The problem with fragments is that they don’t tell the whole story.

Key elements are missing, leaving the reader

hanging without a sense of the full thought. On standardized tests, your job is to recognize incomplete sentences
and identify the missing element. It sounds fairly straightforward, but the ACT and SAT include extended
fragments that can make it difficult to spot the missing element. To avoid this common error, let’s look at some
ways to spot a sentence fragment.

1. No Subject
The subject is the who or what of a sentence. The subject must complement the verb to tell us the whole story of
a sentence. Without a subject, there is no one or nothing to do the action, resulting in an incomplete thought.

Example:

 “Certainly requires dedicated practice”

2. No Verb
Verbs tell readers what the subject is doing. When there is no verb communicating the action of a sentence, we
have no idea what is happening. Make sure there is always a verb that makes clear the action in the sentence.

Example:

 “One of the greatest challenges in the college admissions process”

3. Participle Phrases
Participle phrases often begin with a verb ending in -ing (present) or -ed (past). These phrases function as
adjectives, but they do not result in a complete thought on their own.

Examples:

 “Preparing themselves for tests”

 “Confused by the assignment”

4. Subordinators/Relative Clauses
Clauses that begin with subordinators (although, because, while, after, etc.) or relative pronouns (who, which,
where, when, that, etc.) are dependent clauses and cannot stand alone. A dependent clause needs an independent
clause to complete the thought. Even though subordinate and relative clauses may have both a subject and a
verb, they don’t tell the whole story.

Examples:

 “Although there are many topics to cover”

 “Students who want to succeed”
5. Appositives
An appositive is a noun phrase that explains or defines the preceding noun or pronoun. Appositives, usually
offset by commas, essentially add further identifying or clarifying information to the main subject. Since
appositives lack action verbs, they are always considered fragments.

Example:

 “The most attentive student in class”

These are some of the more common ways in which a sentence fragment may occur, but the most important
takeaway is that almost every fragment is the result of one of three key elements:

 A missing subject
 A missing verb
 An incomplete thought

To fix a fragment, identify the missing element and add it to the sentence. It is a fairly straightforward process
made difficult by the presentation of questions in a standardized test format.