
Let’s look at our 2nd example where there is no subject:
Example 3: Is one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Now for many people, they might think that they would not create this fragment. Because it is possible to write this type in some languages, you might have a problem.
The good news it is easy to fix. Don’t start a sentence with “is” and add it or another subject.
Example 4: I want to go there because is one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Several students create this type. The good news is that it is vocabulary driven. In other words, students didn’t learn the correct grammar of the vocabulary.
All you have to look for is “because is” and know that this phrase is NOT possible in English. Just add it and change it to “because it is.”
3.Let’s move on to problems with verbs.
One problem with verbs is that there are two verbs.
I tend to see this problem when students are writing or typing too fast and then don’t read what they have written out loud before they turn their paper in. In fact, if I see a fragment in a student’s writing, I will ask them to read it out loud and see if they can figure it out. They often can.
Example 5: Here is the most common example of this type: I want travel to another country.
There are two verbs: want and travel. How do you correct this one? Most of the time you need to add to.
I want to travel to another country. After you add the “to,” you will probably notice that it sounds much better and most students can fix it by sound.
Another common way that students create 2 verbs is with the use of there.
Example 6: There are several people study English.
The student learned the use of “there” wrong and created 2 verbs. To correct this problem, all you need to do is make the 2nd sentence an adjective clause by adding who, which or that. Here “study” describes people so they need to use who or that.
4.Another type of problem with verbs is when there is no verb.
Most students don’t create this type.
There are a few students who create this type of fragment though so let’s look at an example.
Example 7: I think that they crazy. The problem here is typically when there is no verb inside a noun clause. “That they crazy” is a noun clause. You need a verb with all noun clauses. We will talk more about this type when we get to noun clauses. To correct it, you just add a verb. I think that they are crazy.
5.Now to the fifth and final problem, problems with clauses.
Most students have problems more with clauses. Remember clauses have a verb. Most students will create this type because they didn’t learn the grammar of certain adverb clauses like because, although or when.
Do you remember this earlier example?
Example 8: I would love to visit the Pyramids. Because they are one of the most impressive structures that man has built.
“Because, although or when” are all words that begin adverb clauses. They are clauses and not sentences so you have to have a sentence with it. If the clause ends a sentence, just erase the period and you don’t need a comma.
The correct answer would be this: I would love to visit the Pyramids because they are one of the most impressive structures that man has built.
If the clause begins the sentence, put a comma after the clause.
Because they are the most impressive structures that man has built, I would love to visit the Pyramids.
II.Quick Summary.
Look at these sentences again that we just discussed. Do you remember where the mistakes are and why they are mistakes?
1 The people that make these structures they are impressive.
2.In the world are a lot of amazing places.
3.Is one of the most beautiful places in the world.
4.I want to go there because is one of the most beautiful places in the world.
5. There are several people study English.
6.I think that they crazy.
7.I would love to visit the Pyramids. Because they are one of the most impressive structures that man has built.
Here are the answers:
1.Number 1 has TWO SUBJECTS. You need to delete they.
2.Number 2 has NO SUBJECT. When a sentence begins with IN, you need to make sure you have a subject and verb.
3.Number 3 has NO SUBJECT. You need to add IT.
4.Number 4 has NO SUBJECT. You need to add it after because.
5.Number 5 has TWO VERBS. You need to add who or that before study.
6.Number 6 has NO VERB. You need to add are they.
7.Number 7 is a problem with a CLAUSE.
II.Let’s practice at identifying fragments.
Let’s look at a simple exercise. Please correct the fragments below.
(The video attached to this simple exercise is from one of the TV shows I used to love. The show is called Numb4rs about an FBI agent and his brother, who is a math professor. The math professor used math to help his FBI brother solve crimes. Unfortunately, now it is off the air).
The Fibonacci_sequence - one of the math principles taught in this episode.
Couldn’t see how it could relate to the real world.
Math is the real world. Is everywhere.
The number of petals in each row it is the sum of the preceding two rows.
The Fibonacci sequence which is found in the structure of crystals.
Math is nature’s language. Because everything is numbers.
When you explain it like that. It’s more interesting.
Now, practically speaking what do you need to know to fix the grammar of your writing when it comes to fragments.
1.Step 1: Submit your samples of writing to someone who knows grammar and let them look first to see if you create fragments.
2.Step 2: If you create fragments, let them look to see what types of fragments that you create.
3.Step 3: Let them show you how to edit quickly to fix those fragments.