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A sentence fragment is exactly as it sounds: a “fragment” of a sentence. In other words, it is only part of a sentence, not a complete one. Since it isn’t a complete sentence, it must be reworked to be grammatically correct.
General Writing. Mechanics. Sentence Fragments. Fragments are incomplete sentences. Usually, fragments are pieces of sentences that have become disconnected from the main clause. One of the easiest ways to correct them is to remove the period between the fragment and the main clause.
For example, “Ate a cheeseburger.” and “The hungry dog.” are both sentence fragments. What Causes a Sentence Fragment? There are three things that can cause a sentence fragment —a missing subject, a missing verb, or an incomplete thought. To fix a sentence fragment, you need to identify which element is causing the issue.
Here's an example of a long fragment: The girl with big hair who lives around the corner and is allergic to shellfish, peanuts, and almost any kind of ravioli. Can you tell why that isn't a sentence? A sentence needs to complete an idea. Let's look at this example: While he was using the stapler. Is this a sentence?
A sentence fragment is a group of words that looks like a sentence, but actually isn’t a complete sentence. Sentence fragments are usually missing a subject or verb, or they do not express a complete thought.
Examples of a Sentence Fragment. Sentence fragments happen more often than you might think, especially for developing writers. Here are some common ways they tend to show up, with the fragments in purple: I went to the store. Because I wanted a soda. Fragment. Starbucks Coffee comes in three sizes. Venti, Grande, and Tall. Fragment.
Fragments are simply grammatically incomplete sentences—they are phrases and dependent clauses. We talked about phrases and clauses a bit in Basic Parts of a Sentence. These are grammatical structures that cannot stand on their own: they need to be connected to an independent clause to work in writing.
