Business Report Writing

Grammar Issues- Part Two

Sentence Fragment

Academic Year 2019-2020

Semester 192
Look atone
Which theof
following
the following
sentences,
can becan
called
you spot
a sentence?
any problem with them?

I studied hard for two hours without stopping. Sentence/ Non sentence

Always something of interest going on at their house. Sentence/ Non sentence

Went to the store. Sentence/ Non sentence

A high quality car. Sentence/ Non sentence

A good idea to make out a schedule. Sentence/ Non sentence

A sentence is a group of words. It’s not the number of words in this group which
makes a sentence. Just two words can be a sentence. For example:

John waited.

Sometimes a lot of words can not be a sentence. For example:

Willy brought his umbrella and dreaming of his nice warm bed, John for the bus all
morning in the rain last Tuesday because his car in the shop.

So what makes a sentence?

A complete sentence has :

1: a subject
2: a verb or predicate
3: a complete thought

If any of these three is missing, then it

is not a complete sentence but a
fragment.
An easy way to spot sentence
fragments is to ask yourself
these simple questions:
For subject you might ask yourself
the question:
Who or what are we talking about in
the sentence?
For a verb you might ask
yourself the question,

What is the subject doing?

For a Dependent Clause you
might ask yourself the
question,

why did this happen?

The following are fragments because they lack one of the three things to be
a sentence:

Always something interesting at their house.

Went to the store.

A highly qualified manager.

A good idea to design a sketch.

Identify what’s missing from these fragments.

The Most Common Types of Sentence Fragments:

a)Incomplete verbs

b)Disconnected dependent clauses

 Incomplete Verbs:
A sentence fragment may lack verb or some part of the verb, usually a form of
to be or to have.

forms of to be forms of to have

am, is, are have,has
be, being, been  
Disconnected Dependent Clauses :

A Dependent clause has a subject and a verb, but it does not express a
complete thought.

Because his car was in the shop (What did he do?)

After the rain stops (What then?)
When you finally take the test (What will happen?)
Since you asked (Will you get the answer?)
If you want to go with me (What should you do?)
My brother's house is on Alp Street. Which is getting new sewers next week.

What makes the thought incomplete is the first word, called subordinate
conjunction, of the sentence.
A dependant clause all by itself is a sentence fragment. To correct it :

Join two sentences together

Make one of the sentences dependent on the other for a complete thought (make
one a dependent clause)

Indicate a logical relationship