Sentence Fragments

Fragments: Friend or Foe?

A sentence fragment is a basic error that beginning writers make with relatively frequency. By beginning writers, I mean anyone who has not yet started middle school.

Anyone in middle school or beyond that point, however, should be able to avoid fragments with relative ease and skill. They are generally easy to identify because most people know the difference between an independent clause and a dependent clause and the difference between and phrase and a clause, even if such terminology causes a knee-jerk stomach-churning reaction.

Phrases and clauses are the easiest: His big red bicycle with shining wheels is obviously not a sentence because there is no verb. Spun recklessly out of control through the busy street is also not a complete sentence because it lacks a subject.  Clauses have both subject and verb; phrases do not. Put the two example phrases together, though, and you have a lovely sentence about a scary incident.

Independent clauses and dependent clauses are a little trickier, but they differ in only one basic way: the former can stand alone as a sentence, and the latter cannot (hence its being dependent). Most of the time, though, this distinction is fairly plain, too, because dependent clauses often begin with subordinate conjunctions (while, if, after, although, whereas, because). I don’t think anyone would argue that Because he was covered from head to toe in lime Jell-O is a complete sentence.

Disturbing? Yes.

Complete? No.

My favorite kind of fragment, though, is a special little devil called the anacoluthon. Generally, an anacoluthon is created when the writer starts with one thought and ends with a separate thought without connecting the two properly: Emma’s little dog Fluffy, whose barking annoys the entire block, as anyone in the area can attest. Do you see the issue?

And it doesn’t just happen with relative clauses, either: The matter was taken up with the city council held its meeting in the new board room. It’s a miniature sentence implosion, if you will. The anacoluthon is most often created, I think, when a person starts writing a sentence, then breaks for lunch or some other task and comes back to the writing an hour later. Still, it’s easily recognizable and takes only a little bit of creativity to correct.

When you know what you’re doing, however, sentence fragments can add a certain flourish to your writing. I use fragments regularly in this column. Generally I use them to create a conversational tone or to draw attention to a particular point. Occasionally I use them as a comedic device. And for an informal work such as this column, that’s acceptable. Truly formal writing (analytical work, cover letters, formal reports) should not contain sentence fragments.

The point is this: sentence fragments do serve a purpose for the writer who knows what to do with them and uses them intentionally. Unfortunately for the fifth-graders of the world, failing to recognize fragments in their work does not constitute purposeful use.