Fixing Sentence Fragments

A fragment may also result when the sentence verb is missing:

Air Commodore Birchall the author of the article "Leadership," a must-read for all CF members. Air Commodore Birchall is the author of the article "Leadership," a must-read for all CF members.

Every sentence must have a verb in order to be grammatically complete.

A missing subject is a common cause of fragments:

Underwent a threefold increase in missions during the 1990s compared to the previous four decades. The CF underwent a threefold increase in missions during the 1990s compared to the previous four decades.

Every sentence needs a subject, someone or something that is doing something.

Even when a subject and a verb are present, a fragment can still result if a subordinating word such as Although, While, Since, or Because begins the sentence:

Although we routinely dealt with shortfalls, deficiencies, and changes to plan. Although we routinely dealt with shortfalls, deficiencies, and changes to plan, we were prepared for these contingencies.

The addition of a subordinating word makes an independent clause (a complete sentence) dependent: it needs to be joined to a complete sentence.

The "when" clause is an infamous cause of fragments. It often becomes detached from the main clause it is modifying. Repair this fragment error by attaching the "when" clause to the sentence where it belongs:

The soldiers ran for cover. When the artillery barrage started. The soldiers ran for cover when the artillery barrage started. When the artillery barrage started, the soldiers ran for cover.

Keep an eye on sentences that begin with -ing words like having, knowing, showing, being, and so forth, which often lead to fragments:

The Canadian military, having to invest heavily in humanitarian and public affairs efforts to counterbalance negative press coverage. While it may appear that the sentence above has a subject (The Canadian military) and a verb, forms such as having and knowing are not active verbs but a part of speech known as a participle or verbal. The sentence lacks a true verb and its complement: The Canadian military, having to invest heavily in humanitarian and public affairs efforts to counterbalance negative press coverage, often is hampered in its missions. Having to invest heavily in humanitarian and public affairs efforts to counterbalance negative press coverage, the Canadian military often is hampered in its missions. (Keeping the subject and verb of the main clause together is both better style and a practice that helps avoid making this error.)

Experienced writers sometimes will use sentence fragments for effect, to convey emotion, for example, or simply for the pleasure of being abrupt: Not likely! One further point. Unless you know what you are doing and can justify using a fragment, it is best to avoid writing sentence fragments. In academic writing, a sentence fragment is usually considered a serious faux pas.

Practice Exercises (12 questions)