the full stop before the sentence fragment) highlights the contrast between ‘cute’ and ‘stinky’. But stinky!įor example, adding the extra pause here (i.e. Corrected version: I am going to the store. The fragment includes the verb going, but doesn’t establish who or what is going to the store. In the first example, the subject is missing.
They can also be used for emphasis: The dog was cute. Correcting sentence fragments is easy you need to identify the missing puzzle piece and then add it in. They help to convey a casual tone, and (we hope) prevent the blog from reading like a grammar textbook. Like this! You might have noticed that we use some fragment sentences in our blog. For Emphasis or Variety in Informal Writingįinally, sentence fragments can improve the flow of informal writing if used sparingly. A sentence fragment is a group of difficult words to interpret which does not make a complete sentence. If a text is beginning to look like a stream-of-consciousness shopping list, it might be time to leave a helpful comment. At its most basic, a sentence needs a subject (i.e. That doesn’t mean there’s no space for proofreading, but it does mean that clients can use sentence fragments to create a sense of disjointedness or urgency. A sentence fragment is, quite simply, an incomplete sentence. Outside of formal essays or business documents, writers can be more creative with their grammar. With practice, this skill of breaking down and diagramming a sentence will not only. When doing this exercise, you put each word in its respective place within the diagram, which uses lines to represent which words relate to each other and how. Oh, and hopefully you don’t interrupt people you’re talking to with corrections anyway, but the same guidelines about letting the odd fragment slide apply during actual conversations! 2. A sentence diagram is a visual representation of a sentence’s structure and its words’ functions. However, edit it for formal grammar and you get the following: People use sentence fragments in speech all the time, so if a client is writing dialogue then using fragments may make it feel more realistic.įor example, take the following familiar exchange:Ĭatchy. For Realism in SpeechĪctually, we mean in dialogue.
Have you let that sink in yet? Come on! It’s freezing outside.