Question Bank for Beowulf

Lecture:

Fragments

Fragments are one of the more common grammar problems in written communication. A fragment is a sentence that does not express a complete thought. Every sentence should have a main subject and a main verb. If there is a clause in the sentence, any nouns and verbs in the clause are not the main subject or the main verb. Most fragments are caused by the absence of either a subject or a verb. In order to correct a fragment, you would just need to ensure that the sentence should have a subject, a verb, and a complete thought.

Br. Mawel, a visionary president.

The busiest street in the neighborhood, B. Morada Street.

After arriving at school, attended mass at the chapel.

Whenever I see your smiling face.

In our examples above, there are clauses that provide more information, but they are not the main thought of the sentence. In our first example, Br. Mawel is the subject. Everything after the comma just provides additional information about Br. Mawel. The sentence lacks a verb.

In our second sentence, we are missing a verb again. The subject is “street.” We are even told what street is being talked about- B. Morada Stree. There is no verb though.

In our third sentence, there is no subject. Our verb is “attended.” Who attended? There is nothing present in the sentence to let us know who attended. The “who” is what our subject should be.

In our fourth sentence, there is no subject nor verb for the main clause. What we have is just a subordinate clause.

Each of the above sentences can be easily fixed. Look below to see how each fragment could be turned into a complete sentence.

Complete Sentences:
Br. Mawel is a visionary president.

The busiest street in the neighborhood is B. Morada.

After arriving at school, Joey attended mass at the chapel.

Whenever I see your smiling face, I feel good.

An easy rule of thumb is that every sentence should have a “who” and a “what.”

Fragments can easily be avoided by ensuring that you always structure your sentences with a subject and a verb. You want to ensure that every sentence has a who and a what.







Exercise

Fragments Questions
Identify the following as fragments or complete sentences (put an “F” in the blank if the sentence is a fragment and a “C” if the sentence is complete).
____ 1. Barbara is in the fourth grade, but she is only eight years old.
____ 2. Tom, a doctor in Chicago, often works late.
____ 3. The highest scorer in the game, William.
_____4. I usually agree.
____ 5. Although he said he could go to the game.
____ 6. Playing guitar, a good hobby.
____ 7. This is a good day.
____ 8. He ran.
____ 9. When he left, went home.
____ 10. She is the nicest girl.

Fill Ins:
11. A ___________ is a sentence that does not express a complete thought.
12. Every sentence should have a main _________ and a main ________.