English for Academic Studies (Workshop) Session 4: Fragments

Semester 1, 2009/10 ©PolyU HKCC

Session 4: Fragments (Phrases and Clauses) (KEY)

Part A: Diagnostic Test

Identify and underline the sentence fragments (incomplete sentences) in the

following passage. Then, correct the sentence errors in the space between the lines.

In late February, Mr Donald Tsang, the Chief Executive of the HKSAR, introduced
the Three-Child Policy in order to solve the aging issue in Hong Kong. No one can deny
that there are many advantages for the Three-Child Policy. However, at the same time,
people must consider various aspects before adopting the policy such as the society, their
children and themselves.
First of all, married couples should think about their willingness and abilities of
having children. If they don’t want to have a baby for whatever reason, they better not to
have any. Otherwise, for those babies “accidentally” brought to the world, they would
just suffer in their life. Being parents is not an easy task. Married couples should think
carefully if they have enough time to take care of their children. As parents are
responsible for the growth of their children, they need to ensure both their physical and
mental health.
Another point that young couples should consider is their financial position.
Actually the expense of raising a child is very high. Therefore, married people should
have a stable income and a reasonable financial position, in order to ensure their children
to have a high quality of life.

Part B: Grammatical Sentences – Review

Complete Sentence
¾ A complete sentence consists of three components: (a) a subject, (b) a main verb, and
(c) a complete thought.
¾ A complete sentence can be very short as long as it has all the above components:
Example: John came.

Phrase
¾ A phrase is a sequence of two or more words that cannot stand alone as a complete
sentence but only as a unit in one sentence.

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English for Academic Studies (Workshop) Session 4: Fragments
Semester 1, 2009/10 ©PolyU HKCC

Example: A presentation with interesting points.

Clause
¾ A clause contains a subject and a main verb.
¾ An independent clause is a complete sentence.
Example: Emily studied in the library.
¾ A dependent clause is a group of words that contain a subject and a verb and begins
with subordinating conjunctios like if, before, although, etc.
Example: After she had finished all her classes.

SUBJECT MAIN VERB COMPLETE BY ITSELF?

MAIN CLAUSE 9 9 9
(Independent)
SUBORDINATE CLAUSE 9 9 8
(Dependent - rely on the
independent clause for their
meaning.)
PHRASE 8 8 8

Sentence Fragments
¾ A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence, lacking a subject, a verb, or a
complete thought.
¾ In the above examples, a phrase and a dependent clause are sentence fragments.
¾ To convert a phrase into a sentence, we may need to add a subject or verb.
Example: A presentation with interesting points. Æ A sentence fragment
Revision: She delivered a presentation with interesting points.
¾ To change a dependent clause into a sentence, we have to complete its meaning.
Example: After she had finished all her classes. Æ A sentence fragment
Revision: After she had finished all her classes, Emily studied in the library.

Part C: Concept Boosting Exercises

Exercise C1: Identify and underline the sentence fragments (incomplete sentences)
in the following passage. Then, correct the sentence errors in the space between
the lines.

Although the policy of CMI (Chinese as the Medium of Instruction) has been

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English for Academic Studies (Workshop) Session 4: Fragments
Semester 1, 2009/10 ©PolyU HKCC

introduced for years, many students and their parents still think that the implementation
of CMI will reduce the time for learning English. They believe it will affect students’
English proficiency. However, this is just a misconception about the correlation between
the teaching medium and language learning. The teaching medium is only a tool to be
used to impart knowledge rather than a means for language learning. In fact, English
learning is not confined to classroom but can be conducted in many other ways. For
example, reading English newspapers, listening to English songs and watching English
movies or television programmes can be done outside classroom. In addition, schools can
introduce other measures to boost students’ English competence such as hiring more
native English teachers, reducing the class size for English lessons, and organising more
English activities. These can help students overcome their fear of learning English, which
in turn can improve their language ability.

Exercise C2: Identify and underline the sentence fragments (incomplete sentences)
in the following passage. Then, correct the sentence errors in the space between
the lines.

What is the meaning of a war? It just means death. Sorrowful tear, relentless unrest
and heart-breaking cries will afflict every individual during war time. Is it right for a
country to fight a war? In my opinion, there is never a reasonable ground for any country
to initiate a war because it is simply inhumane. It is not an effective way to solve
conflicts and it will ruin the economies of the countries involved in a war.

Besides damaging the economy of a country, wars will have more adverse impacts
on us. One of the most heartrending outcomes would be countless deaths and injuries,
with most innocent and unarmed citizens being the victims. Therefore, we should strive
to avoid wars as much as possible. Unfortunately, there were just many unjustifiable wars
in our history. For instance, the US declared war against Iraq in 2003. Although the US
claimed it was necessary to fight this battle to identify if any nuclear weapons were
produced by Iraq, there should be other ways to achieve the same purpose. Nevertheless,
many people lost their lives in this war.