Sentence fragments
Sentence fragments are sentences that are not full sentences: they cannot stand on their own. The following are sentence fragments:
In the first room on the left.
During the Meiji Restoration period.
Such as political, economic, and legal implications.
Which is why I don't eat beef.
Leaving town tonight.
Also the last thing they would expect.
As a significant global power.
Sentence fragments are very common in speech and are often used in fiction, but are not appropriate for academic writing.
Identifying sentence fragments
Sentence fragments are missing up to two essential pieces of information:
- the person or thing doing something (the subject)
- the action (the verb)
The subject of a sentence is the person or thing doing an action or being in a state:
President Nixon visited China in 1972.
I finished the assignment at 2:00am.
Her results demonstrated that pitchblende contained a substance previously unknown to science.
He was late by forty minutes.
The verb is the action or act of being in a state:
President Nixon visited China in 1972.
I finished the assignment at 2:00am.
Her results demonstrated that pitchblende contained a substance previously unknown to science.
He was late by forty minutes.
Sentence fragments do not have a subject and/or a main verb:
In the first room on the left.
The reception area was in the first room on the left.
During the Meiji Restoration period.
During the Meiji Restoration period Japan emerged as a significant global power.
Correcting sentence fragments
Sentence fragments frequently begin with some kind of linking word, or a verb (action) ending in -ing:
In the first room on the left.
During the Meiji Restoration period.
Such as political, economic, and legal implications.
Which is why I don't eat beef.
Leaving town tonight.
Also the last thing they would expect.
As a significant global power
This is often because they follow a full sentence, and the linking word is being used to connect the two:
I found the reception area. In the first room on the left.
A PESTLE analysis shows many significant factors. Such as political, economic, and legal implications.
In this situation, the full sentence must not be separated from the sentence fragment by a full stop.
In some cases, removing the full stop is enough:
I found the reception area in the first room on the left.
In most cases, the full stop should be replaced with a comma:
A PESTLE analysis shows many significant factors, such as political, economic, and legal implications.
Here the sentence fragment is extra information that you are adding to a sentence, so it is necessary to include a comma. See the section on commas for more on using commas with extra information.
If there is no other full sentence that the sentence fragment can link to, you can add the missing subject and/or verb yourself to correct the sentence fragment:
I am leaving town tonight.
This is also the last thing they would expect.