How to Fix Fragmented Sentences

Sentence fragments represent one of the most common grammatical errors. While you can use sentence fragments effectively in creative writing, you should leave these sorts of sentences out of your academic work. You can easily convert a sentence fragment into a full sentence, keeping your paper grammatically proper.

Instructions

1. Browse your document to find sentence fragments. Additionally, many popular word processing pieces of software will automatically highlight your sentence fragments for you. A sentence fragment refers to a group of words improperly grouped together as a sentence. For example, "Because I care."

2. Combine the fragment with another sentence. A popular solution involves simply combining the fragment with the preceding sentence. For example, "Because I care" could become "I fixed your car, because I care."

3. Add more information to fix the fragment. For example, "Because I care, I decided to donate money."

4. Add a subject to the fragment. For example, "Wanted to get to work," could become "Frank wanted to get to work."

References

• Simpson: Sentence Writing