A common mistake in student writing assignments is the sentence fragment, which simply means an incomplete sentence. The word "fragment" means piece, and sentence fragments are usually phrases or clauses that are missing main verbs or fail to make a complete thought. The following are three examples of sentence fragments.
Incorrect:
- Although he had very little experience.
- In addition, the implementation of technology in the hospital.
- Students wanting to take the entrance exam for medical school.
The first example is a fragment because it is incomplete. Conjunctions such as although, because, while, after, etc will create a dependent clause; a dependent clause must be joined with an independent clause (or main clause) to be grammatically correct. Therefore, to fix this fragment, you must either remove the subordinating conjunction (although) or add an independent clause:
Corrected:
- Although he had very little experience, he was given the position.
- He had very little experience.
This second example is a fragment because it has no verb at all, just a subject modified by two prepositional phrases. A main verb needs to be added to create a complete sentence.
Corrected:
- In addition, the implementation of technology in the hospital has many benefits.
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