Their use can make writing seem choppy and disorganized, and they can easily sneak into our writing without us even noticing. Readers are left confused-or worse yet, annoyed because they can’t decipher the fragment’s meaning.Īs you can see, sentence fragments are chunks of sentences that can’t stand alone. This is often what happens when a reader comes across a sentence fragment like our example above. "We are going to play tennis outside today, unless it rains." or "Unless it rains, we will play tennis today.What was leaking profusely? The kitchen sink? The hot air balloon? The baby’s diaper? The informants secretly embedded in the organizationĪre you perplexed-or maybe even a little bit curious-about the rest of the story and the missing words? (OK, maybe not in the case of the diaper.) "Unless it rains" makes no sense by itself, so it should be attached to a sentence: Remember, even phrases which may have a noun and verb can be fragments if they could not stand alone. "We are going to play tennis outside today. If you can't find one, the sentence is a fragment.Įx. When you see such a word at the beginning of a sentence, check for a proper subject and verb. Some are prepositions, others are conjunctions, but both are words that normally join other words:Īfter, although, and, because, before, but, if, though, unless, until, when, where, who, which, and that. If any of the answers are "no," then it is a fragment.įragments often start with words like these.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |