Fragments
A complete sentence or main clause
- contains a subject and a verb (The wind blows)
- and is not a subordinate clause (usually begins with a word such as because, that, who, which, when, etc.
A sentence fragment
- lacks a verb (The wind blowing)
- or lacks a subject
- or is a subordinate clause not attached to a complete sentence (Because the wind blows.)
Fragment: Uncountable numbers of sites on the World Wide Web.
Revised: Uncountable numbers of sites make up the World Wide Web.
Fragment: And has great popular appeal.
Revised: And the Web has great popular appeal.
Fragment: When the government devised the Internet.
Revised: The government devised the Internet.
Revised: When the government devised the Internet, no expansive computer network existed.
Fragment: The reason that the government devised the Internet.
Revised: The reason that the government devised the Internet was to provide secure links among
departments and defense contractors.
Young people often have not learned how to see their anger from the outside. Even as they experience it. Powerful stories can lead them into their feelings but leave them spinning there.
What is the fragment? How can we fix it?
Comma Splices and Fused Sentences
A sentence or a main clause contains at least a subject and a predicate (verb), which together express a complete thought. Two consecutive main clauses may be separated in one of four ways:
- With a period: The ship was huge. Its mast stood eighty feet high.
- With a semicolon: The ship was huge; its mast stood eighty feet high.
- With a comma preceding a coordinating conjunction that joins the clauses and specifies the relation between them: The ship was huge, and its mast stood eighty feet high.
- With a colon when the second clause explains the first (see Little, Brown p. 477): The ship was huge: its mast stood eighty feet high.
In a comma splice the two main clauses are joined (or spliced) only with a comma, without the appropriate coordinating conjunction.
In a fused sentence no punctuation or coordinating conjunction appears between the main clauses.
Comma splice: The ship was huge, its mast stood eighty feet tall.
Fused sentence: The ship was huge its mast stood eighty feet tall.
Situations that may produce comma splices and fused sentences:
- The first clause is negative; the second, positive:
Splice: Petric is not a nurse, she is a doctor.
Revised: Petric is not a nurse; she is a doctor.
- The second clause amplifies or illustrates the first:
Fused: She did well in college her average was 3.9.
Revised: She did well in college: her average was 3.9.
- The second clause contains a conjunctive adverb or other transitional expression, such as however or for example (see Little, Brown p. 346):
Splice: She had intended to become a biologist, however, medicine seemed more
exciting.
Revised: She had intended to become a biologist; however, medicine seemed more
exciting.
- The subject of the second clause repeats or refers to the subject of the first clause:
Fused: Petric is an internist she practices in Topeka.
Revised: Petric is an internist. She practices in Topeka.
Revised: Petric is an internist and she practices in Topeka.
- Splicing or fusing is an attempt to link related ideas or to smooth choppy sentences:
Splice: She is very committed to her work, she devotes almost all her time to patient
care.
Revised: Because she is very committed to her work, she devotes almost all her time to
patient care.
Revised: She is so committed to her work that she devotes almost all her time to patient
care.
- Words identifying the speaker divide a quotation between two complete sentences (see Little, Brown p. 444 for the punctuation to use in this case):
Splice: “Medicine is a human frontier,” Petric says, “The boundaries are unknown.”
Revised: “Medicine is a human frontier,” Petric says. “The boundaries are unknown.”