The Sentence Fragment

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English 101
The Sentence Fragment
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1. The Sentence Fragment Error Chp. 32
A fragment is a group of related words that begin
with a capital letter and end with a final mark
of punctuation however, in formal writing, it is
unacceptable because of its incompleteness. The
three most common fragmented elements are
phrases, the second half of a compound predicate,
and dependent clauses.
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Phrases commonly fragmented participle,
infinitive, appositive, prepositional, absolute
Example The instructor showed the class the
Common Errors slide show. Hoping it would help
his students recognize the mistakes when they
write essays. Corrected The instructor showed
the class the Common Errors slide show, hoping it
would help his students recognize the mistakes
when they write essays.
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Phrases commonly fragmented participle,
infinitive, appositive, prepositional, absolute
Example To help his students recognize the
mistakes when they write essays. The instructor
showed the class the Common Errors slide show.
Corrected To help his students recognize the
mistakes when they write essays, the instructor
showed the class the Common Errors slide show.
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The fragmented second half of a compound predicate
Example The instructor taught the students to
recognize two of the fragment types. And then
discussed the third to complete the lesson.
Corrected The instructor taught the students to
recognize two of the fragment types and then
discussed the third to complete the lesson.
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The fragmented second half of a compound predicate
Example The instructor taught the students to
recognize two of the fragment types. But did not
have time to finish the third.
Corrected The instructor taught the students to
recognize two of the fragment types but did not
have time to finish the third.
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The fragmented dependent clause
Example Most of the students had a clearer
picture of the first common error. When the
instructor finished his discussion of fragment
types.
Corrected Most of the students had a clearer
picture of the first common error when the
instructor finished his discussion of fragment
types.
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The fragmented dependent clause
Example Before he moved on to a discussion of
the other two common errors. The instructor
showed the class one more clause example.
Corrected Before he moved on to a discussion of
the other two common errors, the instructor
showed the class one more clause example.
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