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What do you think is the subject in the first example? Is it you? Or something else? How was the movie? Thrilling? Boring? Pass? Source: Mindset: How You Can Fulfil Your Potential. When to use sentence fragments? Ĭonclusion? Beware of success. How and when to watch the solar eclipse on Thursday? The Guardian What to cook this weekend? The New York Times How to reconcile with whom you disagree? Washington Post
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What about a stop at the next service area? I’ve been left out of the team for no apparent reason. Tortoise walked slowly, yet it beat the hare to finish. But they can also be used to ask questions. We just saw that fragments can be used to answer questions. And what about a royal meal with people you don’t want to talk to? Quite the opposite. Have you sat with friends for a frugal meal or drink after a long time at a spartan place? You would have still enjoyed it. How long you’ve been living here? Since 1996. When did this happen? While you were away for lunch. Will he be able to understand which of the five is yours? No.Ĭan you move the adjectival around in a sentence? Sometimes.ĭo we know anything about the intruder? Yes, a lot. Has anyone survived without water for more than a week? Never.Īre you attending today’s event? Of course. Examples:ĭo you agree with our stand? Totally. Fragment as answer to questionįragments are commonly used in writing when answering questions, especially when answers are short. Especially, note that the fragment emphasizes or stands out an important idea (first bullet above). Most of these fragments fulfil the above two conditions. Here are few acceptable – even effective – usages of fragments. A reader can easily understand the fragment by filling in the missing words.The fragment expresses an idea that seems in context important enough to merit its own sentence.in The Right Handbook suggest following rule-of-thumb (and not hard and fast prescription) for acceptable fragments: To me, ‘imperfect’ fragments sound at least as good as ‘perfect’ sentences. Never text or drop an email when you are angry. The proposed tax raise doesn’t make economic sense. The proposed tax raise doesn’t make economic sense, nor does it make political sense. These look like fragments as they seem to be without a subject: Context provided by surrounding sentences helps readers understand fragments even with few words missing.
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And to help matters, speech, being informal, is more accommodative of fragments.įragments though work relatively less in writing owing to absence of body language, vocal cues, and formal nature of writing. That’s because plenty of meaning in speech is carried by body language and intonation. Fragments are far more common in spoken Englishįragments are common in spoken English, where people can understand the discourse even if you omit parts of a sentence. But a fragment used judiciously can be effective, sometimes more than a sentence in its place. If you ask the same person to write above three fragments as standalone sentence, they’ll most likely write a complete sentence, and not a fragment.īecause fragments are used as sentences even though they’re not, they’re often frowned upon by sticklers of grammar rules, especially when used in academic or other formal writing.
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They draw their musical strength and often their meaning from the complete sentence that surround them. Gary Provost put this succinctly in his book 100 Ways to Improve Your Writing when he wrote: As is the case in above examples, most write them in context while continuing a thought from the preceding sentence (first two examples) – and occasionally to the succeeding sentence (third example). To quote from The Least You Should Know About English by Paige Wilson and Teresa Glazier:įragments don’t make complete statements, and run-ons make too many complete statements without punctuating between them.īut unlike run-on sentences, which are rarely considered appropriate, sentence fragments are sometimes desirable.įragments are rarely written in isolation though.