The Sentence Fragment

The "Frag" (Sentence Fragment)

Watch for the sentence fragment, a very serious writing problem.

Someone, somewhere, has told you that a "frag" isn't a complete sentence and, therefore, "doesn't make sense." Well, forget that definition. Actually, the sentence fragment is a modifier (a group of words acting together as an adjective or an adverb) or a noun clause (several words acting as a single noun) pretending to be a sentence. Look at this example:

I found myself entranced and completely focused on this one man on a bridge in northern Alabama. Which was the intention of the author.

Do you see that "which" at the beginning of the second "sentence"? That "which" begins a frag because those seven words are actually a group modifier telling us about "entranced" and "focused." Indeed, the "which" structure (all seven words of it) is an adjective.

So, here's some advice: if your sentence begins with "which" or "because," there's a really good chance that you're about to write a sentence fragment. You'll need to fix that "sentence."

Fix #1: connect the frag to the sentence in front of it, like this:
I found myself entranced and completely focused on this one man on a bridge in northern Alabama, which was the intention of the author.

Fix #2: drop the "which" or "because" and rewrite the frag into a sentence, like this:
I found myself entranced and completely focused on this one man on a bridge in northern Alabama. My focus on that man was the intention of the author.


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