what does fragment sentence mean in writing

What does fragment sentence mean in writing how to#

Remember that a comma alone can never come between two sentences.ġ. Here, two sentences (Jane loves to cook and She also loves to go out to eat) are joined by a comma. Consider the following:Įxample 3: Jane loves to cook, she also loves to go out to eat. There are two types of run-on sentences: comma splices and fused sentences.ĭefinition: A comma splice occurs when only a comma is placed between two sentences. This is the best way to correct Example 1: He loves to travel too, which is why he decided to become a travel writer. Join the fragment to either the previous or next sentence (whichever one makes the most sense), using the correct punctuation. To correct it, add an appropriate subject: Joe was late. Here, the italicized word group is a fragment that is missing a subject. Add the missing subject, verb, or subject and verb.Įxample 2: Joe was late. Because fragments do not make sense out of context, they are easier to find if you read your work this way.įragments can be corrected in a couple of different ways:ġ. One surefire way to find fragments is to read your work from the last sentence to the first. It cannot “stand on its own” and make sense it is dependent upon the previous sentence for its meaning.

The third word group, however, is not a sentence. Each contains a subject and a verb and expresses a complete thought. Notice that the first two word groups are, in fact, sentences. Which is why he decided to become a travel writer. Consider the following:Įxample 1: Peter has always loved to write.

Another way of looking at it is that a fragment cannot “stand on its own” and make sense. Although a fragment is punctuated as a sentence, it is often missing a subject, a verb, or both. We know that a sentence must have at least one subject, at least one verb, and express a complete thought. What is a sentence fragment? A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence.

What does fragment sentence mean in writing how to#

Here are some tips on how to recognize, correct, and even avoid fragments and run-on sentences. It is always helpful to have a proofreader, like those at Writer’s Relief, look over your creative writing before sending it out for publication. Perhaps the most noticeable of these errors are sentence-structure errors-sentence fragments and run-on sentences. Nothing distracts your reader as much as grammatical errors, whether they be misplaced commas, dangling modifiers, or pronoun agreement problems.