Complete Sentences: Learn It 2

Common Causes of Fragments

One of the reasons we write in fragments is that we often speak that way. However, there is a difference between formal writing and speech, and it is important to write in full sentences for academic writing.

Watch the following video for more examples and practice identifying sentence fragments.

You can view the transcript for “Recognizing fragments | Syntax | Khan Academy” here (opens in new window).

Fixing Sentence Fragments

Let’s take a look at a couple of examples:

Example 1: 

  • Ivana appeared at the committee meeting last week. And made a convincing presentation of her ideas about the new product.
  • “And made a convincing presentation of her ideas about the new product” in this example is not a complete sentence. There is no subject in this phrase, so the easiest fix is to simply delete the period and combine the two statements:

Ivana appeared at the committee meeting last week and made a convincing presentation of her ideas about the new product.

Example 2: 

  • The committee considered her ideas for a new marketing strategy quite powerful. The best ideas that they had heard in years.

The part after the period, “the best ideas they had heard in years,” is not a complete sentence —there is no verb. By adding “they were” to the beginning of this phrase, we have turned the fragment into an independent clause, which can now stand on its own:

  • The committee considered her ideas for a new marketing strategy quite powerful; they were the best ideas that they had heard in years.

Example 3: 

  • She spent a full month evaluating his computer-based instructional materials. Which she eventually sent to her supervisor with the strongest of recommendations.

Let’s look at the clause “Which she eventually sent to her supervisor with the strongest of recommendations.” This is not a complete sentence and is a dependent clause; the word “which” signals this fact. If we change “which she eventually” to “Eventually, she,” we also turn the dependent clause into an independent clause.

  • She spent a full month evaluating his computer-based instructional materials. Eventually, she sent the evaluation to her supervisor with the strongest of recommendations.